Seems there are two duplicate threads. From the other:
Ok. Let me preface by saying I am commenting based on what MyBlueBerry has stated. I am in NO WAY flaming or making any references that should be construed as such.
Now, we have found out how he is running his service so cheaply. Yes, his pricing is the best. Yes, he is doing a GREAT service to the BB community at $10 per month. However, what he has just stated – “25 cal retail” – means that he is running his business on 25 retail Microsoft licenses. Now, if he has 25 users or UNDER he is legally licensed. I really doubt that there are he has fewer than 25 customers, though. It wouldn’t pencil out to a profit if there weren’t (we’ve already discussed all their expenses).
As per his comment about clearing it with Microsoft, he is *partially correct*. Buying retail licenses on eBay is perfectly legal (VLK, however, is not). Running a business on 25 CALs if he has more than 25 users is illegal and a direct and (it seems) willful violation of the Microsoft Software License Agreement.
So, here’s my take on this. Based on what MyBlueBerry has said, without any additional information, if I was a MyBB user (which I actually thought about before), I would RUN from the service. I don’t want to imply they don’t have impeccable service and support, because they do. But, if Microsoft finds out they are illegally licensed, as an application service provider, they would be shutdown and removed (not to mention sued). I’d hate to loose my corporate calendar, contacts, email, and personal data because of this.
It seems that we now know the answer to the “question of the decade”. Other companies like eOutlook, Mailstreet, and BES4U all have similar pricing b/c they are legally licensed. It seems, now, that MyBB is not.
Without any additional responses from MyBlueBerrry (which I hope I am wrong, by the way – its never good to see companies running illegally or improperly licensed software…it hurts us all!), then I think we can safely say we found the answer to our initial question.
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Off the side comment:
I know David @ BES4U mentioned that he was banned from mybb and it was said to be b/c he "stole" something from the site, and said it was a "bad business practice". I can't think of a worse business practice than not properly licensing software.
