Templot Club Archive 2007-2020
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posted: 9 Mar 2020 13:55 from: Martin Wynne
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A short while ago there was some mention here of using the free Delphi Community Edition instead of Lazarus for T3: topic 3324 - message 27710 At that time I downloaded and installed a copy of the Delphi Community Edition, but I have made no further use of it. I have today received a very stroppy email from Embarcadero reminding me of the licence terms for the Delphi Community Edition. I don't know if that has been sent to all users or only to me, but it's noticeable that it comes just 24 hours after I was searching the Embarcadero web site for old Delphi docs, see: topic 3607 - message 29183 I have now uninstalled the Delphi Community Edition from my system. If you downloaded it you may want to do the same. Did you also receive this email? Copied below. cheers, Martin. Dear Community Edition User, Embarcadero Technologies, Inc. (“Embarcadero”) holds the copyright for various software offerings, including, but not limited to, the Delphi Community Edition and the C++ Community Edition (collectively, “Software”). The scope of this letter is to remind you of the permitted usage of the Embarcadero Community Edition Software pursuant to the terms of the End User License Agreement (“EULA”). The Community Edition Software is an important mechanism to attract new developers into Embarcadero’s ecosystem and to encourage Delphi and C++ learning. To that end, the target users for the Community Edition Software are students, hobbyists, and early stage startups that meet the required threshold. Note that the usage of the Community Edition Software for any commercial activity is prohibited. While the Embarcadero Community Edition Software is freely available and offers powerful capabilities, Embarcadero, as the copyright owner, wants to ensure its usage is within the scope of its license agreement. We determined a number of abuse cases in the last twelve months that prompt us to take legal action in order to protect our intellectual property rights. The misuse of the Community Edition Software is a serious matter and the initiation of a legal action by Embarcadero may have a significant monetary impact on violators. Therefore, Embarcadero prepared the below list of cases, which reflects the NON-ACCEPTABLE usage of the Embarcadero Community Edition Software. The EULA clearly prohibits the below usage. 1. Community Edition Software SHOULD NOT be used as a trial - if the official trial period is too short you can speak with someone from the Embarcadero sales team or any authorized reseller and request an extension of your trial period. 2. Community Edition Software CANNOT be used for training purposes or by interns - – Embarcadero has a license option that specifically address this use case. You can find out more information about these licenses from Embarcadero sales team or its authorized resellers. 3. Personal use of the Community Edition Software at the office on a work machine IS NOT allowed – Embarcadero EULA is very clear that the Community Edition Software CANNOT be used in a work setting or on a work machine. You and your employer will be liable for the unauthorized use of the Community Edition Software 4. Community Edition Software CANNOT be used for Professional Services (even as a part time on the side) – Embarcadero has a limit of $5K in revenue for Community Edition Software usage and that limit can be easily reached with any professional consulting. Embarcadero offers a variety of license options that can meet your needs without exposing you and your customer to the risk of infringing Embarcadero’s copyright. 5. Community Edition Software CANNOT be used on a personal computer to work on projects for a company - If the company you work for does not qualify for the Community Edition Software use, then working on projects or files belonging to or for the benefit of the company (including projects for internal use) is a violation of the Embarcadero Community Edition Software usage and the company (i.e. your employer) is liable for such infringement. Embarcadero wants to remind you that the use of the Community Edition Software outside the scope of the EULA is a form of piracy and is illegal. Embarcadero takes the protection of its copyright very seriously and has a compliance and legal team constantly monitoring to ensure its intellectual property rights are not infringed. Upon detection of an unauthorized use, additional fees and penalties will be applied in order to mitigate the copyright infringement. Should you wish to contact Embarcadero to purchase a commercial version of the software, please contact compliance@embarcadero.com . Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me directly at compliance@embarcadero.com Thank you! David Sanchez Global Manager of License Compliance 10801-1 N. Mopac Expressway, Suite 100 | Austin, TX 78759 compliance@embarcadero.com |
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posted: 10 Mar 2020 19:11 from: DerekStuart
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Hello Martin If that is as a result of you looking for those documents, which you did in order to answer my questions, I regret any inconvenience this may have caused you. It's not inconceivable that if I can become proficient with the programme that I would buy a copy (work related), but if that's their attitude. Protection of copyright is reasonable; 'speaking' to people like that is not. Derek |
