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).

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?

This is just a hypothetical question of course.  I haven't found so much
as an HP calculator at any of our local yard sales.  Although, when my
former employer scrapped our old Series 58 systems, I did consider
bringing one home for the garage.  After some consideration, though, I
decided I'd rather stay married. :-)
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