[Asterisk-Users] cisco ip 7905 legal ..

[Rich Adamson]

> i need to know the correct procedure; otherwise i will bringing my
> customers in danger and that is not what i want.
> 
> i know you can buy the 7905 WITHOUT the callmanager license.. if i
> load the sip image in it; will that be ok ?

Its my understanding (which could be somewhat incorrect) that when
a "new" Cisco 79xx phone is purchased, with it comes a callmanager 
license. If you decide at some later date to install the sip image, 
that really is another license. (Read the license agreement very
carefully and check their price list.)

If you buy the same phone from a used equipment dealer, the license
agreement specifically says the used equipment dealer is not suppose
to ship the phone with any software, regardless of how useful the
instrument might be without the software. However, Cisco never provided
a way to remove the software, so they have effectively been ignoring
the majority of folks that sell these as used phones. (A judge would
through the case out of court in a heartbeat.)

Those companies that are registered Cisco resellers have options to
refurb the instrument and install the lastest software image. However,
I'm not sure how they handle Cisco's license fees in those cases.
I'd suspect they are suppose to pay Cisco some discounted fee for
doing that, but in all liklihood they probably don't on all units
they sell. (They are also the ones that have access to Cisco's database
and can change the ownership for specific serial numbers.)

In all of the above cases, what you get with the initial purchase is
simply the instrument, a software image (installed), and a license
to use that software. It does not give the user any rights whatsoever
for ongoing software upgrades. Cisco calls the ongoing upgrades "a
maintenance contract" which includes hardware replacement for broken
instruments as well as access to software upgrades. The maintenance
agreement is good for 12 months.

When a Cisco reseller (eg, CDW.com) sells you a maintenance agreement,
they are supposed to check every single serial number to ensure you
are the owner of that device. If you're not the owner of that serial
number (per Cisco's database), then the reseller is not suppose to
sell you the maintenance agreement as you don't have a license to use
it in the first place. Some resellers actually check those records
while others don't bother. That's why we hear folks saying they 
bought a maintenance contract while other resellers refuse to sell
them to you. All of the above is what's happening in the US; there
are probably other requirements outside the US that probably involve
governmental issues, import fees, taxes, etc, etc.

When you buy a Cisco device from someone on eBay or from several folks
on this list that are not Cisco registered resellers, they are not 
suppose to sell those as "refurb" units (what is there to refurb in 
the first place), and as mentioned above, they are not suppose to 
ship the unit with software installed. Period.

If you bought a Cisco device that way, then you're suppose to pay
a license fee to Cisco, and, if you want ongoing access to software 
upgrades you're suppose to purchase a maintenance contract in addition 
to the license fees.

What happens in the real world is there are plenty of unauthorized
resellers around that have access to Cisco's software, and many will
install whatever image you want when purchasing a used device. Cisco
try's to catch those cases when "you" attempt to purchase the 
maintenance contract.

So, whether you agree with Cisco's license terms or not is mostly
irrelevant. It's Cisco's license and its been upheld legally all over
the world. 

What's kind of odd about this entire thing is that if you dig around
just a little, there are several Cisco authorized resellers that will
sell you a new phone with a license for just about the same price as
what you pay for used equipment from unauthorized resellers without
a license.

FWIW, I'm not a Cisco employee or reseller. I've just been around the
company for twenty years or so and know plenty of folks that are
authorized resellers.

Flames not accepted here; its not my policy.

Rich