[Info-vax] Thoughts on VSI Community License Program

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 8/14/2020 4:44 AM, Phillip Helbig (undress to reply) wrote:
> 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.

And before anyone starts to go down the pirate path let me link to:

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2319

Usually doing "something" for VMS is good.

But doing 1/3/5/6/10 years for VMS is not good.

:-)

Arne