[Info-vax] The Doom of VAX VMS Hobbyist Licenses?

[Rich Jordan]

On Monday, July 20, 2020 at 5:27:49 PM UTC-5, Phillip Helbig (undress to reply) wrote:
> In article <rf4pdt$i8k$2 at dont-email.me>, Dave Froble
>  writes: 
> 
> > >>> Try to get a commercial license.  Buy it from someone.  If someone sells
> > >>> it to you, and you bought it in good faith, I don't see any legal
> > >>> problems.
> > >>
> > >> Actually Phillip, that is illegal under the license terms.
> > >
> > > What is illegal?
> > 
> > A DEC software license is not transferable by the licensee.
> > 
> > Your $300 transfer was something DEC did, not the licensee.
> 
> Yes, of course, the $300 transfer was paid to DEC, but involved the 
> transfer of license from one person to another, so obviously they can be 
> transferred.
> 
> Or are you saying that if someone paid, say, $5000 for a license, he is 
> not allowed to sell it---for any price---but can only agree to have it 
> transferred (with someone paying $300 to DEC)?

It has been years but my best recollection:  DEC used to charge $300 to transfer the BASE license for a system when the system changed hands.  Layered products, user licenses, etc, were not transferable.   Sometime after HP bought Compaq they raised the price to (I think) $400, still for base license only.  

So even a legal paid transfer left the new owner needing to purchase all new layered product and user licenses.

That was the same time HP backstabbed all the long time DEC VARs by requiring a minimum of one million dollars per year in hardware sales to remain a direct VAR; if you could not do that you had to tier under a distributor which of course cut margins for VARs substantially.

If HP is not maintaining the ability for someone to purchase the base license transfer then effectively all remaining VAXen cannot be sold or transferred to another party and used with VMS (other then hobbyist license) or layered products unless HP modifies the license terms. 

Alpha and Integrity box recipients will at least have the (expensive but available) option of getting VSI product and licenses or holding out for the community license...