[NBLUG/talk] Novell to own SuSE

[Dustin Mollo]

On Tue, Nov 04, 2003 at 10:21:29AM -0800, E Frank Ball wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 04, 2003 at 01:08:14PM -0500, Bob Blick wrote:
> } After yesterday's RedHat/Fedora announcement, this one really makes me
> } wish it were April 1st, but it appears to be true:
> } http://www.suse.com/us/company/press/press_releases/archive03/novell_suse.html
> } Debian, here I come!
> 
> RedHat Enterprise License terms
> http://www.redhat.com/licenses/rhel_us_3.html
> 
> It isn't pretty.  A couple quotes:

even more disturbing, imho (comments to follow...):

   4. REPORTING AND AUDIT. If Customer wishes to increase the number of
   Installed System, then Customer will purchase from Red Hat additional
   Services for each additional Installed System. During the term of this
   Agreement and for one (1) year thereafter, Customer expressly grants to
   Red Hat the right to audit Customer's facilities and records from time to
   time in order to verify Customer's compliance with the terms and
   conditions of this Agreement. Any such audit shall only take place during
   Customer's normal business hours and upon no less than ten (10) days
   prior written notice from Red Hat. Red Hat shall conduct no more than one
   such audit in any twelve-month period except for the express purpose of
   assuring compliance by Customer where non-compliance has been established
   in a prior audit. Red Hat shall give Customer written notice of any
   non-compliance, and if a payment deficiency exists, then Customer shall
   have fifteen (15) days from the date of such notice to make payment to
   Red Hat for any payment deficiency. The amount of the payment deficiency
   will be determined by multiplying the number of underreported Installed
   Systems or Services by the annual fee for such item. If Customer is found
   to have underreported the number of Installed Systems or amount of
   Services by more than five percent (5%), Customer shall, in addition to
   the annual fee for such item, pay liquidated damages equal to twenty
   percent (20%) of the underreported fees for loss of income and
   administration costs suffered by Red Hat as a result.

what this basically means to me (WARNING: i'm not a lawyer), is that you
*can't* install the product (RHEL AS/ES/WS 3) on multiple machines.  someone
posted on slashdot that you *can* install it on multiple machines if you
decline the support agreement...which means you can not download *any*
errata updates, with the exception of the SRPMS made available publically on
their ftp site.

-dustin