Thank you again for your reply.
I am pleased that you intend to cooperate in conducting the audit, however, I am afraid that we and Autodesk cannot agree with your interpretation of their audit rights. Please allow me to explain why.
As we both agree the following clause is contained in the license agreement and the license agreement has been accepted by Workpoint:
Audits. Licensee agrees that Autodesk has the right to require an audit (electronic or otherwise) of the Autodesk Materials and the Installation thereof and Access thereto. As part of any such audit, Autodesk or its authorized representative will have the right, on fifteen (15) days’ prior notice to Licensee, to inspect Licensee’s records, systems and facilities, including machine IDs, serial numbers and related information, to verify that the use of any and all Autodesk Materials is in conformance with this Agreement. Licensee will provide full cooperation to enable any such audit. If Autodesk determines that Licensee’s use is not in conformity with the Agreement, Licensee will obtain immediately and pay for valid license(s) to bring Licensee’s use into compliance with this Agreement and other applicable terms and pay the reasonable costs of the audit. In addition to such payment rights, Autodesk reserves the right to seek any other remedies available at law or in equity, whether under this Agreement or otherwise.
I further direct you to the exclusions contained near the beginning of the license agreement:
2.1 Limitations and Exclusions.
2.1.1 No License Granted/Unauthorized Activities. The parties acknowledge and agree that, notwithstanding anything to the contrary in this Agreement, no license is granted (whether expressly, by implication or otherwise) under this Agreement (and this Agreement expressly excludes any right) (a) to Excluded Materials, (b) to any Autodesk Materials that Licensee did not acquire lawfully or that Licensee acquired in violation of or in a manner inconsistent with this Agreement, (c) for Installation of or Access to the Licensed Materials beyond the applicable license term (whether a fixed term or Subscription period) or outside the scope of the applicable License Type or Permitted Number, (d) for Installation of the Licensed Materials on any Computer other than a Computer owned or leased, and controlled, by Licensee, unless otherwise authorized in writing by Autodesk, (e) to distribute, rent, loan, lease, sell, sublicense, transfer or otherwise provide all or any portion of the Autodesk Materials to any person or entity except as expressly set forth in this Agreement or as expressly authorized in writing by Autodesk, (f) to provide or make available any features or functionality of the Autodesk Materials to any person or entity (other than to and for Licensee itself for the purpose specified in the applicable License Type), whether or not over a network and whether or not on a hosted basis, (g) except as otherwise expressly provided with respect to a specific License Type, to Install or Access or allow the Installation of or Access to the Autodesk Materials over the Internet or other non-local network, including, without limitation, use in connection with a wide area network (WAN), virtual private network (VPN), virtualization, Web hosting, time-sharing, service bureau, software as a service, cloud or other service or technology, (h) to remove, alter or obscure any proprietary notices, labels or marks in the Autodesk Materials, (i) to decompile, disassemble or otherwise reverse engineer the Autodesk Materials, or (j) to translate, adapt, arrange, or create derivative works based on, or otherwise modify the Autodesk Materials for any purpose.
Therefore, in order to confirm that your use of this Autodesk’s software “is in conformance with this Agreement.” It is necessary to confirm that your company is not having access “(b) to any Autodesk Materials that Licensee did not acquire lawfully or that Licensee acquired in violation of or in a manner inconsistent with this Agreement, (c) for Installation of or Access to the Licensed Materials beyond the applicable license term (whether a fixed term or Subscription period) or outside the scope of the applicable License Type or Permitted Number,” and that in order to do this Autodesk’s representative will be granted “to inspect Licensee’s records, systems and facilities, including machine IDs, serial numbers and related information”.
I also draw your attention to the expansiveness of the following: “to inspect Licensee’s records, systems and facilities, including machine IDs, serial numbers and related information”
One cannot fairly interpret this phrase to mean only the machines which Workpoint wishes to have audited, or which Workpoint acknowledges has Autodesk software installed. Indeed one of the primary purposes of any software audit is to determine if the customer is using software in excess of its license entitlement.
To interpret this audit right as you have done, is to render the audit provision as trivial. I think it is clear from the portion highlighted above that Autodesk’s intention is that it can conduct a meaningful audit of customer’s facilities, and that is not possible if its customers may choose which of its systems and facilities are to be audited.
If you wish to discuss this you may call me, or I kindly request your acknowledgement that your entire facilities and systems are covered by the audit clause, and that we may count on your cooperation.
I will hold off review of your NDA until we agree on this point, but on first glance it looks to be a fairly standard NDA and I do not anticipate any issues with signing it. I believe Autodesk will be agreeable to your compromise audit date of mid-December.