12 Feb
2004
12 Feb
'04
4:26 a.m.
On 12 Feb 2004, at 05:13, Antonio Carlini wrote:
I think the LMF stuff came about for a few reasons
that all coincided. The MicroVAX stuff meant smaller
departments would begin to buy machines and they would
be quite likely to be stuffed into a corner and not
managed much (if at all). The advent of the CDROM
for distribution meant that there was a need to
find a way to stop someone "accidentally" installing
everything under the Sun and then claiming that
they'd forgotten it was there and noone ever used
it anyway. As a security mechanism, LMF is pretty
poor. As a way of forcing you to go out of your
way to break the law in a way that it is hard to
later acknowledge your actions, it is pretty good!
LMF is the Licence Management Facility not the Licence Enforcement
Utility.
It was designed to allow customers to manage their licences but as you
point
out, if you "accidentally" installed licences you weren't entitled to,
DEC
could have used the LMF to point out the errors of your ways.
LMF is reasonably easy to circumvent but I'm not going to suggest
that you do, or help you do it.
Huw Davies | e-mail: Huw.Davies(a)kerberos.davies.net.au
Melbourne | "If soccer was meant to be played in the
Australia | air, the sky would be painted green"