RE: Release License API Ethics

[Joel Fritz <JFritz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jim Langston [mailto:jlangston@conexfreight.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, November 10, 1999 10:39 AM
> To: MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
> Subject: Re: Release License API Ethics
> 
> 
> Oh, oh, oh!  Now it makes MUCH more sense 8-)
> 
> Okay, let me see if I got this right.  You have some program with some
> number of licenses, say 5.  You give 5 employees a license to use the
> software.  Employee #6 comes along and needs to use it, so you take
> the license away from one on of the other employees who using' using
> it right then, say employee #2.  Later on, employee #2 needs 
> to use it,

/*                  SNIP                             */

In a previous incarnation I administered a small Novell network.  We had a
network license for Lotus 2.2 that was for a certain number of concurrent
users.  By accident I discovered that the number of concurrent users was
something anyone with the requisite authority could change.  One day only
two people were able to use Lotus.  I poked around a bit and discovered a
program that maintained the number of concurrent users.  Someone had set the
value to 2.  I changed it back to an arbitrarily large number and changed
the rights on the program.  Aside from the ease with which someone managed
to get at the maintenance program, the thing that really surprised me was
that there didn't seem to be a limit to the number of concurrent users you
could enter other than the field size.  I'll admit I didn't spend a lot of
time on it, and I wasn't around when the software was bought and installed
so I don't know the whole story.  
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