Aiming to make its complex product-licensing terms a bit clearer, Microsoft said it will group its products into separate categories based on how the products are licensed and on what rights are offered.
The move, effective 1 July, is part of Microsoft's regular update of its licensing programme. The software leviathan said it is not changing the licensing terms associated with any of its software, but instead is trying to make those terms more understandable to customers.
"What customers told us is they are really confused," said Sunny Charlebois, a product manager in Microsoft's worldwide licensing and pricing unit. Charlebois said Microsoft's previous outline of various products and their usage rules was more than 100 pages. "It was legalese; it was very difficult to understand."
By grouping all of its 70 or so products into nine categories, Microsoft expects that it can cut the length of the "product use rights" treatise in half. Some software, for example, is licensed per server, while other programs are licensed per server processor. Still others require a fee for each desktop that connects, a so-called client access license.
While grouping its existing products, Microsoft also will aim to put future products into one of the nine areas rather than create new categories. But even with the latest move, Microsoft said it still has a long way to go before its licensing program might be characterised as simple.r
"Yes, we have a lot of work to do," Charlebois said.
Microsoft makes minor changes to its licensing programme on a quarterly basis. Last September, for example, the company made permanent a programme that allows customers to upgrade their software licence from standard-edition status to enterprise-edition status without having to buy a completely new licence for that product.
Also in September, Microsoft launched a product use rights Web page, making information that had been available only in a copy-restricted document more easily accessible.
Talkback
This doesn't change the real issues.
For instance:
- the Microsoft tax
- the inability to purchase upgrade licenses rather then having to choose between either OEM or FPP and then with or without additional Volume Licensing Rights
- the legal lock-in that gradually comes with injecting new license terms, often concerning new products or technologies, that come in whole or in part with every new upgrade or patch for an entirely different product. Thus putting the customer in the difficult position to either refuse the upgrade or patch entirely or agree with it completely and thus everything that comes with it. There's no middle ground or even product specific only for the product the customer aquired in the first place.
And why is it that without Microsoft’s prior written approval disclosure to any third party of the results of any benchmark test of loads of Microsoft products is prohibited?