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Re: Microsoft exploring time-limited licensing



Mary S Stephenson wrote:
> Here's a follow-up to Cal's earlier message regarding user subscriptions
> for Microsoft Office:
>
> Microsoft shelves Office XP subscription plan
> http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-5832371.html?tag=dd.ne.dhm.nl-sty.0

Mary's message points out that Microsoft's position is shifting on
numerous fronts.  These are two different things they have been
exploring recently: subscriptions for specific applications or suites,
and enterprise time-limited licenses (long-term lock-in based on
short-term discounts).

They're certainly related, but the subscription issue (tied closely to
their somewhat delayed but highly hyped .NET initiative) is specifically
based on moving from software as product to software as service
(ultimately distributing a lot of software to users through the
Internet).  Time-limited licenses can actually be used for software that
is managed, served and maintained completely internally within an
organization.  At least as I see it, the former uses the technology
itself to promote lock-in, while the latter carries this out through a
new pricing mechanism.

They hope to lock customers into ongoing payments for their software,
given a recent relative slowdown in willingness for us to buy their
latest releases.  But this strategy will manifest itself differently in
what they see as different market niches (home, small business, large
enterprise, etc.).

The idea of software as service has been around for a while, by the
way.  Many advocates of open-source software will point this out.  It is
also already the case that many organizations account for computer
investments based on the expectation that they'll have to reinvest every
3-5 years, anyway.  So limited-term contracts can often look pretty
attractive to them.

The big danger related to Microsoft's approach (and that of some other
vendors) is that their various time-limited arrangements are also tied
to proprietary systems.  So failing to renew the contract makes it
extremely difficult to maintain the accessibility of data and services.

Stated another way, all of these proposals assume that all data is in
active use, and they run up against a lot of potential concerns for
long-term preservation.

- Cal

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