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It doesn't have to be enforceable. This licensing model works exactly the same as Microsoft Windows licensing or WinRAR licensing. Lots and lots of people have pirated Windows or just buy some cheap keys off Ebay, but no one of them in their sane mind would use anything like that at their company.

The same way you can easily violate any "non-commercial" clauses of models like this one as private person or as some tiny startup, but company that decide to use them for their business will more likely just go and pay.

So it's possible to ignore license, but legal and financial risks are not worth it for businesses.




I've heard companies also intentionally do not go after individuals pirating software e.g., Adobe Photoshop - it benefits them to have students pirate and skill up on their software and then enter companies that buy Photoshop because their employees know it, over locking down and having those students, and then the businesses, switch to open source.


I'm sure there are plenty of other examples, but in my personal experience this was Autodesk's strategy with AutoCAD. Get market saturation by being extremely light on piracy. Then, once you're the only one standing lower the boom. I remember, it was almost like flipping a switch on a single DAY in the mid-00's when they went from totally lax on unpaid users to suing the bejeezus out of anyone who they had good enough documentation on.

One smart thing they did was they'd check the online job listings and if a firm advertised for needing AutoCAD experience they'd check their licenses. I knew firms who got calls from Autodesk legal the DAY AFTER posting an opening.




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