Multiple subdomains and the license agreement

[McMendo]

I'm reviewing the specific exception cases to the license agreement of one installation instance to one domain.

Specific cases:

1. Your forum is accessable from multiple domains but the content is the same for each link. This is OK and does not require multiple licenses. My site is an example of a multi-domain setup that is allowed:
   
   

   http://www.mscclan.com/forum/

   
   

   http://www.macsubculture.com/forum/

   
   

   http://www.mac-gamer.com/forum/

   
   
   Notice how each domain points to exactly the same content.
2. Your forum is accessable from multiple domains but each domain shows a different forum style. This is OK and does not require multiple licenses.
3. Your forum is accessable from multiple domains and your forums are configured to show/hide certain forums based on the domain. This is not OK and requires an active vBulletin license for each domain. In this situation the forums appear to have separate content thereby making them separate forums in the eyes of the license agreement. Your forum content needs to be the same for each domain in order to qualify as a single forum.

The underlying question here is, do the different links appear as separate forums? If so then multiple licenses are required.

Separating content and forum styles by using subforums and forumdisplay links within a single domain is allowed because that functionality is built-in to vBulletin.

The following theoretical case it seems to me that it could be covered by exception #1. Please, correct me if I'm wrong.

1. One central subdomain forum.domain.com where all forums exist. In it, there are general forums and other forums divided by language (Italian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, etc.).
2. One or more subdomain(s) subforum-lang.domain.com where only one specific language forum in forum.domain.com exists per peripheral subdomain.

How would this be deal with in the license agreement?

Wether it is allowed under one license or not, is this possible?
would posts/changes on, say a thread of subforum "subforum-lang" in the forum.domain.com domain synchronize well with changes to the same thread in subforum-lang.domain.com?

[Steve Machol]

That requires multiple licenses.

[McMendo]

It would be nice if it worked on some kind of a 'sub-license' basis.

Anyway, how do I do to have that scheme but with one central domain and another peripheral domain, both hosted in the same server?

[Steve Machol]

Not sure what you mean. If you have separate content based on domain or sub-domain, this requires separate licenses.

[McMendo]

So to make things clear, I'm not suggesting that they should be free licenses. Just wondering if the particular case could be adjusted to some scheme of a one license plus a number of sub-licenses.

To better ilustrate this, let me show you first an hypothetical scheme of the forums at present:

• general forums content (english language)
  • News
    • Politics
    • Economics
    • Society
  • Introductions & Farewells
  • Casual Chit-Chat

• specific national/language forums content (language-based)
  • Scandinavia
    • Sweden
      • -Culture
      • -Society
      • -Etc.
    • Norway
      • -Culture
      • -Society
      • -Etc.
  • Iberia
    • Catalonia
      • -Culture
      • -Society]
      • -Etc.
    • Portugal
      • -Culture
      • -Society
      • -Etc.
  • Ireland
    • -Culture
    • -Society
    • -Etc.
  • Etc.

• general forums content (english language)
  • Arts
  • Sciences
    • Biology
    • Astronomy
    • Etc.
  • Technology
  • Sports
  • Etc.

This is for the main forum at domain/subdomain forum.domain.com.

The contents and structure of the forum Scandinavia could be also in a subdomain, e.g. scandinavia.domain.com; the content of the forum Iberia also in a subdomain e.g. iberia.domain.com; the content of the forum Ireland also in a subdomain e.g. ireland.domain.com; and so on.

Instead of paying a full license for every language/national specific forum, each additional forum could have an extra charge to the main license, or sub-license.

All of this assuming that such a scheme can be done under a perfect system of synchronisation.


Also, to avoid having to by-pass it through "cloning and hiding". This looks as if it could be done under case #1, by having e.g. ireland.domain.com and any other language/national subdomain as a perfect copy of the main subdomain forum.domain.com, but making the general content forums secret in the language/national subdomains.. if possible.

[Steve Machol]

Interesting concept but we have no plans to offer 'sub-licenses' or anything like this in the near future.

[feldon23]

If you are HIDING or CHANGING the appearance of forums or subforums by domain or subdomain, you need multiple licenses.

If the subdomains merely drop the user into different parts of a larger forum (even if the language changes vs. the styleid and languageid variables), you do not need multiple licenses as long as it's possible to navigate to all the parts of the forum without changing domains. It's a sometimes subtle difference. You can use different styles, different languages, different buttons, etc. to differentiate each part of the forum.

Personally, I think there should be a $599 or $999 site license available for vBulletin.