Classroom Licensing Agreement will it affect you? 3

[Storyteller]

Hello All,

Many of you may not be aware that Business Objects (BOBJ) is introducing a Classroom Licensing Agreement to all training centres offering public Crystal Reports training. This CLA is to take effect June 30, 2005.

The following are some excerpts that you may find interesting:

"The Crystal Reports license agreement does not permit the Crystal Reports software to be used for the purpose of training third parties. Accordingly, in order to bring training companies into compliance with the Crystal Reports license agreement, Business Objects has created a Classroom License Agreement, a copy of which is enclosed."

"We are offering the Classroom License Agreement to you for $4,000 per classroom because you are already offering Crystal Reports training. This license fee represents an 80% discount from the $20,000 per classroom fee that will be charged to any new organizations who would like to begin offering Crystal Reports training. Every training institution that wishes to offer Crystal Reports training must purchase this license directly from Business Objects. Dealers and resellers do not sell this new license."

"Lastly, please note that the Classroom License Agreement does not grant you a partner relationship with Business Objects. You are not authorized or certified but, upon execution of the Classroom License Agreement, you will be compliant with your Crystal Reports software license. You are not authorized to offer any other Business Objects software training other than Crystal Reports I and II (beginner and advanced) which is covered by this CLA."

So, in other words Training Centres will have to pay BOBJ money for the privilege to train people to use their software. One of the more galling things is that even after paying this money they will not have any "partner relationship" with BOBJ. The fee to be a BOBJ training partner is apparently $20,000.00, as you can see from the excerpts above is the fee that will be charged after the end of June. However, you will still not be recognized as a training partner. In other words you have to pay the fee, but get none of the benefits.

There are two "Approved" courseware vendors. They have confirmed that their costs will be rising as a result of having to pay BOBJ upto $30.00 and more per unit in royalties. You know that this will be passed along to us the consumer.

Other quotes from the CLA:

"All title and intellectual property rights in and to the Software Products (including but not limited to any screenshots, images, photographs, animations, video, audio, music, text, and "applets" incorporated into the Software Product), the accompanying printed materials, and any copies of the Software Product are owned by Business Objects. All title and intellectual property rights in and to the content that is not contained in the Software Product, but may be accessed through use of the Software Product, is the property of the respective content owners and may be protected by applicable copyright or other intellectual property laws and treaties. This CLA grants Company no rights to use such other content." (Section 5.1)

"Company may not develop training materials, methodologies or programs of any kind using the Software Product, documentation or materials provided to Company pursuant to this CLA without Business Objects' prior written consent." (Section 5.3)

Now if taken to the extreme the BOBJ interpretation of their EULA/CLA could mean that books such as "Complete Reference" by George Peck may no longer be available or legal nor would I imagine the CRCP Crystal Reports Certified Professional All-in-One by Annette Harper.

Ken Hamady has posted the following in his latest e-newsletter:
"When I told the manager of BO's Education Services that this was a pretty extreme and rare approach to licensing, she said that they don't mind being "pioneers" in this area. She told one of my readers that she had not received any negative feedback on the program from users"

http://www.kenhamady.com/news0505.html

What I cannot understand is that on one hand BOBJ insists that they value the independent consultants and training centres that bring value added services to their (BOBJ) clients. Then on the other hand BOBJ is effectively slamming the door in our face with this CLA. It seems very strange that they would intentionally antagonize the very people who are out there everyday promoting and advocating their software.

Will Training Centres tell their Clients that BOBJ is denying them the opportunity to choose a training vendor? Will BOBJ explain to their Clients why training costs are about to increase dramatically? Will this encourage Clients to begin to look at other alternatives?

Will this CLA be applied to training centres that offer classes in software in which Crystal Reports is a part of? Will ACCPAC, CLASS, PeopleSoft, SAP, Visual Studio .Net, etc classes be subject to the CLA?

Is it because BOBJ believes they have the Market cornered so they feel they can behave in such a heavy-handed way? I've heard that Oracle once behaved this way. It is interesting to see how losing market share has changed their (Oracle) position. Does BOBJ need to suffer the same before they too reconsider their current CLA plans?

Microsoft recognizes that the Market is able to support Authorized and Un-Authorized training for their High End software. The focus for Microsoft is that "Users" are trained to use Microsoft software and not the competitions. The Market will then decide which training centre, consultants will prosper.

If you want to let BOBJ know your opinion on this CLA please contact your Business Objects Representative or you could contact

Beth Christopher
Business Objects Education Alliance Manager
beth.christopher@businessobjects.com .

Thank you for taking the time to read this and I look forward to any comments or questions that you may have.

Sincerely,
Michael

 

[MJRBIM]

Read it once...read it twice...shook my head...

