Red Hat Accounting Change

In this post-Enron world it is interesting to see just how sensitive investors are to things like this. RHAT has dropped sharply on the news that they are restating some numbers. Looking into those numbers though, this looks like they are just moving from counting subscriptions on a monthly basis to amortizing them on a daily basis. While this will shift some revenue from the beginning of the contract to the end, it should have vary little impact on the end numbers and *appears* to be a shift from one acceptable accounting practice to a different acceptable accounting practice. IANAL (or a CPA) though and since revenue should be booked when it is “earned” it would seem that a subscription model could get a bit complicated. It's unfortunate that on the heel of this, a class action lawsuit was also announced. While it would seem Red Hat did nothing deceptive, it may still cost them a bundle to defend themselves. What do you think?
–jeremy