Sorry, I can't kill this now, but this was meant for Mark, not Victor.

Are you suggesting then that work around technical limitations in the software and reverse engineer, decompile or disassemble the software mean exactly the same thing? If that's the case, why say it twice (with one of those times being extremely obtuse). If not, then how do you reconcile work around technical limitations in the software with hacking the exe or dll? This EULA is written for developers, and I'd say that pretty much all developers use the words 'work around' to mean the same thing, and it doesn't mean 'hacking the software'. Why would MS use that wording in such an unusual way?

Now, I agree that this probably doesn't really mean that I'm prohibited from working around the 2 gig table limitation by using SQL server as a back end, but still, the wording seems to say I am (provided that's really one of the reasons I'm doing it).

It's too bad lawyers can't ever seem to say what they actually intend.

>>A recent thread regarding the VFP9 EULA is generating a lot of heat in the Chatter category here lately. The following response is what I posted to that thread today. However, I wanted this to stand out more than just some other reply to that tedious thread.
>>
>>OK, let's look at this rationally. My original reply poked fun at this, and I think we need to look at this at the proper angle. First, here is the part of the EULA in question:
>>
>>4. SCOPE OF LICENSE. The software is licensed, not sold. This agreement only gives you some rights to use the software. Microsoft reserves all other rights. Unless applicable law gives you more rights despite this limitation, you may use the software only as expressly permitted in this agreement. The software is engineered to allow you to use it in certain ways. You must comply with these technical limitations. For more information about them, see the software documentation. You may not:
>>
>>* work around technical limitations in the software,
>>
>>* reverse engineer, decompile or disassemble the software, except and only to the extent that applicable law expressly permits, despite this limitation,
>>
>>* make more copies of the software than specified in this agreement or allowed by applicable law, despite this limitation,
>>
>>* publish the software for others to copy,
>>
>>* rent, lease or lend it, or
>>
>>* use it for commercial software hosting services.
>>
>>First, and foremost, "the software" is for the most part going to be the VFP executables and DLLS. It is NOT the applications and executables YOU develop using VFP. Looking at the entire context of:
>>
>>You may not:
>>
>>work around technical limitations in the software,
>>
>>reverse engineer, decompile or disassemble the software, except and only to the extent that applicable law expressly permits, despite this limitation
>>
>>it is talking about hacking into the VFP EXE and DLLs. Notice that I have bolded the word LIMITATION in both of those statements.
>>
>>In short, this is a NON-ISSUE.
>
>Can't run it on anything but windows.
>What if I WANT to edit one of those .DLL's on my machine? What if I find a fix for the data-session window refresh problem? hmmmmm?