Licensing

Scope of a License

One license covers a single computer running on the selected operating system platform. Development licenses for machines which are not used for production purposes and run under the same operating system are free with each purchase.
Similarly, each license includes free use on testing and demonstration systems.

Except for IBM Z, redundant (backup) machines do not require a separate license provided they are never used concurrently with the actual production machines. Groups of load-balancing servers require a license for every server in the group.

Virtual Machines and Cloud Computing

Licensing for Virtual Machines (VMs) and cloud computing is defined via the term »usage instance«. It can refer to a physical computer including all VMs running on this computer. If these VMs all run under the same operating system, a single PDFlib GmbH license covers all hosted VMs on this machine.

Similarly, a usage instance within a cloud environment refers to a single VM in the cloud. For cloud computing, customers can select the most economical licensing model:

  • If the licensed product is used on multiple VMs and all VMs are guaranteed to run on a single physical computer, a single license covers all VMs provided they all run under the same operating system.
  • If a particular VM may »float« from one physical computer to the next (but never runs concurrently on more than one computer), a single license is sufficient for this VM.

The bottom line is that for a number of N virtual machines running on M physical machines the required number of licenses is the smaller of the numbers N and M.

License Transfer

In many cases PDFlib GmbH customers integrate the licensed product into their own software and pass it on to their end users. In this case the integrated licenses for PDFlib GmbH products can be transferred to the end user.

License Packs

License packs (also called »runtime license«) are a convenient form of delivery for larger numbers of licenses. A license pack covers a certain number of licenses for the same combination of product, version, and platform. A license pack is delivered with a single license key which covers all licenses. The licenses in a pack cannot be split.

License packs are subject to the following conditions:

  • License packs are available for 20, 50, 100, or 200 licenses. Pricing is done according to the standard volume discount table.
  • License packs are only available for desktop editions of Windows and for macOS, but not for any server platform.
  • License packs can be ordered with or without support.

In order to simplify administration, the support terms of multiple license packs can be synchronized to make sure that the support terms of all license packs are due for renewal at the same time.

Details on Licensing

Details of the commercial PDFlib license can be found in the document General License and Support Conditions which is also contained in the PDFlib distribution. 

The PDFlib GmbH License Guide discusses details on licensing and support including update and upgrade conditions.