[Info-vax] Releasing VMS openly, was: Re: vax vms licenses

[Simon Clubley]

On 2022-04-18, Arne Vajhøj <arne at vajhoej.dk> wrote:
> On 4/18/2022 6:43 PM, Scott Dorsey wrote:
>> Chris Townley  <news at cct-net.co.uk> wrote:
>>>> Looks like murky waters, probably even for I.P. Lawyers and courts.
>>>
>>> But are HP even interested?
>> 
>> No, that's the basic problem.
>> HP are not interested enough to go after people illegally using the software
>
> I would not necessarily rely on that.
>
> Legal department may have a policy of pursuing all copyright
> infringements for the signal value.
>
>> but they ALSO are not interested enough to release the software openly either.
>
> That I believe!
>

HPE _can't_ release VAX/VMS openly, at least without investing in a
lot of resources, money, and time to review the VMS codebase and
any licence agreements with third parties that might have IP within
VMS.

Before an open release could even be considered, HPE would need to
see how they stand in that regard.

That's not just an academic question either as it has already
happened even with the paid-for commercial licences for VMS.

Does anyone else here remember the "fun" with Display Postscript ?

You want VMS on VAX ? Go and write your own compatible version of VMS and
include VAX as a target. That's more likely to happen than HPE freely
releasing VMS for VAX because of the issues HPE would have to deal with,
even if there was still a will within HPE to go through that process.

Simon.

PS: You want another example ? What about the open release of the
DEC PDP-11 operating systems ? A lot of community effort has gone
into trying to get HPE to do that and still nothing has happened.

-- 
Simon Clubley, clubley at remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP
Walking destinations on a map are further away than they appear.