Server vs PC Software
Hi Fred, I have been reading about your suggestions on creating home servers with older or new computers. That is fine and dandy but be careful about mentioning that you have a server when you talk to various support techs and services. I mentioned that I had a server to a Norton Antivirus Tech and he told me that I had no right to use standard Norton Antivirus software on a server and I had to stop using it immediately and buy their server version which costs several hundred dollars. I would imagine this holds true with other companies too. I had to explain that it was not a business server and really try hard to convince him it was not. The tech world is so use to equating server with the business world that as a home user, if you refer to you system as a server, you could get yourself into trouble. Sincerely, Dale Ashby
Yes, Dale, servers can be a hot button item for software companies. But whether a wrong has been committed depends on how the software is used.
If you buy a single-license program and put it on a server so that many PCs can share it, that's a pretty clear violation of the single license. In that case, software intended for use on one PC is instead servicing many PCs, and the software vendor has lost sales. I don't think it matters if it's a business or home setting: If the software is licensed for one PC, then setting up the software so that more than one PC can use it violates the license.
On the other hand, if the single-licensed software isn't available to any other PCs on the network--- that is, if it's run only on the server itself, for that one machine's benefit--- then it's irrelevant that the PC is used as a server; it's still one license, one machine. The vendor hasn't lost anything. The fact that the machine happens to be used as a server makes no difference. As long as the software in question isn't being served up or distributed or shared in any way, then no server-related functions come into play. The software installation is the same as it would be on any stand-alone PC, and in fact I'd agree that you can refer to the machine just as a PC when and if you need to talk to a support tech.
In your case, Dale, if you were running a single-license antivirus package on a server to protect *only that machine's files* then I think you were and are probably fine. But the tech most likely understood you to mean that you were setting it up so that the single-license antivirus package was providing some kind of centralized AV service for other PCs on the LAN; or that you were cloning the software to service other PCs. Those actions would most likely be a violation of the license. Again, it doesn't matter if it's a business setting or home setting. Either way, the number of licenses has to match the number of PCs using the software.
My rule of thumb for thinking through all questions of this sort is: Does my action cost the vendor a sale? If the honest answer is "yes," then the action's probably wrong. But if the vendor honestly loses nothing by my action, then it's "no harm, no foul;" and the action's probably OK.
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