This is a very good discussion of software licensing in a virtualized environment. I'd like to add that the LDoms development engineering team is in active discussions with Oracle regarding the use of LDoms as a licensable boundary for Oracle software applications (also known as "hard partitions" in Oracle speak). As Mike Gerdts has eloquently explained, trust is crucial. IMHO, Oracle would agree. They want their users to have the appropriate visibility into the system so that compliance is easier to maintain. Oracle's processor based license scheme is really a "core" based license. The LDoms development team is actively designing some extensions to make it much easier for customers to allocate 'cores', and to determine where cores are assigned, without losing many of the benefits of virtualization.
JF
