Well, I'm certainly not an attorney either.. but I did sleep in a Holiday
Inn Express.... oops.. wrong line....
No, but I did teach the IBM classes that trained the resellers on the
P/390. R/390 and Integrated Server. These systems were somewhat special
in that they utilized a special license, the ESL. (Generally called the
Entry Systems License.). This is/was a OTC (one time charge) license, so
a customer could "buy" a license and use it forever with no further
payments to IBM. However, there were/are some significant restrictions on
the ESL.
- It could not be upgraded: if you grew out of the P/390, the cost of
the ESL could not be 'applied' toward another license.
- It was restricted to 'qualifying' machines: P/390, R/390, Integrated
Server, and more lately, appropriately configured FLEX-ES machines.
- It is non-transferrable. The license could not be transferred to
another 'entity'. It could be "redesignted" to a different but qualifying
machine in the same enterprise, but it cannot transferred to a separate
company/person.
So, based on my meager understanding of these issues (many nights in
Holiday Inn Express rooms not withstanding) if someone buys a P/390 from
another person/company, the S/390 software that was licensed to that P/390
cannot be (legally) transferred or moved with the machine. A fresh ESL
license must be obtained from IBM. And,by the way, IBM withdrew the ESL
this past January 1, so you cannot get any new ESL licenses.
C. M. (Mike) Hammock
Sr. Technical Support
zFrame & IBM zSeries Solutions
(404) 643-3258
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Alan Altmark
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]
ibm.com> To
Sent by: The IBM [email protected]
z/VM Operating cc
System
<[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject
ARK.EDU> Re: Question re: Hercules
10/05/2006 06:58
PM
Please respond to
The IBM z/VM
Operating System
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]
ARK.EDU>
On Thursday, 10/05/2006 at 05:15 EST, Dave de Noronha
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I have just obtained a P390 and a copy of z/VM 3.1 from a company that
> purchased the licence a long time ago. As I now own the licence and it
is
> now unsupported can I run it on Hercules ?
** Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, though I have watched a lot of lawyers
on TV. But I don't think that counts. **
No, and I'm sorry to say that I don't believe you aren't licensed to run
it on the P390, either. z/VM 3.1 is licensed under the terms of the IBM
Customer Agreement (ICA) and is non-transferrable. "A long time ago"
doesn't matter.
If the company you got the P390 and software from did not notify IBM that
they were discontinuing its use, they are still getting billed and you are
running it as *their* agent. Their license with IBM makes them
responsible for what you do with the software. If they *did* notify IBM,
then they were supposed to destroy it, not give it away (this is in the
license). When an ICA license is discontinued, your rights to use the
product are terminated.
z/VM V4 and V5 are licensed under different terms and conditions (IPLA,
the International Program License Agreement) that do allow a transfer of
your Proof of Entitlement to a 3rd party as long as a Service and Support
agreement is *not* in effect. Unlike ICA, you can continue to run the
product forever as long as you don't transfer it to someone else, and you
don't owe us additional money unless you add another CPU. If you transfer
it to someone else, *they* get to run it forever and you have to stop.
This really gets into some legal issues that can't be readily resolved
here in the list and I'm not qualified (or allowed) to give you legal
advice. I just read the license agreements and the above is an unofficial
interpretation of what I read. You can read them, too, at
http://www-304.ibm.com/jct03004c/businesscenter/cpe/download0/21508/ica.pdf
.
Note that this is for the United States only. I don't know where the
country-specific ICAs are located.
Anyone interested in the IPLA agreements (base and product-specific
Licence Information Documents) can read those at
http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf. Country-specific
differences are included.
They aren't particularly long, nor are they written in legalese.
Alan Altmark
Speaking for himself
