Bryan Greenberg wrote:
>
> Buz writes (in response to Tony F and others):
>
> >If I bought a copy of MPE/iX second hand, do I
> >own it or is it still an extended "lease"?
>
> You never "own" it.  When you "buy" MPE from HP you have only purchase
> a license to use the software.  Under most software license agreements
> you may not modify and then resell the software.  Some license
> agreements even limit the transfer of the license.  Just because you
> may have (in your opinion) added value to an existing product doesn't
> mean you now own the rights to that product (see section of license on
> derivative works).

Wayne Brown then comments:

>OK, here's something I've wondered about for a while.  Suppose I'm
>strolling through the neighborhood, and find a yard sale with a Series
>48, a printer, a tape drive, a couple of disk drives, and a box full of
>MPE V tapes.  (OK, so it would have to be a pretty strange
neighborhood.
>:-)  Now suppose I buy the whole outfit for $50, take it home and set
it
>up in my guest room.  What are my legal responsibilities?  I have no
>idea who the original licensee was.  The system may have gone through a
>dozen owners before coming to me.  Do I even have a legal right to
>operate the system?  Maybe I've never heard of an HP3000 before and
know
>nothing about them (or HP's license agreements.)  If I dig into the
>system and start trying to figure out how it works, am I liable to
>penalties for reverse engineering?

It is the sellers responsibility to transfer all hardware, software,
and license material according to the terms of the license.  Most
licenses require the transfer of all materials.  This brings up an
interesting point regarding backups.  Lets say I am running on an
AS/400 (egads!) and I decide to move up to an HP3000.  I get the HP3000
in, do my porting, run the systems in parallel for a while, and then do
my final cut over to the HP3000.  I take one last backup of the AS/400.
 Being a conscientious employee I make sure it's a full system backup.
After sending the tape to our underground storage facility I call our
local hardware reseller to get rid of the AS/400.  Part of the AS/400
license agreement requires the destruction of all backup copies of the
operating system.  I've just violated the terms of my license agreement
with IBM.  An interesting dilemma, isn't it?

Most companies are only going to start crying foul if the violation of
the license agreement is so you either don't have to pay money for the
software or you intend on profiting from the resale of said
software/hardware.  Having an archived copy of the operating system on
a backup tape for a system you no longer own violates the letter of the
license but not the spirit.  If you are fortunate enough to stumble
upon a Series 48 (for example) and have no intention of reselling it
for a profit I don't think any harm has been done.  Maybe Borland was
onto something with their "Book License".

Bryan