FWIW - Here is an excellent reply I recently received.  (Since it was
not originally sent to the list, I've omitted the sender info.)

~~~~~~

Hi Curtis,
I'll take a swing at this.... The following is only my opinion but it
pretty
much fits the rules.
>Okay, here's a hypothetical question, and please forgive me if it's been
>covered before.
>
>Let's say some company is getting rid of an HP3000, and decides, out of
>the kindness of their hearts, to just give it to you.  (I said it was
>"hypothetical" didn't I?  ;)


Realistically, this happens all the time. Companies have fully
depreciated capital equipment (like computers) and to try to sell
something of little value (an HP3000 Series 922 is worth about $1500)
ends up costing them a big tax hit. Its cheaper to scrap it or give it
away.

>
>Now you have an HP3000 of your very own, and you decide you're going to
>put it in the basement, and blow all your "I have an NT/Linux/OS2 file
>server in my basement" friends away the next time you have them over.
>
>You decide you aren't going to buy ANY support whatsoever -- maybe
>you're a closet CE, or maybe the box is old enough that you just decide
>to use it until it dies -- after all it was free.  (Besides, if your
>wife thought $400 for a new UW SCSI card was bad, wait until she sees an
>uplift charge.)
>
>You also decide to not have ANY HP products -- whatever comes stock with
>5.5 is what you'll use, figuring that you'll just use all the freeware
>that has been ported to the OS within the last few years.  (And you have
>this dream of porting the first XFREE86 server code to MPE/iX...)
>
>So, with NO HP support, and NO HP products, you still want to run an
>HP-blessed and otherwise legitimate "stock" MPE/iX system, but you don't
>know what you would have to pay for.  A Right-to-Use License?  A
>Right-to-Copy license?  Nothing?  (Hey, we're still talking
>"hypothetical" here.)
>

Let's say this system was under HP software support until recently...
say in the last 6 months or so and the person who gave this system to
you had a copy of their old HP support agreement and gave you a copy.
This copy would contain the name of the company (or organization) that
owned it, the "system handle", the "support agreement number", the "HP
contracts administrator" name and phone number, and it would also list
the software licensed to that company.

There are 3 kinds of software on an HP3000. HP software that is
purchased from HP and can be used with no additional charge, HP software
that is purchased from HP and can be used as long as you pay a
"license-to-use" fee each month and 3rd party software which HP doesn't
care about.
>
>So what exactly would you need to pay for?
>
>

IF you wanted to stay legal you would contact the HP Contract
Administrator shown on the bottom of the support agreement and tell them
you want the software license transferred to your name (a rep from the
company you got it from may have to agree that it's ok). You would
receive a letter from HP saying the s/w was yours to use. There is a
nominal fee (or not so nominal... to be decided by your wife :-)
associated with this... kind of like getting a title for a car
transferred. When you've done that you're legal to use any of the HP s/w
on the system that doesn't require a monthly "license-to-use" fee. If
you want to use those (Image/SQL, Allbase/SQL etc) you have to maintain
at least BasicLine level software support with HP. Of course, with
BasicLine you'll also get new releases of the operating system and Doc
updates. BasicLine for... uh.. let's say a series 922 with a 20 user
license would run you a few hundred bucks a month... NOT so nominal!

<snip>

Thanks!