[Info-vax] Kittson question

[David Froble]

JF Mezei wrote:

> This is where the grey area between VSI having access to the new
> platform, but not Alpha and VAX gets tough. Could it convince HP to
> allow it to lt go of licensing for VAX and Alpha so that VSI could then
> play "games" to allow VESTed apps from VAX and Alpha to run on the new
> industry standard servers with their old licenses ?

I guess this is indeed a grey area.

I'd first wonder about the legal issues, if any, in writing a HW 
emulator.  The specs are all published, perhaps with copyright.

So, if you write a HW emultor, and allow it to proclaim anything it 
wants to software, as long as a user has a license for the software, is 
there a problem?  After all, all that is really happening is that a user 
is using his right to use the software, on virtual HW of his choice, 
that just happens to work with the software.

Perhaps all it takes is a user that feels that what he's doing is legal. 
  If someone disagrees, that's just making work for the lawyers.

And another perspective.  Say a software vendor sells a license to use a 
product on a prticular model of HW.  What happens when the HW is not 
available?  What did the user pay for?  Doesn't he have the right to 
continue to use the product he paid for, on "something", if the vendor 
no longer makes the initial HW target available?

I do not think I've evr seen a clause in any of the perpetual license 
agreements that says "until we stop providing that specific HW".

Grey indeed!