This is stupid on so many levels - not the least of which is that BOBJ doesn't have anything close to the capacity of available trainers (in-house or partners) to meet the demand for "quality" CR and CE training.

The Peck books (and similar resources) are a huge part of CR's success - having a broad base of official and unoffcial resources makes it more viable for small firms to use the CR/CE tool set.

If they keep doing this stuff they're just asking small to mid-size clients to move to MS Reporting Services.

 

[AnnetteH]

Business Objects seems intent on pursuing only large corporate customers. This may have worked for them with their original products, but Crystal Reports has a huge base of small and medium sized customers including businesses and independent software developers. For these customers, cost -- including both the price of the software and the attendant training costs -- is a deciding factor in picking a reporting application. I have no doubt that many of them will start looking at other alternatives if independent training centers and training materials dissappear.

What does it mean when the cost of training for a software product is 10 times the cost of the product itself?

 

[rhinok]

Business Objects is not intent on pursuing only large corporate customers. This definitely seemed to be the case with Crystal Decisions prior to the merger, but Business Objects is embracing small to mid-size customers by eliminating both the broadcast and report distribution license restrictions and by offering Crystal Reports Server.

Removing all distribution license restrictions should be monumental to the developer community and, I believe, will help to grow the community and repair the damage done by the overly restrictive Crystal Decisions licensing models for the later versions. I've seen three companies in the last year that have at least seven different software products with CR7 embedded, because it was the last version without explicit distribution restrictions. With CR XI, that is no longer the case...

Regarding the training restrictions - this has been in the works for a long time. I first heard about this months ago. Business Objects definitely seems to be using this as both a revenue builder--due to the large number of third party trainers--and as a way to control the quality of training. I don't see this as a bad thing, unless you're an unlicensed third-party trainer, as long as Business Objects provides superior training.

Most of the third party training and books I've seen are worthless to anybody but a complete newbie. George Peck's books are an exception (I haven't read your book Annette ;-) ). I've evaluated courseware from a few vendors and have examined third-party 'Beginner' and 'Advanced' Crystal Reports classes and have found them to be severely lacking. Of course, I have found some of the official training to be lacking, as well, but typically not to the extent that the third-party courses are. That being said, I do agree that the official training costs need to be reduced.

I'm interested in the long-term legal implications of this licensing restriction. Basically (in my completely non-legalese opinion), Business Objects is stating that you can't use any aspect of their software, including screenshots, without their express written approval (in the form of the Training License) for your courseware or training because this constitutes copyright infringement (as you're using portions of their software for profit). If Business Objects is able to successfully argue this point in court, then they set a precedent, which can then be applied by all other software vendors.

~Kurt

 

[AnnetteH]

Kurt,

I think it is important to fully understand the new deployment licensing agreements. The only type of developer application that is truely freely distributable is a thick client implementation. (Paragraphs in quotes are from the BO website.)

"Developers can integrate 750+ royalty-free report viewing, printing, and modification APIs into thick-client applications and deploy or redistribute these applications at no extra cost."

This benefits developers who create products intended for one-user environments - products intended for consumers or very small businesses rather than enterprises - products that aren't web-based. And it's a good thing, but the web is the future.

"New to the Crystal Reports Developer Edition is a royalty free runtime license which allows for unlimited internal corporate deployment of the Crystal Reports .NET, Java and COM (RDC) report engine components without having to pay additional licensing fees for multiple servers or CPUs."

Note the "internal corporate deployment" terms. Who does this benefit? Not any developers creating products to sell. This just encourages the spread of Crystal Reports use in any enterprise that has adopted it. (Not necessarily bad, but the focus is still big business, since small and medium sized businesses are unlikely to have internal developers creating in-house applications.)

"For developers who build server/web applications that will be redistributed, sold, or deployed to a third party, they will need to purchase a copy of Crystal Reports Developer Edition for each company the application is redistributed to."

This is not free! And assuming that one copy of a developed product is sold to each company (or presumably consumer) that's a hefty additional cost.

And for developers creating applications that use the server edition...

"For developers who use this technology to build applications that will be redistributed, sold, or deployed to a third party, they will need to purchase a copy of Crystal Reports Server for each company the application is redistributed to."

The idea of Crystal Reports server is great, but it still costs $7,500 per 5 concurrent licenses. And you can only go up to 20.

As for the new training restrictions, what are they really controlling? If "official" training was superior and reasonably priced, then people would naturally prefer it. (In my personal experience, the quality of "official" training has been directly related to the quality of the partner delivering it and unrelated to the quality of the "official" BO course materials, which in some cases have been unbelievably bad.) BO may or may not improve the quality of training with their new restrictions, but they most definitely will control the content and the cost, and eliminate any competition that might have kept pressure on them to improve and stay reasonably priced.

