Re: database engine

Craig, lhscmc@luxor.latrobe.edu.au (Craig Macbride) writes > >Again, this is a legal issue, not a technological one. > >You would need both licences. > > I often wonder why this sort of thing happens. Imagine if a wanted to use > the back end of my pen to make holes in plastic and the pen manufacturer > demanded that I pay a special "hole-making" licence! These sort of ridiculous Craig, I don't understand your analogy. The run time license, as I understand it is a less expensive license that is available to you so that you can distribute your software. As I recall, it has the engine and assorted utilities, and does not provide any development utility. Thus you can reduce your cost to your customer by paying the smaller cost that is charged for a run time. If your doing development at the site, then its not appropriate use of a run time. It's not like your using floppies for frisbees!(Some software I've received would work better as a frisbee) or pens for plastic pokers. > policies encourage people to cheat the system (understating their number of > users as well, of course) because the system is so unjustifiably silly. Why is it silly? Any Software professional puts a lot of time and effort into their product, why should someone receive the benefit of the programmers labor without paying for it. You may argue, "I don't like the price", but because someone doesn't like the price, that doesn't give them the right to steal from the owner. Heck, I don't like the price of the Oxford English Dictionary(OED), but it would be wrong to steal it from the bookstore. The Oxford English Dictionary is now distributed on floppies am I any less of a thief if I *just* copy a friends floppies in the comfort of my home home or office. I don't think so. Would I be any less of a thief if I were a distributor of the OED and I sold 50 copies but only told the company I sold 25. I don't think so. > > Maybe it's just that most database companies are American? > Americans seem > to love having enormous law suits and how better to create plenty of law Maybe its just that Software thiefs are international(equally as absurd of a stereotype I would say, --Yes I'm American). > suits than to have fee scales which offer large disincentives to people > who pay what they "should" pay and encourage people to "cheat"? I don't quite understand this statement. I parse your statement like this: Informix, because it provides database software for a fee that you can use on a system that provides a way for software to be copied, has compelled users to steal. Huh? Please help me understand. I don't think that is what you mean. That is all. Morris mbisted@ssf-sys.dhl.com ******************************************************************************* * My company and I have an agreement. They don't speak for me, and I * * don't speak for them * *******************************************************************************