[Simh] OT: VMS licensing

[Tim Newsham]

FWIW, I'm looking for a non-hobby license.

On Fri, Oct 7, 2011 at 12:41 PM, Ian King <IanK at vulcan.com> wrote:
> I am not a lawyer - and it is my understanding that the OpenVMS Hobbyist license allows you to run the current/latest version (7.3 for VAX) and all earlier versions.  I've never had a problem using their PAKs with 6.2.
>
> The 'termination date' will interact with LMS and the license won't work.  There is a checksum to keep you from just changing the date string.  The OpenVMS Hobbyist license is so easy to acquire, if you're not using it for commercial use just go get one.  :-)  -- Ian
> ________________________________________
> From: simh-bounces at trailing-edge.com [simh-bounces at trailing-edge.com] On Behalf Of Dan Gahlinger [dgahling at hotmail.com]
> Sent: Friday, October 07, 2011 10:04 AM
> To: tim.newsham at gmail.com; simh at trailing-edge.com
> Subject: Re: [Simh] OT: VMS licensing
>
> As far as I know,
>
> the license is not specific to the version of vms from what I've used.
> That is the same license on 5.3 has worked with 7.2 and vice-versa.
>
> transfer-ability might be iffy depending on the contracts, not sure on that one,
> the official authority on that would be HP now.
>
> I bought a vax off ebay and it came with licenses and the official paper documents,
> including the sales invoices, contracts and everything, which the seller transferred to me.
>
> I'm not sure HP cares about old vms 5.3 stuff or older (or maybe they do), but it's surprising to see them
> trying to sell the media (CD) for the old VMS for like $4 grand!
> not for a license, not for anything, just the damn media!
>
> So even if you own an old vax like I do, and have the license, and the software is on it,
> if I wanted a replacement CD, HP wants me to pay them $4,000 ... that's just crazy.
> of course the old support contracts and stuff have long expired.
>
> Also note many licenses have a "termination" date, and you might not be able to freely
> transfer them from the vax to simh, etc - another thing for HP to take care of.
>
> so while it's physically possible to use an old license with simh (barring termination dates),
> it might not be entirely legal to do so...
>
> Dan.
>
>> Date: Fri, 7 Oct 2011 06:57:23 -1000
>> From: tim.newsham at gmail.com
>> To: simh at trailing-edge.com
>> Subject: [Simh] OT: VMS licensing
>>
>> Off-Topic but this seems like a good pool of people to ask.
>> I hope its acceptable use.
>>
>> I'm looking for information on licensing VAX/VMS.
>> Would it be possible to get a legal license to VMS 5.3?
>> Are licenses tied to a particular machine or a particular
>> time frame? If someone was selling an old VAX that
>> ran VMS 5.3, would the license still be valid for that machine
>> today? Would it still be valid after the sale?
>> Would it be transferable to other hardware or even a simulator?
>>
>> --
>> Tim Newsham | www.thenewsh.com/~newsham | thenewsh.blogspot.com
>> _______________________________________________
>> Simh mailing list
>> Simh at trailing-edge.com
>> http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/mailman/listinfo/simh
>



-- 
Tim Newsham | www.thenewsh.com/~newsham | thenewsh.blogspot.com