Restriction on distribution by Novell?

[Justin Clift]

Juergen Weigert wrote:
<snip>
> The GPL does not grant any support. 
> Novell can restrict support, without violating the GPL. No?

As a Real World thought, the place I'm working for has a "Master License 
Agreement" with Novell, with "Premium Service" technical support.

It's a bit different from buying technical support for x number of 
boxes, as a Premium Service support contract covers "all novell products 
throughout your enterprise" (my wording).  No counting of boxes necessary.

(My understanding is it's supposed to ensure we have 24x7 response if 
any Novell product anywhere in our business has issues).

The terms we're discussing are for their SLES9 Update Protection 
service.  So their ceasing to supply the service would mean they 
wouldn't provide updates, even though they would (in our case) still 
have a contract in place for providing Technical Support:

   "Any unauthorized use of Upgrade Protection will be treated as a 
material breach of this Agreement."

That's from Paragraph 4 of their terms (here in full):

   "Reporting. Customer acknowledges that the completeness and accuracy 
of the information Customer provides to Novell may affect Novell's 
ability and desire to provide Upgrade Protection services. The Upgrade 
Protection purchased by Customer is intended for use only for the 
benefit of Customer and only for the specific installations of the SUSE 
Linux product covered by Upgrade Protection. If Customer purchases 
Upgrade Protection, it must purchase Upgrade Protection for all copies 
of the SUSE Linux product(s) installed. For those SUSE Linux products on 
which Upgrade Protection (or Maintenance) is sold via Novell's price 
lists on a per-server basis, each copy must be installed on a machine 
corresponding to the Upgrade Protection sku or part number describing 
such product (e.g., a 2-cpu annual SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Upgrade 
Protection sku cannot be used to cover a copy installed on an 8-cpu 
machine). Any unauthorized use of Upgrade Protection will be treated as 
a material breach of this Agreement. If Customer wishes to increase the 
number of copies of the SUSE Linux product installed, Customer must 
purchase from Novell or its authorized reseller Upgrade Protection for 
each additional copy installed. Upon renewal, Customer's submission of a 
purchase order or payment of Upgrade Protection fees will be deemed a 
representation of the number of copies of the SUSE Linux product 
receiving Upgrade Protection benefits. During the term of this Agreement 
and for two years after its expiration or termination, Novell will have 
the right, at its expense and upon no fewer than three (3) working days 
prior written notice, to verify Customer's purchase and use of Upgrade 
Protection benefits and related records and payments. If Customer has 
underpaid amounts owing, Customer must immediately purchase from Novell 
or its authorized reseller sufficient units or subscriptions of Upgrade 
Protection to support the actual number of copies installed and pay all 
amounts owing."

One interesting aspect here is that it seems to say that if we get 
Upgrade Protection for our servers, we *have* to install the product on 
all our servers even though we don't want to (i.e. live update of 
Production servers? that's insane):

   "For those SUSE Linux products on which Upgrade Protection (or 
Maintenance) is sold via Novell's price lists on a per-server basis, 
each copy must be installed on a machine corresponding to the Upgrade 
Protection sku or part number describing such product ..."

Pretty sure that's an unintended meaning though, as they're trying to 
differentiate their pricing for the product based on the power of 
people's servers.  i.e. pricing for SLES is different for a 16 processor 
box than for a 2 processor box.  They want to ensure people buy a 16 
processor version (expensive) for a more-than-2-cpu box, rather than a 2 
processor version (even though it would work).

Regards and best wishes,

Justin Clift


>         cheers,
>                 Jw.
> 


-- 
The Flame Project - Open Source GUI for animated SVG & Flash
http://www.flameproject.org