Need legal advice re: Redhat enterprise linux

[lug at the-leveys.us (Don Levey)]

Steven Erat wrote:
>
> Now where the RHEL license is confusing to me is  Section I Part 4,
> Reporting and Audit.  This paragraph indicates that Red Hat can audit
> the Customer once per year with a 10 day advance notice.  If the
> customer is found to have under reported the number of installed
> systems, then the customer must pay for that number times the annual
> service fee.  If the under reporting is  more than 5%, then the
> customer will have to pay that number of systems times the annual fee
> plus an extra 20% to compenseate RH for "liquidated damages".
>
> I know that the GPL permits an initial charge for to compensate for
> the packaging and distribution costs, but after that I don't
> understand how a product licensed under the GPL can can invoke
> additional fees if the Software is installed on additional systems.
>
> I'm eager to hear anyone who can proffer that explanation.
>
> -Steven Erat
>
>
I think the key here is the annual service fee.
The additional $$ is not because you're "Pirating" or anything like that.
They're charging for their annual support and service; they want to make
sure that they are "servicing" the number of machines that you say they are
servicing.  If you don't have a service contract with them, the amount you
pay is $0 and so any multiplier to that fee would still be $0.

 -Don