Recently, VMware, a leading company in the virtualization field, has taken industrial giant Siemens to court, accusing it of illegally using thousands of unauthorized copies of VMware software in its U.S. operations.
The incident was triggered on September 9, 2024, when Siemens submitted a list detailing its software usage to VMware, hoping to receive related software maintenance and support services from VMware.
However, during the review of this list, VMware discovered that the actual number of software deployments by Siemens far exceeded its purchased license limits, raising suspicions of unauthorized usage. VMware immediately communicated with Siemens regarding this issue, pointing out that the list contained unauthorized software copies. Siemens denied this, insisting that the list was accurate and demanding that VMware provide comprehensive maintenance services as per the list.
To avoid impacting Siemens’ business operations, VMware ultimately decided to provide Siemens with 30 days of temporary support services based on its protest stance. A month later, a new chapter in this dispute unfolded—Siemens submitted a new software usage list to VMware. Compared to the previous version, this list’s data was more in line with VMware’s internal license records, indirectly indicating that there were issues with the previously submitted list.
Additionally, VMware pointed out in its lawsuit that Siemens failed to provide a reasonable explanation for the discrepancies between the previous list and actual usage, while also refusing to accept VMware’s software usage audit. This led VMware to believe that normal negotiations could not resolve the differences, prompting it to choose legal means to defend its rights.
Currently, VMware has submitted a 35-page lawsuit to the court, detailing the number of unauthorized software copies used by Siemens and the related products. According to statistics, Siemens has unauthorized downloads of 1,439 software copies, involving multiple VMware products, with an additional download count of 1,045.
This dispute in the technology sector has attracted widespread attention, and the subsequent developments of the incident are worth following closely.
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