[Info-vax] [Attn: HP Employees] PDP-11 OS hobbyist licensing

[invalid]

On 2013-09-30, glen herrmannsfeldt <gah at ugcs.caltech.edu> wrote:
> Simon Clubley <clubley at remove_me.eisner.decus.org-earth.ufp> wrote:
>
> (snip)
>
>> As I understand it, the issues everyone seems to be talking about when
>> this comes up fall into two main stages.
>  
>> 1) The existing Mentec license talks about DEC owned emulators only and
>> the language dates from the time when simh was created while it's creator
>> worked at DEC.
>
> As well as I understand it, and IANAL, when a company is bought by
> another company contracts (such as license agreements) automatically
> apply to the new company.

It's not automatic. In the case of A buys B then B has to specify they're
selling all their assets and liabilities as part of the deal with A.

For various reasons many companies sell most but not all their
assets. Sometimes they sell off various bits and pieces to other companies
with the bulk of the company's assets to the buyer everybody reads about in
WSJ. Unless you read the fine print you often don't know about those other
subset deals.

> Consider that a bank might buy another bank that holds many mortgage
> loans. You don't stop paying just because the bank you contracted with
> doesn't exist anymore.

That's because there are survival clauses in contracts and because of the
way the sale/purchase above is structured. It's not automatic.