Ok, so there basically isn't a truly legit and ethical way to run it as a hobbyist. I have seen the PAKs on ebay and was pondering one. I have no plans for doing anything remotely commercial on any of the machines I have, and I am not planning a server farm either. Just a single machine for my own educational/fun purpose. But I totally understand what you are saying.
- Peter On Thu, Nov 27, 2025 at 12:31 PM Warner Losh via cctalk < [email protected]> wrote: > Even VMS 4 has license requirements. They just aren't enforced so people > run it. The copyright hasn't run yet, though. Some people think it's ok, > others do not. Maybe it's fair use for research purposes, maybe not. > > You can buy a PAK of ebay, or find bootleg PAKs online. That will let you > run the system. One can make a super weak case it's for education or > research purposes if the use is hobbiest in nature. Even that weak excuse > is out the window if you do anything commercial with it. Copyright law, > upon which licensing is based does have some exceptions, but they are quite > narrow and require competent legal advise to utilize. Especially since you > may be circumventing a protection device which has narrower exceptions than > plain fair use. The general consensus here and other dec related groups is > relying on such exceptions is too risky and it's morally wrong. > > But it's rather akin to finding car keys and taking the car they fit for a > ride. Sure, the car's owner hasn't been by in a decade or more. But > ownership hasn't lapsed and you are driving soneone else's property. There > are exceptions here too: if you needed to move it to protect it, for > example, you could. But you couldn't drive it cross country to do that. > Again, the exceptions are quite narrow and require competent legal advice. > Also, this is at best a weak analogy. > > So if you want to be completely legit, that's hard because you can't find > someone to take your money to transfer the license that backs the PAKs. > > It's effectively abandonware. The law doesn't give you a pass on that. > Enforcement actions are always a risk if you go down this path. The works > are owned, and we even know who the owners are, so they don't qualify even > as orphan works. And that's not to mention the ethical aspect. > > Warner > > On Thu, Nov 27, 2025, 9:52 AM Wayne S via cctalk <[email protected]> > wrote: > > > V5 introduced the license manager so anything after VMS V4.7 usually > > required a license PAK. > > > > > > > > Sent from my iPhone > > > > > On Nov 27, 2025, at 08:45, Peter Ekstrom via cctalk < > > [email protected]> wrote: > > > > > > Ok, started playing with the SIMH vax8600 simulator and OpenVMS 7.3 > > > Hobbyist. > > > I know they discontinued the hobbyist license program years ago, but > does > > > one actually need a license to run it? Or would an older version like > 5.x > > > or something be better? The OpenVMS community license is only for > Alpha, > > > Itanium and some x86_64 architectures so I'm sure that wouldn't work > in a > > > simulated VAX? > > > > > > - Peter > > >
