Thrown in Jail 3

[basement131]

Here is the issue.
i am looking at purchasing a program which costs $2000 per user and we have 7 users doing the math that equals $14000. Now here is the issue. THis program is used by all 7 of us but not very often. So it would be rare that we would all need it at the same time, but we would like to run it on our own computers.

Is it legal to have 1 copy with 1 licence on a server computer and each individual access the program through the network this would cost significantly less ~$4000.00. It would seem like this would be legal as only 1 person can use this program at a time.

someone has informed me that that is illegal and i will be thrown in jail.

unlike the person i talked to i would appreciate and informed opinion on this issue.


sincerely
Officework13

 

[lionelhill]

There are software licences around that specify X named users (i.e. the single copy can be used by one person at once, but the one has to come from a list of X). Of course you should be able to change the list, because if you are a company employing 5 people to do a job, if one leaves and is replaced, you need to replace him/her in the list of named users. That's not out of keeping with the idea of the original licence.

But the big question this leaves open is how often you can change the list of named users? Can you change it day by day to make sure anyone can use the software? Clearly not what the licence intended.

This sort of licence can be a nightmare in a university or educational situation where you may have hundreds of people, many of whom are students, or workers on short term contracts, and all of whom have a right to walk in and use a piece of software, but virtually none of whom ever will. I suspect most such institutions quietly ignore the issue.