[Info-vax] Thoughts on VSI Community License Program

[Phillip Helbig undress to reply]

In article <c5677abe-805f-45f9-bd1e-d3af9125f321o at googlegroups.com>,
David Goodwin <dgsoftnz at gmail.com> writes: 

> Removing access to the platforms main selling point to try and combat pirac=
> y seems like a pretty serious error. Piracy is the very last thing VSI shou=
> ld be concerned with. They would be lucky if piracy was a problem. Right no=
> w they're going to have a hard time even getting Linux users to seriously l=
> ook at OpenVMS at all, let alone consider pirating it.

Sounds like the "it's good to `share' music because it benefits the 
musician".  The musician himself can decide if he wants to give stuff 
away.  So can VSI.  The idea that people first pirate stuff to try it 
out then become paying customers is bullshit.

Whether VMS piracy is a problem is a different question.

> Also, they seem to not realise that a company pirating OpenVMS is better fo=
> r VSI than one that just gives up and runs Linux. A company that's pirating=
>  OpenVMS is at least creating demand for OpenVMS experts and software and i=
> s a potential VSI customer. 

Really?  Someone morally low enough to steal intellectual property will 
have a vision and become a paying customer?

It is attitudes like this which seriously endanger hobbyist licenses.

> The pool of OpenVMS experts and available softw=
> are needs to be much much larger than it is for OpenVMS to be competitive w=
> ith linux. 

VMS will probably never compete with Linux.