Virtual Machines - legal issues

Morrisseeee

Interesting discussion I was involved in recently...

Are Virtal machines posing a threat to software companies ?
Eg: Virtual machines can be used to run trial software over & over.
ie. a particular program can be installed on a Virtual Machine and when the time-period runs out,
just load up the original virtual machine file and start over.

Note: Now, I know its probably not a big threat at the moment, as most people are not running Virtual OS's, but if it took off it could be.
If it did become a major problem, I suppose the software companies would just limit or tweek their trial software.

In fact, is this even illegal ?
Are you breaking the rules by doing this ?

biko

I would think VM are more a headache for the hardware industry as you can run several OS on a single machine.

Ponster

I doubt it's in any way illegal as reinstalling an OS to profit from an extra run at a trial version of a piece of software isn't though I can't see it catching on as it's still annoying to have to reload the virtual image especially if we're talking about a business.

Also after having reloaded the original image, depending on the software on trial, you may not be able to import the data that the application was managing to be able to start off where you left off. The time spent on reconfiguring would be better spent elsewhere I'd imagine.

BaconZombie

I think the bigger issues for IT Deportments is keeping an records and control over how may OS cal's {Licences} are in use.

Since you can installed a Windows OS onto 2nd "stand-by" Server without buying a new licence once the two system are not powered on at the same time.

evil-monkey

i've just finished a 6month placement at VMware, and I have to say, this is a good point. matters of such a nature never really came up. i dunno though, would it be worth all the hassle?? also, from a sort of cultural aspect, any company who has genuine virtualisation systems etc, will probably be in a position to pay for all their software.

SouperComputer

Eg: Virtual machines can be used to run trial software over & over.

So can disk images...I don't see an issue.