Back to the "Don't Pay Twice" page.

Below is Beth Christopher's initial response to the users who have contacted her so far, and my detailed comments.   But here is the bottom line:   Unless we convince BO to reverse course, you will see a tuition increase in every public and on-site class provided by an independent person or group.  Every student pays extra even though 99.9% of students have already paid for the right to use the software.  Why should you have to pay again for the right to use YOUR license in my classroom? 

From Beth:
Business Objects Education Services has launched a program that will ensure license compliance and proper use of our Intellectual Property in the Crystal Reports training world.  We are committed to ensuring our customers have access to high quality Crystal Reports training.

No organization is being prohibited from delivering Crystal Reports training.  All organizations have the option to continue delivering this training both at their public training location and onsite at a customer location.  The new requirement is the introduction of the Classroom License Agreement.  This is only required for those offering third party, "for profit" training not delivered at the customer site.

Crystal Reports licenses specifically state that they are to be used "solely for your internal business purposes" and that that "Each individual user must be specifically identified as the sole holder of a Named User License.  The sharing of licenses is expressly prohibited and is a material breach of this agreement."

The Classroom License Agreement is a perpetual license that will ensure public training organizations are now license compliant.  Nothing in the Crystal Reports license prohibits consulting of any kind.  The quote from the Hamady Newsletter was not taken from the Crystal Reports license agreement. 

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If you read carefully, Beth's arguments don't hold much water.  In some cases she just tosses in important sounding words like:

1) Intellectual Property:
Every student in a public class has their OWN license to use the software.  I suppose there might be one person in a thousand who pays this much money to take a class in software he doesn't own or plan to buy, but I have never seen one.  In addition, all legitimate training centers buy a license for every seat in the room.  This is redundant for most users but we do it anyway.  So EVERYONE in the class has already paid at least once for the right to use the product.  By forcing a significant tuition increase BO is essentially charging you again for the right to use the software.

2) Named User License:
Beth conveniently ignores the clause in the license that explicitly allows a Named User License to be transferred from one person to another.  You do not 'share' a license if the classroom has a license for every seat.  And remember point 1 - you already paid for your OWN license to use the software. 

3) Internal Business Use vs Third Party services:
Beth says that using the software for consulting does not violate the Crystal Reports license.  This is finally in writing.  That means that consulting, which is always for a third party, must be a legitimate "Internal Business Purpose", even though I am using my software to provide report files to a customer.  So my "Internal business purposes" can include people outside my organization.  Since the license doesn't differentiate between training and consulting there is nothing to prevent me from assigning you one of my Named User Licenses for the duration of a class.

But, even more important, YOU are the one "using" the software in public class and YOU have a legitimate Named User License of your own.  Learning the software is your internal business use.  You could clearly bring a laptop to any classroom and BO could not complain.  Or you could bring your CD and install it yourself on a classroom PC.  The only difference is that I preinstalled the software for you to use.  And for that BO wants me to add 25-30% to my tuition, which is charging you again.

4) For Profit:
Huh?  Profit is only a factor when you are trying to determine 'fair use' of something you don't have rights to.  You and I have licenses to the software and the license doesn't distinguish anywhere between for-profit and non-profit uses. 

5) My quote is not from the Crystal Reports license:
I said clearly in the article that worst restrictions are found in the Enterprise license.  I mention them to show what BO thinks they can do with your license.  So far the Crystal License is taking just the first small step.  Do you really think they will stop there?  The fees are already slated to increase by 500% in July.  The next Crystal license could look exactly like the Enterprise license if we don't make a very vocal protest.  Ask your BO sales rep to identify all of the license changes in v12 before you agree to purchase or consider an upgrade.

6) No Organization is being prohibited...
Wrong.  Every independent organization is being prohibited from teaching you in a public classroom.  To be in compliance we have to sign an agreement that controls (among other things) what we will say about BO in our classes.  You can't sign this agreement and remain independent.  I only know of 2 organizations that signed up, so that means that the rest are prohibited from providing public classes.