[Info-vax] Any stronger versions of the LMF planned ?, was: Re: LMF Licence Generator Code

[Bill Gunshannon]

On 8/6/21 8:59 PM, Dave Froble wrote:
> On 8/6/2021 8:41 PM, Simon Clubley wrote:
>> On 2021-08-06, jimc... at gmail.com <jimcausey at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> On Friday, August 6, 2021 at 6:55:11 AM UTC-7, dsweene... at gmail.com 
>>> wrote:
>>>> It should come as no surprise that creating a hacked version of 
>>>> pakgen to generate license PAKs for any VMS or OpenVMS product is 
>>>> not legal. The webmaster of the mirroring site has been contacted to 
>>>> remove the pakgen source from the site. Lawrence, whether or not the 
>>>> site removes the code you cannot use or share PAKGEN hack you are 
>>>> creating.
>>>>
>>>> Dave Sweeney
>>>
>>> Versions of PAKGEN.C are available all over the Internet in various 
>>> forums.  Even if the mirrors site removes it, the cat is out of the 
>>> bag there.
>>>
>>> In many (most?) jurisdictions, it's also perfectly legal to author, 
>>> refactor, and share code like PAKGEN.  You're not in a position to 
>>> tell Lawrence whether or not he can share that code.
>>
>> Even _if_ that is the case Jim, this situation could provoke
>> a strong response from VSI.
>>
>> For example, VSI are very clearly in a mindset that's all about
>> collecting ongoing revenue from the users and making sure the
>> users don't try "cheating".
> 
> The first part of that is reasonable and how things must be if VSI and 
> VMS are going to be around for a while.
> 
> The second part is unreasonable paranoia.  Who and where are these 
> "cheaters"?  I don't know of any.  Does anyone?  Most of us are just 
> happy that VSI is there to support us, and we understand they need 
> revenue to do so.  Which is why I prefer they have recurring revenue 
> rather than one time license sales.
> 

I agree with this entirely.  It is not cheaters that VSI needs to
fear it is management who come out of MBA school with no knowledge
of anything not Microsoft or Linux and will see moving from VMS to
one of those as "modernization" of a legacy system.  Go read some
of the stuff on LinkedIn about "Legacy Systems".  Not specifically
about VMS but the attitude is even if it still does the job if it
is old (ie. COBOL) it is bad and a problem. I recently saw an article
that blamed delays processing one of the government handouts on the
fact that the system is written in COBOL.  I am sure that when it
comes time to replace a VMS system they will offer VAX benchmarks
as proof that VMS is just a dog that needs to be put out of its
misery.

bill