__/ [ BearItAll ] on Monday 17 July 2006 13:29 \__
> Roy Schestowitz wrote:
>
>> Putting a price on a virtual computer
>>
>> ,----[ Quote ]
>> | The software industry is learning that virtual machines can cause real
>> | headaches, when it comes to figuring out how to charge for their
>> | programs.
>> |
>> | [...]
>> |
>> | In January, Big Blue bought a company, CIMS labs, to help with that
>> | task. IBM recently released Usage and Accounting Monitor software that
>> | tries to track and monitor usage, not just on mainframes, but also on
>> | Windows ad Linux PCs, and on Unix machines.
>> `----
>>
>> http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-6094502.html
>
>
> I wondered how they were going to deal with this, even trickier when people
> realise that they don't actually need the entire virtual machine for each
> thing that they do. Do you pay a full licence for each partial system could
> be a hot topic waiting in the wings.
There is another topic being discussed: do you need to even have a licence
(other than the GPL) for a complete system. This refers to one of the four
freedoms. The whole idea of quantifying instances of the copyable code
(binaries) is ludicrous.
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