Tracy writes:
> How can I see the actual meaning of our HP licenses?

This is an excellent question as I really have no idea how to find out what
the actual license for MPE is.  There's nothing that comes with the software
(that I can recall), there's no click-through license when you install it,
and no license file on the system anywhere.  One version or another of HP's
"standard software license terms" are occasionally referred to (usually by
reference) on the back of POs and things, but actually *finding* the terms
seems to be problematic and they often seem to not make sense in some cases
when you try to apply them to MPE.  If you want to know what license
applies/applied to some software you got years ago I have no idea what to
suggest.

If anyone ever had to test this stuff in court I think HP could be in a lot
of trouble.

> I have certificates for
> Software Product: 36920A Description: NS3000/XL    Options: OGY UCY
>                   31500A              Cobol II/XL           OG2 310
>                   36923A              40 user license       UCY
>                   35136A              ????                  ???
>                   32344A              NS/3000               310
>                   51453B              MPE/iX Media          OD1
> 240 910 AAH
> ABA
>
> and am clueless re their real meaning.

I seem to recall that in HP's switch to draconian software license transfer
requirements that they explicitly stated that these certificates have
ABSOLUTELY NO MEANING AT ALL no matter what you might think by reading them.

Clearly the answer to the question from HP's point of view is "the license
terms are whatever we say they are on any particular day".  And in any case
of conflict HP is right and you have no rights whatsoever.  When asking
questions of HP's contracts people about really simple license questions
(how many licenses do I have, what do they cover, etc.), they often respond
by first pointing out that "people have gone to jail for not following our
procedures" or "you can go to jail if you power on a machine for which we
don't yet agree that you have a license".  We've had more than one (big!)
customer get royally pissed at HP by seemingly being accused of being a
criminal and threatened with arrest as a result of even the most simple
questions when trying to understand their own (perfectly legitimate, fully
paid up, on HP support) licensing!

G.

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