FrameMaker License Issue

[Dan Emory <danemory@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The following phrase appears in Adobe's EULA (license agreement) for 
FrameMaker:

"this Agreement does not permit the Software to be Used in any
batch-oriented environment where such Use of the software is to produce
Postscript or PDF output from data originating from any other
application"

It is being argued by several people that this restriction would bar the 
use of database publishing products such as Miramo, UniMerge, and (perhaps) 
PatternStream from being used with FrameMaker. But it could also be argued 
then that it would also be a license violation to import SGML or XML 
document instances produced by, say, Adept, into FM7 or FM+SGML 6.0. Or, 
for that matter, to open in FrameMaker any file (graphic, Word file, ASCII 
text) produced by any other application. This is an absurd limitation that 
would never be upheld in a court of law.

This gives rise to the following questions:

1. Is this something new in the FM7 EULA, or did the clause also appear in 
earlier versions of FM?

2. What is the intent of the operative phrase "where such Use of the 
software is to produce Postscript or PDF output?"

3. What definition of a "batch-oriented environment" did Adobe intend to 
apply here? Here are three possible scenarios:

a. In a batch-mode operation, I pour "data" from some other application 
directly into FrameMaker, and then command FrameMaker to produce postscript 
or PDF output.

b. In a batch-mode operation, I use some other application to produce a 
data file, and, after the file is saved, I command FM to open that file and 
produce postscript or PDF output.

c. Same as a or b above, except the last step in the a or b batch mode 
operation is to save the resulting FM file without producing postscript or 
PDF output. Then, sometime later (1 second later, for instance), I launch 
batch mode operation c, which commands FrameMaker to produce postscript or 
PDF output from the FrameMaker files that were saved in the a or b batch 
mode operation. During the interval between the end of batch-mode operation 
a or b and the launch of batch-mode operation c, FrameMaker is not being 
used in a "batch-oriented environment".

CONCLUSIONS:

The process to which the license restriction applies always has two 
distinct actions, each of which, by itself, is entirely legal:

Action 1. It is always legal, even in a batch-oriented environment, to 
command FrameMaker to take data produced by another application and save 
the resulting data as a FrameMaker file.

Action 2. Is it always legal, even in a batch-oriented environment, to 
command FrameMaker to open FrameMaker files and output postscript or PDF.

If there is an interval (no matter how short) between the end of Action 1 
and the beginning of Action 2 during which FrameMaker is not operating in a 
batch-oriented environment, then Actions 1 and 2, when performed 
separately, are completely legal. Consequently, even if Adobe intended to 
bar the combination of Actions 1 and 2 in a single batch-mode operation, 
the separation of the two actions makes them completely legal, thus this 
license restriction is completely toothless.

====================
| Nullius in Verba |
====================
Dan Emory, Dan Emory & Associates
FrameMaker/FrameMaker+SGML Document Design & Database Publishing
Voice/Fax: 949-722-8971 E-Mail: danemory@primenet.com
177 Riverside Ave., STE F, #1151, Newport Beach, CA 92663
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