Note
	You can still share AMIs without charging. Public and paid AMIs can be listed in the Resource Center.

How can I determine if a particular AMI is a paid AMI?

By describing images (ec2dim) with the "-a" flag and looking for AMIs that have a product code. For example, if you run ec2dim -a, the result contains an AMI with the ID ami-bd9d78d4. This is our Demo Paid AMI with product code A79EC0DB.

How can I determine if a public AMI is paid?

By describing images (ec2dim). An AMI is a paid AMI if a product code is returned. Example: run ec2dim -a amazon, and the AMI ami-bd9d78d4 will be returned with a product code (A79EC0DB).

Is there anything that prevents a paid AMI from being rebundled? How can this be restricted?

Paid AMIs are comparable to shared AMIs with regards to rebundling and trying to restrict rebundling. If you allow a user running the AMI to see all of its contents (e.g. by giving root access to the AMI), the user could rebundle these into their own AMI.

Why can't I query a particular AMI's attributes to see if the AMI is paid?

Only the owner of an AMI can query the AMI attributes. However, anyone can tell if an AMI is paid by describing images (ec2dim). An AMI is paid if a product code is returned. Example: run ec2dim -a amazon, and the AMI with ID ami-bd9d78d4 will be returned with a product code (A79EC0DB).

Who can use the confirm-product-instance command?

Only the owner of the AMI can use this command. Owners use this command with supported AMIs to determine if a supported instance with a given product code attached is up and running.

Will the product code be inherited by the rebundled AMI?

If your customer uses AWS tools to rebundle the AMI, the product code associated with the AMI is inherited by the rebundled AMI. When launching the rebundled AMI the customer is still billed for usage based on your price.

	Note
	This is a convenience feature and not a guarantee that the product code will always be attached to rebundled AMIs.

Note that the customer's workflow could bundle the AMI outside of Amazon EC2, or the customer could use modified versions of the AWS tools, preventing the product code from being inherited.

Will the kernel/ramdisk be inherited by the rebundled AMI?

If the AMI is rebundled on an instance that is running with a certain kernel/ramdisk, then the kernel/ramdisk will be inherited by the rebundled AMI.

	Note
	This is a convenience feature and not a guarantee that the kernel/ramdisk will always be attached to rebundled AMIs.

Who can use the confirm-product-instance command?

If the AMI is rebundled on an instance that is running with a certain kernel/ramdisk, then the kernel/ramdisk will be inherited by the rebundled AMI.

	Note
	This is a convenience feature and not a guarantee that the product code will always be attached to rebundled AMIs.