Microsoft Enterprise Agreement – To renew or not to renew? That is the question.

When the time comes and organizations are faced with their Microsoft Enterprise Agreement (EA) renewal decision, it’s always a fierce internal debate. The cost of a renewal can be significant and represents a huge chunk of any IT budget. The complexity of Microsoft licensing, not to mention the challenge of negotiating a new agreement, require that you have a clearly defined plan for the future. New implementations of virtualization and cloud computing will reflect the decision to renew or not, […]

Microsoft Office SaaS?

Microsoft announced plans to release a free, advertising-supported service that would allow users to access versions of its Office applications through a standard web browser. Google offers their own services for $50 per year, as does IBM with their Lotus Symphony. Corporate customers will have the option of buying the service through a subscription or software licensing plan although pricing has not yet been determined. Caveat – the online versions won’t include all of the features of the traditional software […]

In Licensing loopholes in Microsoft Windows XP

So Dell and HP are offering XP instead of Vista.  Even with all the tweaks Microsoft has made to desktop operating system — making it more intuitive, more secure and just generally having cool stuff — means that you need more memory and faster graphics. Meanwhile, Windows XP users are getting a surprise.  Computer makers — including Dell, HP and Lenovo (IBM) — have found a loophole in the HP licensing scheme.  Under the Windows Vista licensing terms, XP can […]

A case of software licensing indemnification

Epicrealm is a former web acceleration company that stopped marketing and selling its products around 2003 filed lawsuits last year against a group of 13 companies including Safelite for allegedly infringing on two patents that cover the way in which many dynamic web pages are constructed and served. Although Oracle isn’t part of any of the lawsuits, the company supplies software that delivers dynamic web pages. Under the terms of its software license agreement, Oracle agrees to indemnify its customers […]

Piracy Police could come knocking at your door!

Baseline Magazine recently published an informative article about what steps to take should you get an audit letter from the BSA. The process, as scary as it is, should be handled with care in order to come out with the smallest settlement possible, and avoid litigation if at all possible. What exactly is the BSA and what do they want with us? “The Business Software Alliance (www.bsa.org) is the foremost organization dedicated to promoting a safe and legal digital world. […]