Abd ulRahman Lomax wrote:
The plot thickens. Seems I have not been paying close enough attention to all that fine print.
From the DXP 2004 EULA:
12. NON-ASSIGNMENT
Without Altium's prior written consent, neither this License nor any interest herein or part hereof will be transferable or assignable by User, by operation of law or otherwise, without Altium's prior written consent, and including whether such transfer or assignment is by operation of law, agreement of merger, sale of assets or otherwise.
I am not a lawyer and I do not play one on TV or the internet, but from my understanding of law, the above is unenforceable. There are so many holes in it that it is laughable. So if you merge with any other company, all your licenses go away? If you go into bankruptcy the bankruptcy court can not sell the assets? If a company is sold, all its licenses become invalid? This means that a company can not list the Altium licenses among its assets because they can not be sold.
I am not familiar with the accounting for big companies, but I do know that as a self employed person if I buy a $10,000 software, there is no way the IRS (the US tax body) is going let me write it off (except under section 179 of the US tax code which makes certain one-time exceptions to the depreciation rules) and will want me to depreciate it. But how can I depreciate something that has a resale value (hence an asset value) of $0? An interesting accounting dilemma.
However, such a clause is good enough to intimidate a typical user and make them feel that they can not transfer a license. But once you consult a lawyer, you will realize that this is unenforceable and you are free to transfer the license and do what you want. Altium may not support the new owner (not that they support the current ones) and then you are looking at having to get a lawyer and sue them, but they know that that is unlikely to happen for just one individual. Now if there are several cases where Altium refuses support citing this clause and a class action lawyer gets on their case, they could be in trouble.
Hamid
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