|
I too have found the new license agreement onerous and spoke to Insightful to no avail. In the past I have loaded SPlus on my desktop at work and my laptop. I never used the two computers at the same time, I do not allow other people to use my version of Splus. It was important for me to be able to use SPlus at work, home, or on the road. Insightful told me that I was in violation of the 6.x license agreement, that I should only have loaded SPlus on a single machine. The said that the new online license verification process for version 7.x which prevents loading the product on multiple machines was done to protect their intellectual property. I tried to convince Insightful that their new policy was self-defeating. Academics like me do not have unlimited funds. We can not afford to purchase multiple licenses (even at a discount). I tried to convince them that R was nipping at their heels (as evidenced by number of contributions to the SPlus vs. R list servers) and that they needed to be flexible. Needless to say, I lost the argument. I suspect that this will be the last year that I renew my SPlus license and will move entirely to R. I currently use R on my laptop and also on a Linux workstation. It appears that Insightful has not learned the lesson of the Sony Betamax or Apple Macintosh. Too bad! They have a good product that will succumb to R.
John
John Sorkin M.D., Ph.D.
Chief, Biostatistics and Informatics
Baltimore VA Medical Center GRECC and
University of Maryland School of Medicine Claude Pepper OAIC
University of Maryland School of Medicine
Division of Gerontology
Baltimore VA Medical Center
10 North Greene Street
GRECC (BT/18/GR)
Baltimore, MD 21201-1524
I have recently voiced some concerns to Insightful about the new licensing
agreement that a user explicitly agrees to when (s)he installs the
software. I am a long-time user of the product who has off-and-on had to
ask "why not go with R"? I have typically opted for SPLUS but in
considering the move from 6.1 to 7.0, I found myself having strengthened
concerns based on what is listed below. My wish is either for suggestions
for creative workarounds consistent with the new contract or for user
comments that may move the company from its position.
1. According to the new licensing scheme, a colleague cannot use the
product on my machine while I am not using it. I was on vacation for a
week or so and had a colleague run my models for the daily reports (on
6.2). Acorrding to what Insightful tells me in response to a query on
this, this would be illegal under the new contract ! Their claim is that
the new product is tied down to ONE person and ONE machine.
2. Other users would have to _agree in writing_ to use the product.
Insightful tells me that they would not, although I do not see how this
could be from the relevant language (included at the end). That being said,
point 1 seems to override point 2 - so I am baffled.
3. By the definition of a session, the agreement prohibits the following:
- Excel launching a session of SPLUS through the OLE interactivity
described in versions 6.x. This is one of the most serious shortcomings
for financial environments where most companies use Excel. If SPLUS is to
break into that area, Excel interactivity should be supported, not
eliminated by contract language.
- A html document doing the same. Although of lesser interest, and my
concern clearly not being in creating web-interfaces to SPLUS for the WWW,
I would like to be able to create a report with automated links to SPLUS,
one that colleagues could see every morning. While such 'users' would not
have access to SPLUS interactively, they would be able to change some
parameters on the web page (e.g. grouping criteria or length of history or
size of a time series window) to be able to view the report in a more
customized way.
4. The new license has removed the ability from the basic package to run
batch jobs. Version 6.x had this facility. Under the new scheme, if I
wanted to prepare an early morning report, I'd have to come in earlier -
another reason to move some of the functionality to Excel or R or ...
Relevant contract language:
"Authorized User: An employee, authorized agent or contractor of Licensee
who uses the Software solely in connection with the business activities of
the Licensee and who is aware of these terms and the terms of the Packing
List and who is bound by such terms. Any such agent or contractor MUST
AGREE IN WRITING to be bound by such terms, for the benefit of Insightful.
"
"(d) Sessions. Except as permitted under a Production Server License or
Production Session License, no license is granted for any Authorized User
to initiate a Session by any means other than direct human interaction
between the licensed Authorized User and the Software. This includes, but
is not limited to, initiating a Session via a Web page or other Web-based
interface; launching batch-mode Sessions with automated schedulers such as
"cron"; and initiation of Sessions by remote third-party client/server
applications."
I hope that Insightful will change some of its contract language. For the
moment, having had their confirmation on my points above, I refrain from
switching to version 7.0 as I see it as a serious step down in my case.
Regards,
Yannis Tzamouranis
--------------------------------------------------------------------
This message was distributed by s-news@lists.biostat.wustl.edu. To
unsubscribe send e-mail to s-news-request@lists.biostat.wustl.edu with
the BODY of the message: unsubscribe s-news
|