>"This is not a “new” change for VFP 8.0. This has been in Microsoft EULAs (including Visual Basic/VC/Visual Studio/VFP) for many versions."

I just carefully re-read vfp7's EULA. As others have said, I think, there is nothing like what the vfp8 EULA contains in vfp7. As Al pointed out:

1) There *is* confusion, and much of it may be legal and/or sales related in nature. There may be major reluctance at MS to be forthright about this, due to the negative publicity. Whether it's a "testing the waters" EULA issue or a non-negotiable long-term plan, I don't know. Perhaps even MS is waiting on reactions. Either way, we don't know 100% whether this is a permanent EULA situation, AFAICS, no matter what is said by MS. MS didn't get to the top by being inflexible, right? - that was Apple :-)

2) I don't expect the VFP Fox team to be fully apprised of every MS sales-strategy detail, or always be able to answer legal questions.

3) I do expect answers on technical issues, such as whether the new EULA will be technically enforced. I do realize that's related to the legal issue, that "incidentally" spills over from MS to client license-managers like me.

But tech people should get permission from lawyers to at least be able to answer this question as a practical matter, with either a "yes" or "no" reply. If they don't, as a license manager kept in the dark, I'm simply not going to try to enforce anything beyond what is easily done (that is, people I work with closely enough to monitor), until I determine exactly how things *do* work.

4) At this point, I'm inclined to do this right now: rather than purchasing all my vfp8 copies (which will be about 50% Full, 50% upgrades due to specific needs & the new EULA). I may either wait entirely until this whole issue completely unfolds, or perhaps purchase 1 upgrade copy I can work with on a test machine while awaiting full resolution of all this. I will buy my copies as planned eventually, but this has become a real side-tracker and obstacle to planning MY legal stragegy - enforcing EULAs.

5) In summary, I want this issue cleared up! So I can go back to doing real technical work, not sort out legal issues. I think almost every vfp client and probably the VFP Team, as well, would agree on this. I'm not inclined to try to enforce a potentially very difficult EULA situation until I know what the heck is going on with all this, and where it is going.

Okay, SET VENT OFF.