So here is my real life scenario. Every week I run a report, export it to HTML, and post it on my web site. It may be viewed by hundreds of users. Because I do it "regularly" (even though it is manual), it seemed to me that this scenario would require a CBL. I was assured in a phone call to Crystal Decisions that 'they didn't intend' my situation to require a CBL. However, the license wording is pretty clear in a normal reading of the words, so I tried to clarify the situation in writing. The answers I received seem to contradict the normal reading of the license, but it seems that Crystal Decisions doesn't count a manual process, even if it is regular.
Below is my Email exchange with the person at Crystal Decisions who is responsible for licensing questions (her messages are in blue). I am posting it to make sure that we all get the same answer to this question. If your company has a similar scenario and was encouraged to buy a CBL, drop me a note.
Dear Mr. Ken Hamady,
Thank you for inquiring further about the Crystal Broadcast License so that we may help you verify your application’s compliance with the licensing terms and conditions of Crystal Reports.
Based on the below description of your specific usage plans, outlined as follows:
Customer has built an application using Crystal Reports Developer edition to publish his personal schedule to a public web site on a weekly basis. The web page where this html report resides is accessed by approximately 15 -25 users per month.
we do not find that your current application falls into the licensing terms and conditions of the Crystal Broadcast License. There are two main reasons your current application does not fit the criteria of a “report distribution system”:
1. Your current application is not
“automated and/or regular”. Although the publishing process to post your
report on the web does have elements of this, it still uses manual intervention.
Although your report is being published “regularly”, it is not built upon
a sole automatic process for the intention of automated delivery and does
not fall under the Crystal Broadcast License.
2. The number of “users” is not
considered to be over 50. The number of users is based on how many
potential unique users will be accessing the report each time it’s run.
So, if the number of users accessing your site after each time it has been
generated is less than 50, the Crystal Broadcast License does not apply.
If your site traffic should grow in the future, the Crystal Broadcast License
may be required at that time.
This letter represents official notification from Crystal Decisions that your current method of using Crystal Reports does not meet the requirements of a “Report Distribution System”, and a Crystal Broadcast License is not required at this time. If, in the future the system changes as outlined above, for example, the current application is modified to be more automated and/or the number of users hitting the web page where the html report resides increases above 50 per month, the Crystal Broadcast License may be required. In such event, please contact me promptly to discuss how any changes affect your Crystal Reports license.
Kind regards,
Jaylene Crick
Licensing Manager, Crystal Decisions
Jaylene,
I appreciate the response that you sent me, however I am puzzled that your clarification does not seem to correspond with the normal English interpretation of your license wording.
I think the license should be clear enough so that customers don't have to explain their situations every time they make a change to their usage. They should know from the license where they stand. Since, I am considering pointing more people to my weekly report, as a sample of my work, I could easily exceed 50 viewer limit on a regular basis depending on how prominently I display the report link in my site. While the page gets about 25 hits now, my site gets 1,000 visitors each month. I want to assume that I will go over 50, so the key seems to be the "automated deliver system", and does what I do qualify as an ADS?
This is why I would like a further clarification of the wording "automated and/or regular". Your letter agreed that what I am doing is regular, which clearly puts it within the bounds of the license wording “automated AND/OR regular". This does not seem ambiguous to me. Your letter, however, provides me with an exception based on my not using a "sole automatic process for the intention of automated delivery ". This is quite a leap, using a concept that is not mentioned anywhere in the license agreement and seems to contradict the license use of the word "regular". If this is the standard you intend to use for defining your CBL requirement, please clarify what you mean by a "sole" automatic process. Also, please clarify if it is the "sole" automatic process or the "intention" (or both) that puts someone in CBL territory. I get very uncomfortable with licensing based on "intention", which is invisible and subjective, as opposed to objective measurable action.
Thank you for your consideration. I am sharing
your clarifications on an Internet forum. Others are also interested
in these responses.
Lino mentioned that you are still working on a more general
response for me, so that I can share that with others who need to evaluate
their situations.
Ken Hamady
Hi Ken. Thanks for your response.
I've spoken with our legal folks
yet again and we agree that determining
when a Crystal Broadcast License
is required is usually straightforward if
we take a step back and examine
the language of the license. In its
simplest terms, a broadcast license
is required if you have a "process or
system" that is used to "automatically
and/or regularly deliver, share or
distribute reports" to more than
50 end users. From your description of
your report, it appears that while
you may in the future regularly share a
report with more than 50 users,
you currently do not have a "process or
system" that is used to generate
and publish the report on a regular basis.
Hence, at this time no broadcast
license is required. However, if, in the
future, you do utilize an application
or other system that fulfills this
function, a Crystal Broadcast License
will be required.
My letter to you is intended to
add clarity to your specific situation and I
did not mean to cause you additional
confusion. I was just trying to help
you understand the circumstances
when a Crystal Broadcast License is
required and was not intending
to add any new requirements or tests to the
language of the license.
Regards,
Jaylene
Jaylene,
I appreciate your assurances that I would not be required to maintain a CBL. But, this only highlights the difference between the wording in the license and what you are trying to describe in your letters. This indicates to me that the license wording my be inaccurate in its use of the English language.
Your original letter focused on the "automated and/or regular" wording. But, it is clear to both of us that I am "regular" in my posting. Now you are focusing on the word "process". However, the word "process" is even broader than the word "regular". A process does not require any automation. What I do each month could easily be considered a "process" by any normal reading of English. So it appears that your definition of a "Process" is not the one that most of us expect. Please clarify your meaning here. What I plan to do is clearly regular, and it is clearly a process, which is all that your CBL license wording requires.
Thanks,
Ken
Jaylene,
I haven't received a response to this message dated 4/17/2001.
Would I expect that response from you or from someone
else?
Jaylene,
I have posted our exchange on my web site to help clarify the CBL for others with the same situation. The key to CBL seems to be an automated process. It appears that anyone using my scenario (manually exporting report pages to HTML and posting them on a web site) will not need a CBL regardless of:
1) The frequency of the distribution
2) The number of users
3) The size of the company benefiting from distribution
Thank you for clarifying this.
If I have misunderstood your comments, I would appreciate
further clarification.
Ken Hamady
Hi Ken. Thanks for your email
- you are correct in your statement below - a
manual process - no matter what
you are doing - would not envoke the CBL.
Thanks for following up.
Kind regards,
Jaylene