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posted: 10 Mar 2020 19:50 from: Martin Wynne
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DerekStuart wrote: If that is as a result of you looking for those documents, which you did in order to answer my questions, I regret any inconvenience this may have caused you.Hi Derek, No problem. I have now uninstalled the Delphi Community Edition -- having made no use of it at all. Presumably they think I am trading commercially, although it is now 9 years since I stopped doing that and made Templot free. As far as I'm concerned I am now just a hobbyist coder, like any other.  I think I had better try to find my original invoice for Delphi5, although it was 20 years ago. Hopefully my possession of the original docs and CD would be sufficient evidence that I've not been using a restricted magazine cover disk for all these years! cheers, Martin. |
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posted: 11 Mar 2020 00:40 from: Jim Guthrie
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DerekStuart wrote: Hello Martin Derek, I think that is a pretty standard response spelling out the restrictions on the use of the software. After all, you are getting the use of an application which could cost hundreds, maybe into four figures, for free and the company wants to avoid a free copy being used for commercial gain. They are making the free version available to hobbyists or students in the hope that they might use Delphi if they progressed into programming commercially. You can find similar restrictions on other free software like the hobbyist version of Fusion 360 3D CAD program. I can remember frequent suggestions on the old Borland Usenet groups many years ago that Borland should provide a cut down, free version to attract students and the official response was always negative. The Usenet groups have now gone, and the free version has appeared.  There was no free versions of programs available fifteen or so years ago. You had to pay, or you spent hours downloading a hacked copy of whatever from a Usenet group - all highly illegal. When I downloaded the Community version, I got a call from the Embarcadero UK re-seller a day or two later checking if I might want to buy a version. I explained that I was now long past doing any commercial programming and had only downloaded out of interest to see what the latest version looked like. They had obviously tracked me down since my previous versions of Delphi were all registered on the old Borland Developer site and I had bought my last version via the re-seller. If Martin had also registered his copy with Borland, that's probbaly how they found him. Jim. |
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posted: 11 Mar 2020 01:33 from: Martin Wynne
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Jim Guthrie wrote:I think that is a pretty standard response spelling out the restrictions on the use of the software.Hi Jim, It's not a response in the sense that I was expecting to hear from them, it appeared out of the blue. It's several months since I downloaded the Community Edition. I agree with Derek that the tone is less than friendly -- I had no intention of buying the full version, but if I was thinking that way I would definitely have changed my mind now. There's a hint, if not an an outright accusation, that they think I have been using the Community Edition outside the licence terms. In fact I haven't used it at all, so the licence terms are academic. And I won't be, because I have now uninstalled it. I probably did register my Delphi5 with Borland 20 years ago -- before it became Inprise, and then CodeGear, and now Embarcadero. But I have had no contact with them since. I wasn't in any Usenet groups, but I think I was in a Delphi users' Yahoo group. cheers, Martin. |
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posted: 14 Mar 2020 15:07 from: DerekStuart
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Hello Jim/ Martin I'm not sure how they could make the connection between a search on their library and a registered copy as you don't have to log in to search- unless they're recording IP addresses, which is unlikely and in any case illegal. My desire to learn programming is partly out of personal interest and partly work driven. It is not at all impossible that if I can become proficient at it then I might well end up asking the company to buy a copy of a more advanced programme such as Delphi. At work our software requirements are quite limited, and the programmes we use are expensive (forced to pay monthly) and don't really match our requirements. I already have 90% of the knowledge I need for designing interfaces, thanks in no small way to Martin. My next step is to connect this to databases (SQL). That will be the hard part. Derek |
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posted: 14 Mar 2020 15:16 from: DerekStuart
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Jim, Sorry, I rather waffled off the point there and forgot the main point. My point is that as a prospective purchaser of Delphi, I am not too impressed with their email to Martin. It is all very well protecting one's copyright and I don't think Martin is objecting to that. But the tone of the email was pretty poor. I don't like dealing with companies like that. I am sure my one licence would not matter a jot to them, but why take that attitude with ANY customers? He could have written that email in a far more respectful tone and still made his point. Derek |
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