Friday, March 13, 2009

Crystal Report License Implementation On Visual Studio

I have been doing some reports for my employer to be implemented in client place. There have been some debate on the licensing issue. Without curiousity, I did a check on google for more details on the license to avoid any rights infridgement.

Developers can use Crystal Reports for Visual Studio .NET or for Visual Studio 2005 to do the following:
Design unlimited reports for use in Visual Studio .NET or Visual Studio 2005 applications by using the integrated Crystal Reports designer.
Integrate the Crystal Decisions server software (Crystal Reports engine used in conjunction with Microsoft ASP.NET server) into server or Web applications.
Integrate the Crystal Reports engine into client Microsoft Windows applications and, at no additional charge ("free runtime"), developers may:
Freely deploy those Visual Studio .NET or Visual Studio 2005 applications in their own organizations. -or-


Redistribute those Visual Studio .NET or Visual Studio 2005 applications outside their organization for use by third parties.


True enought the Visual Studio bundled with the Crystal report and report development under VS is licensed. However, free stuff doesn't always come easy. There are as usual with conditions.

For each server or Web application, you may use only a single instance of the bundled server software on a single server. You may not use a Web farm to increase the scalability of the bundled server software. You must purchase additional licensing to increase scalability.
You must deploy and redistribute the application as follows:
You may deploy each application that uses the bundled server software (designed for five simultaneous users) internally in the your own organization at no additional charge.
You must obtain written authorization from Crystal Decisions to redistribute an application that uses the bundled server software outside your organization for use by third parties. For more information about how to apply for written authorization, visit the following Crystal Decisions Web site:
Crystal Reports .NET Licensing
http://www.businessobjects.com/products/reporting/crystalreports/net/licensing.asp (http://www.businessobjects.com/products/reporting/crystalreports/net/licensing.asp)
For more information, including how to purchase additional licenses, how to apply for the right to redistribute server or Web applications, and server software scalability, visit the following Crystal Decisions Web site:
Crystal Reports .NET Licensing
http://www.businessobjects.com/products/reporting/crystalreports/net/licensing.asp (http://www.businessobjects.com/products/reporting/crystalreports/net/licensing.asp)


Undeniable it's still quite gray on how the licensing works.

Other relevant agreement: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa288179(VS.71).aspx

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