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

[Johnny Billquist]

On 2013-09-30 22:07, Rich Alderson wrote:
> Simon Clubley <clubley at remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP> writes:
>
>> On 2013-09-29, Johnny Billquist <bqt at softjar.se> wrote:
>>> On 2013-09-30 01:13, Simon Clubley wrote:
>
>>>> PPS: Now if we could just sort out the PDP-11 OS hobbyist licensing
>>>> situation so we can clear up any licensing doubts about running them under
>>>> simh; simh has clearly maintained it's status as a decent quality emulator.
>
>>> Sure. Do you know the right people at HP, and could you please talk to them?
>
>> No I don't unfortunately.
>
>> However, I'm going to take this opportunity to ask the HP employees in
>> c.o.v if _they_ know who the correct person is to talk to as you have tried
>> various approaches and made comments for years about wanting to do something
>> about this.
>
> No one at HP has anything to do with the PDP-11.  Mentec bought the IP from
> Digital prior to the Compaq purchase, so HP never owned it.

Unfortunately incorrect, Rich.
DEC sold the PDP-11 software to Mentec, but retained control over how 
Mentec were allowed to spread the software.
That right has been transferred over to HP as a part of HP taking over 
the remains of DEC.
Which is a big reason why no hobbyist licenses for the PDP-11 OSes 
exist. They need approval from HP. Mentec could not do it by itself, and 
neither can the current owners. It's all very sad.

	Johnny