MS Licensing

[Simon Ngan 0]

Our company is buying a lot of MS software through open licensing, and as you know, a license copy will only cover license with no CD. I sometimes get request from users about getting them a CD so they can use it when it's needed. If I get the CD from MS, it'll cost me around $20-$25, however, if I burn it on a CDR, it'll only cost me $1. But is it a legal thing to do?

 

Thanks

[clutch 1]

As a little piece of advice, I wouldn't give users CDs if you are really that concerned about licensing. It's not that they may take it home, or burn copies of the software (ok, maybe a lot of them would), but you wind up with uncontrolled versions of software floating around, and then the *user* makes the decision to reinstall the software on his/her machine, or, onto the machines of others on the network because they are *helping* you out. I have a full NT/2K network at my office, and the machines are locked down pretty tight (though, by default NT/2K wont let non-admins install most software or edit the registry) which makes version control much easier. Here's an example: We don't have enough licenses to hand out Office2K to everybody, so half of them use Office 97. Now, if I were to give a user of Office2K a "backup" (which they couldn't use at work anyway due to the nature of their logon and the fact that it is NT/2K), they might *help* out a co-worker while you are at some user's convention for SMS/Exchange/Cuisinarts and start trying to install Office2K as an upgrade. How thoughtful. I keep one copy of every piece of high-traffic software that we use in a binder that I carry with me. If you have a single license, I have *heard* that you are allowed to make a *single* copy of whatever it is you are using. However, the vendors of most of the software that we use tell me that I can make however many CDs that I want to, as long as we don't violate whatever per seat and/or concurrent usage agreement that we have with the vendor.

 

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Regards,

 

clutch

 

[This message has been edited by clutch (edited 17 November 2000).]

[BladeRunner 0]

Hi,

I have to agree with the last post.

I work as a system's administrator and too many CD's around would cause problems.

I believe the MS license does say that you can legally take one backup copy of any CD.

How I'm currently doing things is:

Windows 2000 servers, I make CD images of all our main applications.

I give administrator and a group called 'installers' rights to this directory.

If a user requests a CD, if after asking him/her their need is legitamate then I just temporarily add them to the 'installers' group.

I'll give them a shout an hour or so later, they confirm they don't need access to it anymore and I remove them from the group.

Physical media causes problems, users make the decision on an application re-installation.

Also if a user wants to use pirate software on their home machine that is up to them, but it wont be the company copies that they use.

[Simon Ngan 0]

Guys, very thoughtful answers. I think I should practice to say "NO" when people ask for CDs I'm just getting ready for my Windows 2K server, eventually I'll have all apps transferred on the 2K server.