Adobe has tried never tried to overcomplicate licensing around their DAM product. Since they first went to market with Adobe Experience Manager Assets, the license structure has been built around one major factor (e.g. number of instances) with a few minor factors (e.g. number of users).
But as Adobe has improved AEM Assets and connected it to various other Adobe products, the pieces have gotten more complicated.
This article will attempt to explain the various pieces that make up AEM Assets today. Elements with potential licensing impacts are covered first, but we plan on covering some of the freebie components in a future post.