On Nov 12, 2007 11:54 AM, Vincent De Lucie wrote: > 1. Can we use OpenOffice in our corporate environment, +- 50 Users for free > or is there some licensing costs?
1: Legal Issues OOo is distributed under the GNU LESSER GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE Version 2.1, February 1999. As such,one can: * Install it on as many computers as you desire; * Give away as many copies as one desires; * Sell as many copies as one likes, for whatever price one can obtain for them; * Port it to any platform that one want to run it on; * Add any functionality that one may want, need, or desire; * Remove any functionality that one neither wants, needs, nor desires; Provided that the source code to the product is distributed with the product. 2: Deployment Before deployment have an attorney: * Go through all of the licences for all of the software that is currently used; * Go through all computer service contracts that currently in effect to determine whether or not current licences / contracts: ## Permit one to deploy programs that may currently be in use; ## Permit one to deploy programs that may desire use; Some software EULAs (End User Licence Agreements) have clauses which prohibit them from being run in conjunction with other software. Some computer maintenance contracts have clauses which prohibit the installation of any software that is not specifically listed in the contract; 3: Resources The following URLs provide additional information: * http://www.openoffice.org/FAQs/faq-licensing.html * http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html 4: Patents OOo is deliberately excluded from all patent protection agreements that Microsoft has made with other companies. As such, Microsoft has the option of pursuing legal action to enforce its patents. It costs roughly US$1,000,000 for a successful defence of a patent. The primary part of the defence will be to overturn the patent that allegedly was violated. A second part of that defence will be to prove that the USPTO failed to adhere to US Statute law in issuing the patent. Every software patent ever issued has been based upon prior art. It is not unusual for that prior art to be more than a millennium old. It is not unusual for the USPTO to issue patents for things for which they have previously issued patents. It is not unusual for the USPTO to issue patents on things that are blatantly obvious to anybody who can read. It is not unusual for the USPTO to issue patents that they know will be revoked if challenged. It is not unusual for the USPTO to issue patents for non-inventions. xan jonathon Your message was sent to a public mailing list. Answers are provided by volunteers. Please send any responses you might have to the list. My anti-spam filters delete all non-list messages. --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
