I hope this question hasn't been answered recently (I didn't see it),
and please don't flame me for asking this - I don't want to do
anything illegal, I just need to understand how the licenses work.

We are a small business who is thinking of adopting this production
management system that runs on Filemaker. We are networked to each
other, but we do not run on a server. As I understand it, the
Developer will install the program on our machine, but we will still
need a copy of Filemaker itself to run the program. We are a
cash-poor creative company (like so many these days), and buying three
copies of the software is very expensive. Is it possible to use one
copy for all three machines if only one person is going to work on it
at any one time? Will only buying one copy prevent us from accessing
the relevant files if its stored on one colleague's machine? Like I
said, I do not know, and I just want to clarify this before I purchase
too much or too little software!

Thanks,

Eden

Technically, you can have the same installation code (license) installed
on multiple machines as long as FileMaker is only open on one machine at
a time. For all intents and purposes, FMP will not open on a second
machine if it is already open on a first machine. Files can be stored
on any machine or server and accessed as you wish.

As for the legalities, this approach will not work because the license,
as I understand it, is for one machine only.

Another approach that may or may not work for you is to turn on instant
web publishing and allowing users 2 and 3 to access the database
simultaneously through their web browser. Note that functionality
through this approach is limited to the most basic of actions-- like
editing, searching, sorting, adding and deleting records in what is
usually not a relational database (although it could be, with its
limitations).

Eden wrote:
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Howard Schlossberg (818) 883-2846
FM Pro Solutions Los Angeles, California
Associate Member, FileMaker Solutions Alliance

Also, you do realize you don't need 3 copies of Developer, just three client
versions, right? Unless you already own Developer, make sure you really
need it.

"Howard Schlossberg" <howard (AT) antispahm (DOT) fmprosolutions.com> wrote

Yes, we would just be purchasing the client versions. Would accessing
the databases through the web necessitate our purchasing the Unlimited
version, or is there a functionality I can set up to use Filemaker Pro
via the internet?

With respect to Ebay, I did not see any in the UK when I searched, but
perhaps I will take a deeper scour.

Thanks for your help,

Eden