Because the
licensing questions raised over the last few days could have a significant
monetary impact on my company and the interpretations varied so widely, I
continued to investigate through my Microsoft resources and with them, through
the standard licensing resources available on the Microsoft website and
toll-free numbers. I just got off a conference call on licensing with a ridiculous number of
people. As part of that call, we called the toll-free Microsoft Licensing
Helpline to verify the answers that everyone from Microsoft was giving was the
same, and they were.
You can choose to
believe what I share with you or not. In the US, you can call a
Microsoft Licensing Specialist at 800-426-9400 and verify the information for
yourself (or not as you so choose). There are different numbers for different
countries: http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/index/worldwide.asp.
The Canada licenses appear to be the same as the US. The United Kingdom licenses
have some minor differences in wording, but no apparent difference in
intent.
1) The document
"Product Use Rights" combined with the EULA defines the licensed usage for
Microsoft products. It's very boring reading, but extremely informative as to
questions of this type. The US version of the PUR is available at http://download.microsoft.com/download/a/5/f/a5fc3270-2fe6-4536-b228-6b333ab8569d/pur.pdf
2) Specifically in
regards to the Action Pack, for most servers and services provided with the
Action Pack, you are provided a server license plus 10 CALs for Internal Use
only. Internal Use means (and you can find it defined in the PUR in legal
detail) your company. Any external access, or access through an
external agent (such as a program that runs on a web server and allows access to
anyone who isn't an employee of your company) is a violation of internal use. A
"client to whom you provide hosted services" is specifically mentioned as an
external user. A specific exemption is granted for intranets on the
internet.
3) I quote, in
regards to SQL CAL requirements specifically: "You must acquire either a
separate SQL server 2000 CAL or BackOffice 2000 Server CAL for each device or
user that: Accesses or otherwise utiliizes the services of the Server software."
This includes agents, such as a program which multiplexes multiple connections
into a single actual connection. A separate paragraph for SQL per-processor
licensing states: "You need one processor license for each of your server's
processors." Multiplexing/connection pooling has its own special page in the
PUR. Multiplexing and connection pooling are done by OBDC and IIS, as
well as by the Modus Webmail server.
Therefore,
if Modus is configured using ODBC access to a MS-SQL server you
must either have a CAL for each and every single user in Modus
or you must have a per-processor license for SQL to be "legally" licensed. An
Action Pack license in no way provides a license to provide any hosted
services.
