[Info-vax] VSI has a new CEO

[abrsvc]

On Friday, August 6, 2021 at 10:47:29 AM UTC-4, Phillip Helbig (undress to reply) wrote:
> In article <sejdbc$alr$1... at dont-email.me>, Dave Froble
> <da... at tsoft-inc.com> writes: 
> 
> > So then, you are not a hobbyist? Do you have regular licenses for all 
> > those systems? Are you paying for support?
> I'm sure that my use falls under the term "hobbyist"; it is strictly 
> non-commercial and for fun, not even, say, anything to do with a 
> non-profit organization or whatever. There was some discussion of this 
> back in the day, and I always truthfully answer the questions when 
> applying for a hobbyist license. 
> 
> I also bought a commercial license, with the one Alpha which I bought 
> new. 
> 
> I'm not an expert on commercial licenses, but I don't think that buying 
> a license required one to also buy support. In any case, it was bought 
> through an official DEC reseller/partner so they are responsible if they 
> forgot to demand anything of me. :-) 
> 
> I consider reading usenet (which I do on VMS) a hobby.

IRRC The license allowed you to use the software.  A support contract entitled you to patches and future versions.

Where things get murky is like the following:

Year A:  Purchase OS license to run system without any support contract going forward.

Year B:  Acquire a copy of a new version of the OS from a "friend".
               Install/upgrade system from A to this new version. 
               The license (since it was a perpetual license) continues to work just fine.

I would posit that as of the upgrade, the system is illegal since the upgrade was never purchased either directly or via a support contract.