12 Sep
2000
12 Sep
'00
12:11 p.m.
Allison wrote:
From: John Allain
<John.Allain(a)donnelley.infousa.com>
I think the real question that was asked might be the following. For
example I might have an old MicroVAX II running some ancient, but mission
critical app. Now suppose the company that wrote this app is no longer in
business, and there is quite literally no source for thier software. It
wasn't resold it just vanished. Now further suppose that they had issued a
license PAK based on the hardware ID of that MV2 you've been running the app
on.
What happens if that MV2 CPU board dies?
On a Sparc (which was brought up in I believe the original question), it's
possible to take a new system and change its hardware ID to match that of
the original system. Is there any way to do this on a VAX, or are you does
your business now go under because you can no longer run this app.
Another example would be what if I want to move this app from a MV2 to say a
VAXstation 4000/VLC as I've got space problems and I want it to run faster.
Of course this example is of questionable legality since you're licensed to
run this app on a MV2. However, the first example should be perfectly legal
and something you'd want to be able to do.
Zane
The HWID I speak of is a Unique ID per individual
CPU.
True. And it identifies the basic hardware and CPU.
Think relicence.
Keep in mind the basic "kits" carry no license or other
machine locked stuff. The license is applied during or
after the install. Even then I've built and installed systems
on my MVII and then carried the media to the MV2000
as both bootable and complete (even licensed if that
is within the written license terms). That was how we
cloned VMS sustems at DEC as it was faster than
using TK50 tapes.