From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.0 required=5.0 tests=MAILING_LIST_MULTI, RCVD_IN_DNSWL_NONE autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Received: (qmail 15445 invoked from network); 19 Sep 2020 19:43:35 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (45.79.103.53) by inbox.vuxu.org with ESMTPUTF8; 19 Sep 2020 19:43:35 -0000 Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id 4A99693D58; Sun, 20 Sep 2020 05:43:32 +1000 (AEST) Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5800993D33; Sun, 20 Sep 2020 05:42:49 +1000 (AEST) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id 0F1DB93D33; Sun, 20 Sep 2020 05:42:46 +1000 (AEST) Received: from hop.toad.com (75-101-100-43.dsl.static.fusionbroadband.com [75.101.100.43]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id F08CB93D06 for ; Sun, 20 Sep 2020 05:42:44 +1000 (AEST) Received: from hop.toad.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by hop.toad.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id 08JJgdm0032402; Sat, 19 Sep 2020 12:42:39 -0700 To: Clem Cole In-reply-to: References: Comments: In-reply-to Clem Cole message dated "Sat, 19 Sep 2020 13:45:31 -0400." Date: Sat, 19 Sep 2020 12:42:39 -0700 Message-ID: <32401.1600544559@hop.toad.com> From: John Gilmore Subject: Re: [TUHS] Unix on DEC AlphaServer 4000 X-BeenThere: tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.26 Precedence: list List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Cc: tuhs Errors-To: tuhs-bounces@minnie.tuhs.org Sender: "TUHS" Nelson H. F. Beebe wrote: > We ran DEC OSF/1 until the power supplies on our several Alpha systems > died, but it had an annual license fee, and the O/S shutdown when the > license expired. Clem Cole wrote: > The issue is license managers as Nelson says, but Internet search is your > friend *i.e.* different unlimited time styles license PAKs for Tru64 have > been reported to have been seen in the wild, however YMMV. License managers now count as DRM, under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (though no such laws had been passed when the license managers were first created). So: is it worth breaking the law in many countries, to maintain a historical curiosity? Personally, I would throw DRM-encrusted software, and the hardware that is dependent on it, into the dustbin of history. Its creators had fair warning that they were making their products unusable after they stopped caring to maintain them. They didn't care about their place in history, nor about their users. They did it anyway, for short-term profit and to harass those people foolish enough to be their customers. Their memes should not be passed to future generations. As Sir Walter Scott suggested in another context, they "doubly dying, shall go down, to the vile dust, from whence [they] sprung, unwept, unhonour'd, and unsung". John