I recently had a “collision” with the vendor of a major installer software package. Basically I had, unbeknownst to me, used up the three installations I was allowed to make by getting a new computer and re-creating my virtual machines a year ago.<\/p>\n
When I attempted to create another virtual machine and install the software I was informed that I could not unlock this anymore.<\/p>\n
A email conversation with their support revealed that <\/p>\n
a) I have only three (3) allowed installations
b) I am supposed to uninstall the software before re-imaging
a hard drive or a VM to free up these licenses
c) NONE of these requirements are listed in the vendors EULA
or any other legal agreement.<\/p>\n
Regardless of the outcome of this argument, it brings up the question of how virtual machines should be handled in regards to software licensing.<\/p>\n
SAPIEN software products are generally licensed by user and allow installation on up to five computers, provided the software is only used by the same user.<\/p>\n
Virtual machines on a server that are used by many users clearly do not fall into that category, but what about the many VMs you create on your hard disk for testing purposes? Physically it is the same machine and you are usually the only user. As far as most software is concerned, running in a VM cannot be distinguished from running on a completely separate hardware. <\/p>\n
What is your take? Let us know what you consider fair use in regards to VMs. How do you interpret EULAs when it comes to virtual machines?<\/p>\n
Sound off in the comments….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I recently had a “collision” with the vendor of a major installer software package. Basically I had, unbeknownst to me, used up the three installations I was allowed to make by getting a new computer and re-creating my virtual machines a year ago. When I attempted to create another virtual machine and install the software […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,2],"tags":[191,399,400],"class_list":["post-842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-20000-feet","category-general","tag-sapien","tag-virtual-machine","tag-vm-licensing"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t