[Info-vax] State of the OpenVMS hobbyist program?

[Simon Clubley]

On 2019-11-20, Dave Froble <davef at tsoft-inc.com> wrote:
> On 11/20/2019 1:57 PM, Simon Clubley wrote:
>>
>> The HPE agreement is not the issue here. VSI will probably need to show
>> that any hobbyist licences are issued in a controlled and appropriate
>> manner. Giving up control of that process to someone not employed by VSI
>> will make that a _lot_ harder to demonstrate.
>
> If the agreement with HP is not the issue, then I cannot guess what 
> might be an issue.  It sort of specifies what VSI can do with VMS, 
> right?  And anything else is entirely up to VSI, right?
>
> Ah, a control freak ....
>
> You don't know that, and, I don't know that.
>
> Probably best to wait and see what VSI does.
>

I'm responding to Phillip's suggestion that someone outside of VSI could
manage the hobbyist program for free.

To understand what I am getting it, imagine that the product you make at
your company requires a licence key before it will work on a customer site.

Imagine also that you are willing to offer hobbyist licences to people
for non-commercial use using the same licencing technology as your paying
customers.

Would it be a viable option for your company to hand over the secret
key generation data to a volunteer third party not employed by you so
they can generate hobbyist licences ? How would you sanction the third
party if they used the data to start creating licences that they shouldn't ?

Or would you require that any hobbyist program is managed by your
employees as part of their duties and hence their behaviour is subject
to your employment contracts ?

Simon.

-- 
Simon Clubley, clubley at remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP
Walking destinations on a map are further away than they appear.