Run-time licenses

[tjbretz]

We are looking to upgrade a Labview 5.1 Professional (with 5 run-time licenses) to 7.0. Our understanding is that all 5 run-times must run the same executable built from the Application Builder. Is this true or can we have different run-time executables?

Thanks,
Tim Bretz

[Dennis_Knutson]

I'm a little unsure about what you mean by run-time licenses. Typically, what you have is a license for a development system and when you build an application, you can distribute a run-time engine with each application that you build and you can do this as many times as you want. There are only a few license restrictions and these are associated usually with some of the add-on toolkits. If you upgrade your single LabVIEW 5.1 development license to 7.0, any new applications you build will require a 7.0 run-time engine. Older executables will still require the 5.1 run-time unless you choose to upgrade those in LabVIEW 7. If you keep old executables, you are permitted to keep the old run-time engines (in fact, I interpret the licensing to mean that you can keep
the old development systems as well). You might want to contact NI directly as they are the best source of information regarding license issues.

[tjbretz]

I do not have a copy of the license documentation, but what I was told is that we have 5 run-times to distribute and that each of these must execute the same executable.

Thanks for the help!
Tim B.

[RobCole]

I remember the 5.1 licensing. It used to be that you could distribute an EXE that you made with LV5.1 to 6 (I remember the number 6) other computers, but you could distribute the EXE to as many computers as you had NI cards in (and only NI DAQ, GPIB, etc. cards - no other vendors). We thought that was pretty bad. You had to purchase the right to distribute wider.

LV7.0 (and 6.0 and 6.1) does not have that limitation. You can distribute your EXE files as far as you want. Much more reasonable policy. You just can not distribute LabVIEW itself (of course). But since the LabVIEW run-time engine is free, that's not a problem.

Rob

[Dennis_Knutson]

This is from the LV 5.1 license agreement:

"7. DISTRIBUTION RIGHTS.

(A) Generally. For SOFTWARE not listed in 7(B) below, you may distribute your application (.exe, .dll, html, .alx, etc.) created with such SOFTWARE and/or utilizing relevant configuration utility executables (i.e., NI-DAQ Utility, VXIEdit, VXItedit, etc.) that are part of such SOFTWARE without royalties or fees to NI, provided that:

(1) your application is not itself a general-purpose development tool, function library, or component for data acquisition or instrument control operations, user interface operations (graphs, strip charts, gauges, meters, etc.), analysis routines, or National Instruments TestStand( sequence files;

(2) you include the following copyright notice, either on-screen in your application's About Box or in your application's written documentation, with each distributed copy of your application: "Copyright (c)[yr] National Instruments Corporation. All Rights Reserved";

(3) you do not use NI's name, logo, or trademarks to market your software program without NI's express prior written permission;

(4) you agree to indemnify, hold harmless, and defend NI (including its officers, directors, employees, and agents) and its suppliers from and against any claims or lawsuits, including attorney's fees, that arise or result from the use or distribution of your application; and

(5) if you are using Microsoft SDK files or other third party files, you must conform to the requirements described in the SDKLIC.TXT or the other applicable files.

(B) Run-Time License Required. If the SOFTWARE is National Instruments SQL Toolkit, National Instruments IMAQ(TM) Vision, National Instruments TestStand(TM), National Instruments Test Executive, National Instruments Lookout(TM), or such other software product as NI may from time to time designate as requiring a separate run-time license for application execution, you may not distribute applications (.exe, .dll, html, .alx, etc.) created with (or if applicable, utilizing) such SOFTWARE unless: (1) the end-user of the application has acquired a separate run-time license from National Instruments for the applicable SOFTWARE for each computer on which the application is used and (2) you comply with the provisions of 7(A)(1), (2), (3), (4) and (5) above. Please contact NI or, if applicable, the NI subsidiary serving your country for more information regarding the current list of software requiring separate run-time licenses for application distribution and obtaining applicable run-time licenses."

It was my belief that the only restriction on distribution was the run-time licenses mentioned in 5B above and not for the LabVIEW run-time. I certainly distributed a lot of different executables with my single LV license. The LV 5.1 run-time engine is available for download so I don't see where there are any restrictions but then I'm not a lawyer. There was a rather lengthy discussion on info-labview a couple of months back regarding the licensing of LV 7 executables and VISA so you might want to check that out.

[Tom_Hawkins]

I'm not sure where you got that from - I don't remember any such limitation on distributing executables when I bought LV5.1 (and I did check!)

[RobCole]

We had meetings about this. It was in the package that we got that was marked "Only for distribution in Canada." Maybe their lawyer were working overtime figuring what the licensing should be for different countries - I don't know. But we definitely had a couple of meetings to discuss this. I don't have that package anymore, but I'll see what I can find.

Rob

[JoshuaP]

Here is an update on the NI-VISA License Requirements.