New Image Uploader Licensing

I am evaluating Image Uploader, and I just wanted to share my feedback that I got from Max Osokin at Aurigma. I do find the new licensing not fair as it is counted by Number of Cores. He says that any machine that has more than 2 cores, you are Required to have a Standard/Professional License plus the number of extra cores over 2.

I really just want to purchase the Express License. It seems the 5.x licensing is much much better.

This is was my email with the response:

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I am looking at using your Uploader and I am evaluating it. I do have a
concern on your new licensing terms. The machine I want to put it on is a
Intel Xeon -- Quad Core, and in the future, I may upgrade it to a Intel I7
920 -- which is a quad core, but looks like 8 cpu's to OS as it is
hyperthreading. I was a little confused about this, please clarify.

I want to purchase the Express package, but I can't because of this
statement:
"For multi-CPU or servers with multicore CPUs, each extra CPU or core is
interpreted as a separate server. So, for example, if you have a web farm
consisting of 8 4-CPU servers, you need 23 Connector" located here
http://www.aurigma.com/P...er/PricingLicensing.aspx

Does that mean I need 2 more connectors for the single machine with a single
CPU?

So essentially the Express only supports older dual-core and
olderprocessors, not any Intel Nehalem/Quad Core or AMD X3',X4's etc..

Thanks,
Jay

Response:

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Jay,

Thank you for your e-mail.

You are right, the licensing terms require that you should buy a
Standard/Pro license with two additional connectors for the CPU cores.

To make choice between Standard or Pro, I suggest reading the following
feature comparison:
http://www.aurigma.com/docs/iu/ComparisonofImageU
ploaderStandardandPro.htm

If you have more questions/suggestions or feel ready to purchase, please let
me know.

I look forward to your reply.

Best regards,
Max Osokin.

I really don't see why I have to upgrade to Standard to use Amazon S3 as my storage server. There is no additional processing power being utilized, which seems to be the justification to charge more in most cases. I cannot justify the $850 price jump ($249 vs $1099) just to have my images sent directly to Amazon. I will instead be writing my own script to move images to Amazon S3 nightly. Is there any chance that this licensing anomaly will change in the future?

Edited by user Monday, June 8, 2009 4:16:00 AM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Yes, that would be a fantastic change. Right now I am at the development stages of a startup and going straight to a $1099 product would bankrupt me quickly. I won't hit 10TB of monthly volume for a while and when I do I will have no problems upgrading to your Standard level product.

I thought $1099 because that's what sales quoted me when I asked a week or so ago. It is $899 + $200 for the connector.

Thank you very much. I just placed my order.