[TowerTalk] NEC4 server

[jimlux]

On 11/10/19 9:30 AM, Gary Johnson wrote:
> No, the code cannot be installed on a server. Here is a link to the EULA:
> 
> https://ipo.llnl.gov/content/assets/docs/technologies/nec.pdf <https://ipo.llnl.gov/content/assets/docs/technologies/nec.pdf>
> 
> a. LICENSEE may use the Software solely for LICENSEE’s own internal use;
> 
> b. LICENSEE may use the Software solely at the company address, LICENSEE may not transfer the Software without the prior written consent of LLNS; LICENSEE may not allow the Software to be accessed over the internet;
> 
> FWIW, I was in the same group as Gerry Burke at LLNL… He’s still working, as a retire.
> 

Yeah, I'll work with the licensing folks to clarify -

"internal use" might mean "you can only run it in your company"

  "allow software to be accessed over the internet" could mean the 
source code not the input/output files.

We did clarify at JPL that this doesn't mean "remote use of software via 
a VPN" - since we're running it on HPC systems at other facilities. - 
the link happens to be the internet.

Those aren't the clauses that are the most concerning, this is the one:
"LICENSEE may not rent, lease, loan, sublicense, distribute or transfer 
the Software to any third party, nor use the Software for commercial 
time-sharing or service bureau use. "

it's the "time-sharing or service bureau use"

For what it's worth, this wording is pretty old (these days, they'd say 
"cloud" or "SaaS" or some other trendy phrase) and it's clearly the 
standard LLNL boilerplate license, so they may be ok with what I want to 
do - if you don't ask, you won't get.



One thing that all FFRDCs are interested in doing is keeping track of 
how many copies have been distributed and are being used, because it 
goes to Congress in some report (NASA for JPL, DoE for LLNL) essentially 
to say "See what we're doing with taxpayer funds, there are XYZ thousand 
users of this software" -  We ran into this when we wanted multiple 
people at JPL to use it and LLNS wanted individual license agreements, 
and there was also some "acceptance of liability" words.