Well on this topic, Macromedia would not sell you any copy of CF prior to
the current version.
So if we had a client with a CF4 or 5 app that needed a  new server, we have
no choice but to use an existing license as MM wont sell us another one.
Either that or you have to needlessly upgrade all code to CFMX.

What would you suggest in that situation?
And don't say the lord works in mysterious ways either. :-)

Russ

-----Original Message-----
From: John Paul Ashenfelter [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] 
Sent: 29 December 2005 16:29
To: CF-Talk
Subject: Preaching about licensing Re: MS Action Pack

On 12/29/05, Snake <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Everything MS related has grey areas, but at the end of the day they 
> don't come to everyones house and checkup on you, many people and 
> companies abuse those grey areas. I can tell you that a HUGE number of 
> people buy the Action Pack for personal use anyway.

And Microsoft knows it. But at $250,000/violation here in the US, software
piracy can destroy a small or mid-sized company. I've quit jobs over blatant
software license abuse (e.g. 28 processors of SQL Server running and 4
processor of licenses).

Having seen it in person, there's nothing like a small company that suddenly
grows, goes public, and finds out that there's 150 unlicensed Office Pro
installs, multiple "development" licenses of MS-SQL being used in
production, and miscellaneous "I'll just install Bob's copy of Photoshop"
issues to straighten out.

> "for use at your primary business location"
> If you are self employed and work from home then it's not for personal 
> use anyway is it as that is your primary business location.

Glad to hear you're a laywer :) Since it's coming up on tax time, defining
the primary business location is an interesting exercise left to the reader.
I'd think twice about putting a copy of WinXP from ActionPack on a box you
use solely for gaming and doing family finance
-- hard to justify that when the jackboot thugs knock on your door ;)

> It makes me laugh when people preach about things like this, while 
> they are themselves almost certainly sitting there with software 
> installed on their computer that shouldn't be.

That's one primary reason I've gone the open source route when I've been
faced with the alternative of looking at the true costs of license
compliance. Why deal with Winzip and being out of license when you can use
7zip without concern? Don't like 7zip? Then pony up for Winzip.

I actually know where my licenses are, how many I have for what, and the
details of how the open source licenses I work with interact.

One of the first things I do when I work with a new company is help them
with a license audit to find all the things that they've installed that are
illegal. Installed that single copy of CF on 4 servers? Got 3 installations
of SQL-Server? Helping businesses understand the real costs of their choices
is an important part of the business/technical interface. A $5k project to
convert to MySQL looks a lot better compared to purchasing 5k/processor
licenses for your two quad-proc pentium pro servers sitting out there in
production. Or it makes you appreciate what your technology really *does*
cost.

> Just give people the information and let them do with it as they want. 
> No need to preach, leave that to the bible bashers.

Useful to give people *all* the information --- consequences as well as
benefits. Snake suggested that there's nothing stopping you using Action
Pack for personal use -- that needed a little correcting.

A lot of folks weren't worried about sharing music online. Take a look at
how folks fighting RIAA lawsuits have faired (not well). Me, I listen to
internet radio instead :)

--
John Paul Ashenfelter
CTO/Transitionpoint
(blog) http://www.ashenfelter.com
(email) [EMAIL PROTECTED]



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