The twists and turns of Office Web Apps’ software license

As if managing software license compliance wasn’t already complicated enough. The situation is likely to only worsen as software vendors experiment with new distribution and delivery models, including cloud computing. Case in point, the hybrid cloud/on-premise license for Microsoft’s forthcoming Office Web Apps.

Enterprises typically license desktop software on a per-computer or per-head basis. Either way, the bottom line is clear: Each installed copy of the software must have a valid license (and many packages verify their own compliance over the network). License terms for server-based software can be more complex, but managing compliance is fairly easy, as only properly licensed users are able to login to access the software.

Problems arise when software vendors experiment with hybrid models that combine aspects of cloud computing and traditional desktop software. Microsoft will be wading into these waters with the release of Office 2010 later this year, and the resulting licensing quirks are worth noting for IT managers and software developers alike.

Where the client meets the cloud
Among the most anticipated features of Office 2010 are the Office Web Apps, Web-based versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote that allow viewing and editing of Office documents from any standards-compliant browser. Microsoft will offer gratis ad-supported versions of the Web Apps for the general public, but enterprise customers that purchase volume licenses for Office 2010 will have the option of hosting ad-free versions of the Web Apps on their own servers.

Licensing the Web Apps can get complicated. The general idea is that if a company buys a 100-seat volume license of Office, each of those 100 users has a license to install and use the desktop Office applications, plus a license to use the equivalent Web Apps hosted on the company’s servers. But from where can users access the Web Apps? And from which computers? According to Microsoft’s Product Usage Rights document, dated January 2010:

Primary User. The single primary user of the licensed device may access and use the software remotely from any device.

In this context, “the licensed device” means the individual user’s primary work computer — essentially, the computer onto which you’d install the user’s copy of the desktop Office applications. What the license terms are saying, however, is that even though your license to use the Web Apps is tied to a specific computer, if you’re the single primary user of that computer, you’re free to use the Web Apps from any device you want. You can use them from your work computer, your home computer, a friend’s computer, or a public terminal at a hotel. You can even access the mobile versions of the Web Apps from your smartphone. I think we can all agree this is great news, since any other licensing model would pretty much negate the value of hosting a Web-based office suite in the first place.

But what are we to make of the next line of Microsoft’s document?

Non-Primary Users. At any time, one user may access and use the software from the licensed device.

If someone else sits at your computer — and only your computer — then he or she, too, can access your company’s hosted copies of the Office Web Apps. It’s pretty much the same as if you had a copy of the desktop Office suite installed and someone else fired up your copy of Word — only in this case, they’d be launching it from your Web browser.

Fun and games with licensing
So let’s think this through. Imagine some possible scenarios, given these license terms.

You can access your company’s versions of the Office Web Apps from your work computer as much as you like. If your cousin Merle stops by to visit you at the office, he can do the same. You, however, can get up from your desk, go to any other computer, and pull up the Web Apps from there. Merle can’t — not unless that computer has also been designated someone’s “licensed device.” He’s stuck using your computer at your desk.

If you bring your laptop home, you can continue to use your company’s Web Apps (provided they’re accessible over the public Internet). So can Merle, if he uses your computer. But Merle can’t access them from his own laptop without violating the license. Solution? You swap computers. Now you can both use the Web Apps.

Now suppose your company hires Merle as a contractor and gives him access to your SharePoint 2010 Server, so he can share files with the rest of the team. But your company doesn’t give him a license to Office 2010: That’s not a benefit it extends to contractors. Because your company’s SharePoint Server has a copy of the Office 2010 Web Apps installed and enabled, when Merle is browsing files on the server, he will be able to click on documents saved in Office file formats and view them using the Office Web Apps. But he must not, because doing so would violate the license. He can’t go to the store and buy his own copy of Office 2010, either; access to the Web Apps only extends to volume-licensed versions of the suite.

I want my lawyer
I’m sure you’re thinking what I thought: How on Earth does Microsoft expect to enforce this stuff? The answer is that it probably isn’t too worried about casual slip-ups. Remember, anyone will be able to access the ad-supported versions of the Web Apps for free, so gaining access to a company’s locally hosted versions won’t be much of a coup.

But pity the poor IT managers who have to make sense of this mess. The Office 2010 Web Apps license is a strange bird. Sometimes it acts like a per-head license and sometimes it acts like a per-computer license. Sometimes it acts like a desktop software license and sometimes it acts like a client-server license. And unlike traditional software, which must be installed and registered with a serial number before it will run, any individual employee could violate the license of the Office 2010 Web Apps at any time; it’s largely out of IT’s hands.

If you’re a software developer who’s venturing into cloud computing, it’s worth considering these issues when you choose a license for your software. Maybe a less complicated license would benefit you and your customers in the long run, even if it means giving up some control. If you’re a customer who has to confront these issues, you have my sympathy — but I suppose it’s nothing new to you.