RHEL without License?

[Ed Wilts]

On Wed, Jul 06, 2005 at 04:57:32AM -0700, Rik Herrin wrote:
> I'm not sure if this question has been brought up before or not.  I
> was asked by someone if they can continue running RHEL after their
> yearly subscription has expired.  They don't want to pay and don't
> mind living without the security updates and access to RHN.

You should at least refer the user to the page on the value of a
subscription.  http://www.redhat.com/software/subscriptions.html

>  Is this legal or not?  Please provide links from Red Hat
>  documentation if possible to support your position.  Thanks for your
>  time.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux is not licensed from Red Hat - it's a
subscription model and the license is the GPL (for most components).  As
such, you may definitely continue to use RHEL without a subscription
provided that you follow the terms of the online agreement:
http://www.redhat.com/licenses/rhel_us_3.html?country=United+States&
(I've assumed that's in the US and is either RHEL 3 or RHEL 4).

Basically, you must subscribe none or all of your systems.  As long as
the customer wants to cancel their subscriptions on all installed
systems, you're legal.  Red Hat did formally address this in an FAQ
or Red Hat Magazine article somewhere but I can't find it right now.

I'm not a lawyer and don't work for Red Hat either, but what you are
trying to do is perfectly legal.  To cover yourself, you should log a
call with Red Hat while your subscription is still active and ask them
to clarify this in writing.

-- 
Ed Wilts, RHCE
Mounds View, MN, USA
mailto:ewilts at ewilts.org
Member #1, Red Hat Community Ambassador Program