Does Microsoft complicate its licensing on purpose?

[ Thanks to Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols for this link. ]

"Customers tend to take a big-picture view of licensing, according to Elop -- that is, they look at the value it adds to their businesses overall, rather than dwell on the minutia of individual licenses required for the products they use.

""Customers want the amount they pay to be tied to the value that they're driving, the usage they're getting -- that's why these models are so complicated," he said. "For different customers, these things are measured in different ways.

""What a customer will do generally is take a big step back and say, what am I paying for e-mail? What am I paying for collaboration? And they will make a determination as to whether they think that's fair value or less than fair value," he said."

Note: this is not satire. Really.-- ed.

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