I agree with you that it is a scary precedent that they are trying to set. I believe that it is "legal" given that their software is licensed and not sold, and hence is a contract between them and the purchaser. The only option the purchaser has in this case is not to agree to the terms of the license. Hopefully other major software vendors will not follow suit.

Annette

 

[kenhamady]

The main reason this is bad, in my opinion, is simply because it raises the cost of training without raising the quality standards.

1) They could only get 2 courseware vendors to agree to their courseware agreement, so I doubt that these vendors were picked becuase of their superior quality. They probably took whoever would sign up. The result is the same books at 50% increase. I know at least two very well respected courseware vendors who declined once they read the agreement.

2) If any training vendor agrees to buy approved books and pays the fee, they can continue to use the same instructors as before - but now your tuition is significantly higher. Not much increase in quality.

3) I am in independent instructor who provides a few small public classes (average 4-5 students) and I write my own simple course materials. My students regularly tell me that I provide one of the best technical classes they have ever taken. Last week 3 out of 4 said that and the 4th had never taken another technical class. Since the CLA is not cost effective for my volume, I am expected to stop providing public classes. I think that is a decrease in the availability of quality training.



Ken Hamady, On-site Custom Crystal Reports Training & Consulting
Public classes and individual training.
Guides for Formulas, Parameters, Subreports, VB, .NET, Tips and Tricks

http://www.kenhamady.com/

 

[MJRBIM]

I know that under the CLA you are expected to stop providing public classes, but this line is even more troublesome....

"The Crystal Reports license agreement does not permit the Crystal Reports software to be used for the purpose of training third parties."

The way I read that, I'm not even permitted to provide individual training to someone who is not a direct employee of my company.

Now I know that would be impossible for them to police "private" training for individuals, but does anyone else interpret that the same way....?

 

[kenhamady]

There is no such wording in the license. The license says that you are allowed to use th software for your "Internal Business Purposes" which they are using as the basis. The problem is that this doesn't differentiate between training and consulting. If you want to read my analysis of this subject you should read the following:

http://www.kenhamady.com/beth.html

Ken Hamady, On-site Custom Crystal Reports Training & Consulting
Public classes and individual training.
Guides for Formulas, Parameters, Subreports, VB, .NET, Tips and Tricks

http://www.kenhamady.com/

 

[Storyteller]

Hello All,
The quote "The Crystal Reports license agreement does not permit the Crystal Reports software to be used for the purpose of training third parties." is in the cover letter to the actual CLA. I cannot find a direct quote to this in the actual CLA, so it may not be considered legalaly binding. Mind you I am not a lawyer, so don't quote me on that

To build upon Ken's point of stifling independent voices. Here is anothe quote from the CLA:

6. MANNER OF CONDUCTING CLASSROOM TRAINING SERVICES.
6.1 Company shall at all times conduct the Classroom Training Services in a manner that reflects favorably on the Software Products and Business Objects. Company agrees: (a) to avoid deceptive, misleading or unethical practices that are or might be detrimental to Business Objects, the Software Products or the public; (b) to make no false or misleading representations with regard to Business Objects, the Software Products or Company’s Classroom Training Services; (c) not to disparage Business
Objects or the Software Products; (d) not to publish or employ or cooperate in the publication or employment of any misleading or deceptive advertising material; and (e) to make no representations, conditions, warranties or guarantees to customers or to the trade with respect to the specifications, features or capabilities of the Business Objects Products that are inconsistent with the literature distributed by Business Objects.

How can Trainers and Consultants be truely independent if they agree to this CLA?

Kurt,
Your comments about developer issues are a red herring to this discussion. I would like to focus solely on the effect this CLA will have on the Crystal Reports training community. In another post we can discuss the merits of the CRS and how BOBJ is attempting to make it easier for Developers in XI.

Annette,
I agree with you about the TOC for small-mid sized organizations. Many of the clients that I have spoken with see this move by BOBJ as nothing more than a money grab and they are wondering what they will do next? Leave Crystal Reports, not bother to purchase an newer version (to avoid having to retrain staff), actively look for alternatives (one client believes that this is a great time for Microsoft to move into this market).

I only know of one training centre that has told me that they will no longer be offering public classes effective June 30th. I am wondering if anyone else has heard what the Training Centres in your area are planning to do.

Regards,
Michael

 

[Pete56]

I've been using Crystal Reports since version 7.0 and have built a successful business on it. With the recent events cited above, Microsoft Reporting Services here we go!!

 

[kenhamady]

There is another thread on this topic that you might want to follow:

thread149-1079133

Ken Hamady, On-site Custom Crystal Reports Training & Consulting
Public classes and individual training.
Guides for Formulas, Parameters, Subreports, VB, .NET, Tips and Tricks

http://www.kenhamady.com/