Changes to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Licensing

Well, this apparently escaped my notice last month.. Microsoft has quietly relaxed some of the restrictions on MOSS 2007 licensing. One of the things that larger customers were faced with was the fact that you could not legally include both internal (intranet) and external (Internet) content on the same SharePoint farm. Well, according to the License FAQ, now you can:

 

Accommodation for simultaneous use of server software under Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Office SharePoint Server 2007 for Internet sites:

The same software is licensed under Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Office SharePoint Server 2007 for Internet sites under different use rights.  Office SharePoint Server 2007's use rights support private intranet sites and require CALs for licensed access, while Office SharePoint Server 2007 for Internet Sites does not require CALs, but does require that all content, information and applications be accessible through the internet to non-employees.  Please refer to the Product Use Rights (PUR) document for these products' use rights.

As an accommodation for possible deployment scenarios, customers wishing to consolidate their SharePoint needs under a single deployment may acquire licenses for both products, assign those licenses to the same server, and use the same running instance of the software simultaneously under both licenses.  However, customers must acquire CALs as required under the Office SharePoint Server 2007 use rights for users and devices accessing content in any manner not permitted under the Office SharePoint Server 2007 for Internet sites use rights.