Need to chew thru some ideas any help would be appreciated

[BJZeak]

We subscribe to a 3rd party web service application ... some of our clients would like to be able to use this service but don't have the revenue to substantiate using it full time nor do we have the resource to provide them with a human interface to this service.

What has beed proposed:

1) be able to remotely reach into our network to run this Web App

2) have some facility to print details from this web app

3) have some way to monitor the usage

What I was thinking:

We have a high speed connection to the net via a Cisco router which has a built in VPN server so could add a user link

We have some P3 boxes gathering dust so thinking of building one up with UBUNTU and installing Firefox and UVNC

I am wondering if UVNC and or the VPN would have any access to their local printer ... a workaround appears to be to print to PDF then pull the PDF file back to the Client for printing

I would assume VNC and or Cisco's VPN would provide some way to log connection details

Thanx for your time

 

[thedaver]

Before anyone answers, would you please confirm that you are legally entitled to repackage or rebroadcast that paid content? Otherwise we might be "aiding and abetting".

D.E.R. Management - IT Project Management Consulting

http://www.dermanagement.com/

 

[RhythmAce]

I'm pretty sure what you are asking is not legal at all. However, if you can be more specific on what this application is or at least what it does, we may be able to point you to an open source solution.

 

[BJZeak]

I appreciate the feedback and should have expected a legal question. Can we please refrain from getting into a political discussion … we feel this is a legitimate use of a service we are paying for.

The Web App/Service provides a consolidated information base for the industry we are in. The specific industry I believe is immaterial to this discussion.

We fully accept all legal implications of this endeavor and this forum and or its users are not liable for any information we might obtain/use here.

This has all come about because we have two specific clients who do occasional work as “Sub Contractors” for us … it would benefit our mutual clients if they could access this service directly. We are talking about providing one “Licensed” machine that could be remotely accessed by these “Sub Contractors” on an as needed basis (read under our control).

I reread the Terms and conditions of the service ... it has plenty of legal jargon mostly dealing with Copyright ... that aside ... as the subscriptions are purchased for “OUR” use, we do not see this as anything but using the service as provided.

Our clients already get the benefit of us using this service. In our minds, the potential to provide certain clients limited direct access (cutting us out as the middle men so to speak) to a service we already provide to them is perfectly legitimate use of this service. This would be no different then setting up a terminal in our office for anyone to use. Further these Clients are basically working as an extension of our business so legally should be able to use the tools we have available.

By having the service remain on our property it is still in our possession and control. Understand also that being a Web App, this service can be accessed anywhere already with our userids and passwords. This could be provided but then would no longer be in our control which then could be misused.


Thanx again for your time

 

[sleipnir214]

BrixTreme:

We fully accept all legal implications of this endeavor and this forum and or its users are not liable for any information we might obtain/use here.

Four things come to mind:[ul][li]You can't indemify anyone against violations of another entity's licensing. You simply don't have that right.[/li][li]Unless you are an officer of your company, you can't legally bind your company's actions. You likely don't have the power to indemnify us, even if your organization had that right.[/li][li]Even if you could indemnify us, I doubt that a posting to a web forum is legally binding. A web contract isn't worth the paper it's printed on.[/li][li]Many Tek-Tips members aren't interested in simply playing lawyer games and avoiding running afoul of the letter of the law. They consider it a part of their professional courtesy and ethics to scrupulously avoid even the hint of doing something illegal or unethical. This goes for posts on this site.[/li][/ul]

Our clients already get the benefit of us using this service. In our minds, the potential to provide certain clients limited direct access (cutting us out as the middle men so to speak) to a service we already provide to them is perfectly legitimate use of this service. This would be no different then setting up a terminal in our office for anyone to use. Further these Clients are basically working as an extension of our business so legally should be able to use the tools we have available.

That does not necessarily follow. Your vendor which provides the for-pay service will decide whether what you propose is a violation of licensing for the service or not. For example, my employer subscribes to web services that are licensed on a per-site scheme and considers a site to be a single physical campus, even though all of our satellite offices are on a WAN that connects to the main office for internet access. Were I to allow a sub-contractor to remotely access the service, it would be a violation of my vendor's terms of service. It does not seem to me to be too far off-base to imagine your vendor's license agreement saying the same thing.

I strongly recommend you talk to your vendor to find out for certain whether what you want to do is legal.


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