distribution of Access files

[Catherine Jones]

Hi

We are developing an application in which we are planning to use

MSAccess as a database. I have MSAccess 2000 installed on my development

machines. Its product ID is 50083-053-4473424-02634.

I have several queries that I would like to ask you regarding licensing of

..mdb files.

1) Once the application is developed and ready to use, We would sell it to

our client. We will provide .mdb files to our client which contains the

database of the application. i.e our installer would install/copy the .mdb

files in the client's machine where the software is being installed. That

Machine(Target Machine or client's machine) may have or may not have

MSAccess installed in it.

Do we need to buy/have a license to distribute .mdb file or Can we

simply distribute .mdb files with our software/application ?

If we will need to buy a license for this, Whats the procedure for that

and How much would that cost ?

Once we buy the license, Can we freely distribute it in as many machine

as we want ? or does it have any restriction ?

2) Our installer would also install a Microsoft access driver onto the

client's machine to access the database. Can we distribute the Microsoft

driver for free with our application or Do we need to buy a license for

distributing the driver ?

If we will need to buy a license for this, Whats the procedure for that

and How much would that cost ?

Once we buy the license, Can we freely distribute it in as many machine

as we want or does it have any restriction ?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Douglas J. Steele]

If your application requires the use of any of the features of Access (i.e.
forms, reports, user-defined functions, etc), your users will all require
that Access be installed. Office 2000 Developer contained a royalty-free
run-time version of Access that you could distribute along with your
application so that users who didn't already have Access would be able to
use your application. Unfortunately, Microsoft no longer sells previous
versions of Access. (and you must have the same run-time version as your
application was created using)

One possibility is to check out sites that specialize in old software
products, such as http://www.emsps.com/oldtools/ or
http://recycledsoftware.com/

Another is to look at someplace like eBay to see whether anyone's trying to
see their old versions (Note, though, that products purchased this way
aren't always legal...)

If all you're doing is storing data in the Jet database and working with
that data in some other way (say a VB program, or through ODBC), then no
license is required. Distributing MDAC 2.5 will give them the necessary
drivers to be able to use the database (or you can distribute a newer
version of MDAC, along with the Jet service pack). See
http://msdn.microsoft.com/downloads/list/dataaccess.asp for details (and the
downloads)

 

[Arvin Meyer]

You may distribute mdb files without any special license (the same as
distributing .doc or .xls files) The Access executable files may only be
distributed with a runtime license available in the Microsoft Office
Developer's kit (MOD) which may not be still available (try eBay) for Access
2000. Failing that, you will need full versions of Access or Office
Professional on each machine.

Keep in mind that the runtime version of Access is crippled in many features
that you will need to rebuild in your application (like Filter By Form) if
you use these features.
--
Arvin Meyer, MCP, MVP
Microsoft Access
Free Access downloads:
http://www.datastrat.com
http://www.mvps.org/access

 

[Catherine Jones]

Thank you very much Sir!

If your application requires the use of any of the features of Access (i.e.
forms, reports, user-defined functions, etc), your users will all require
that Access be installed. Office 2000 Developer contained a royalty-free
run-time version of Access that you could distribute along with your
application so that users who didn't already have Access would be able to
use your application. Unfortunately, Microsoft no longer sells previous
versions of Access. (and you must have the same run-time version as your
application was created using)

One possibility is to check out sites that specialize in old software
products, such as http://www.emsps.com/oldtools/ or
http://recycledsoftware.com/

Another is to look at someplace like eBay to see whether anyone's trying to
see their old versions (Note, though, that products purchased this way
aren't always legal...)

If all you're doing is storing data in the Jet database and working with
that data in some other way (say a VB program, or through ODBC), then no
license is required. Distributing MDAC 2.5 will give them the necessary
drivers to be able to use the database (or you can distribute a newer
version of MDAC, along with the Jet service pack). See
http://msdn.microsoft.com/downloads/list/dataaccess.asp for details (and the
downloads)

 

[dbracey]

As you have stated your client may or may not have the software. Yo
have a couple of options as I see it, others may have varied input o
the subject.

You could just tell your client that they will need to purchase th
Access 2k software, although I wouldn't recommend this method.

What I would do in this situation is purchase a license for eac
application, that you will be selling. You will have to contac
Microsoft for pricing, I'm quite confident they don't publish tha
information and it's probably specific to your needs. However, you ma
not even need to purchase licenses as they may have released it as
freeware by now. (Not sure though.)
If your going to use this method, I would recommend writing a
auto-installer software. You can include this on the package that ha
the .mdb files and Access 2k. It makes things user friendly. I wrote
program like this that auto-installed powerpoint viewer so people coul
view a presentation I wrote without having to be a tech person.


Hope this helps, let me know if I can be of further assistance