18 Nov
2003
18 Nov
'03
1:48 a.m.
On Tue, Nov 18, 2003 at 08:29:39AM -0600, Bob Brown wrote:
Normally, you cannot apply transitivity rules (if A->B and B->C then A-C) here;
the permission of DEC to copy obsolete manuals and the VMS hobbyist license
has nothing to do with HPQ. The DEC right-to-copy is older than the COMPAQ-DEC
merger.
However, as with RTE-6/VM (see other thread) the release note at Interex
contains the following sentence:
"This is the full RTE_6 release 6.2 from Hewlett-Packard as part of
HP's commitment to put obsolete software into the public domain."
A similar commitment is IIRC the basis for the permissions to scan publish
obsolete software documents for old handheld calculators, as it is done
on www.hpmuseum.org and www.hp41.org, for instance (AFAIK, this is no special
deal between HP and the website owners).
So it might be possible to refer to that commitment in order to get HP
to release TSB to the public domain completely. As RTE is newer than TSB
(IIRC), I think chances are good for that. The responsible person behind
the RTE release is Don Pottenger @ hp.com (insert dot between name parts),
and when I last e-mailed him, he was quite friendly and helpful. Maybe he
has the right contact to get this going.
Holger
I'm trying to get HP to allow a hobby use open license, but until then the
package is available only on an as needed basis.
What can we do to help this effort?
Since hp owns compaq which owns dec, and the vms hobbyist program
continues, this provides a possible model for hp. In this case, the
justification is even easier: The HP2000 is no longer strategic to
their organization, so they don't stand to lose anything by providing
an HP2000 hobbyist license (and they certainly gain goodwill).