[cctalk] Re: VAX and OpenVMS

Even VMS 4 has license requirements. They just aren't enforced so people run it. The copyright hasn't run yet, though. Some people think it's ok, others do not. Maybe it's fair use for research purposes, maybe not. You can buy a PAK of ebay, or find bootleg PAKs online. That will let you run the system. One can make a super weak case it's for education or research purposes if the use is hobbiest in nature. Even that weak excuse is out the window if you do anything commercial with it. Copyright law, upon which licensing is based does have some exceptions, but they are quite narrow and require competent legal advise to utilize. Especially since you may be circumventing a protection device which has narrower exceptions than plain fair use. The general consensus here and other dec related groups is relying on such exceptions is too risky and it's morally wrong. But it's rather akin to finding car keys and taking the car they fit for a ride. Sure, the car's owner hasn't been by in a decade or more. But ownership hasn't lapsed and you are driving soneone else's property. There are exceptions here too: if you needed to move it to protect it, for example, you could. But you couldn't drive it cross country to do that. Again, the exceptions are quite narrow and require competent legal advice. Also, this is at best a weak analogy. So if you want to be completely legit, that's hard because you can't find someone to take your money to transfer the license that backs the PAKs. It's effectively abandonware. The law doesn't give you a pass on that. Enforcement actions are always a risk if you go down this path. The works are owned, and we even know who the owners are, so they don't qualify even as orphan works. And that's not to mention the ethical aspect. Warner On Thu, Nov 27, 2025, 9:52 AM Wayne S via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote: does 5.x Alpha, in a