Yes, if it is "extra usage," then that just seems like an API with extra steps.

Yeah I read it as a smart move. Good for PR, and it captures a bunch of value that was being lost. From what I understood, millions of users are making unauthorized usage of the subscription APIs. So they can just capture some of that money, some of them will stay and pay the extra usage. (Many of them aren't knowledgeable about API keys etc, they just used the auto setup in OpenClaw.)

The actual rules now are pretty confusing though. De jure illegal, de facto tolerated -- they'll just auto-detect and bill you for it.

The claude -p situation, though, confuses me. This one's technically legal but against the spirit of the law. (I think made illegal a few weeks ago since it was being used as a workaround for the OpenClaw ban, and seems to have been re-legalized now?)

But they can only extra-bill you for it if they can somehow detect it as invoked by OpenClaw, etc., right? If it's your own harness, it slips thru the cracks? ._.