I am not a lawyer - and it is my understanding that the OpenVMS Hobbyist 
license allows you to run the current/latest version (7.3 for VAX) and all 
earlier versions.  I've never had a problem using their PAKs with 6.2.  

The 'termination date' will interact with LMS and the license won't work.  
There is a checksum to keep you from just changing the date string.  The 
OpenVMS Hobbyist license is so easy to acquire, if you're not using it for 
commercial use just go get one.  :-)  -- Ian 
________________________________________
From: [email protected] [[email protected]] On Behalf 
Of Dan Gahlinger [[email protected]]
Sent: Friday, October 07, 2011 10:04 AM
To: [email protected]; [email protected]
Subject: Re: [Simh] OT: VMS licensing

As far as I know,

the license is not specific to the version of vms from what I've used.
That is the same license on 5.3 has worked with 7.2 and vice-versa.

transfer-ability might be iffy depending on the contracts, not sure on that one,
the official authority on that would be HP now.

I bought a vax off ebay and it came with licenses and the official paper 
documents,
including the sales invoices, contracts and everything, which the seller 
transferred to me.

I'm not sure HP cares about old vms 5.3 stuff or older (or maybe they do), but 
it's surprising to see them
trying to sell the media (CD) for the old VMS for like $4 grand!
not for a license, not for anything, just the damn media!

So even if you own an old vax like I do, and have the license, and the software 
is on it,
if I wanted a replacement CD, HP wants me to pay them $4,000 ... that's just 
crazy.
of course the old support contracts and stuff have long expired.

Also note many licenses have a "termination" date, and you might not be able to 
freely
transfer them from the vax to simh, etc - another thing for HP to take care of.

so while it's physically possible to use an old license with simh (barring 
termination dates),
it might not be entirely legal to do so...

Dan.

> Date: Fri, 7 Oct 2011 06:57:23 -1000
> From: [email protected]
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: [Simh] OT: VMS licensing
>
> Off-Topic but this seems like a good pool of people to ask.
> I hope its acceptable use.
>
> I'm looking for information on licensing VAX/VMS.
> Would it be possible to get a legal license to VMS 5.3?
> Are licenses tied to a particular machine or a particular
> time frame? If someone was selling an old VAX that
> ran VMS 5.3, would the license still be valid for that machine
> today? Would it still be valid after the sale?
> Would it be transferable to other hardware or even a simulator?
>
> --
> Tim Newsham | www.thenewsh.com/~newsham | thenewsh.blogspot.com
> _______________________________________________
> Simh mailing list
> [email protected]
> http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/mailman/listinfo/simh
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