Commercial Release Rules

[Peter Anthony]

I'm developing a product I eventual plan to sell commercially. I'm currently
developing the prototype with MS VS VC++ .NET 2008 Express /CLI (managed).
Further, it uses the SAPI TTS and Voice Recognition engine.

When I go commercial, what all do I need to do to be legit? Will I have to:

(1) Buy a full version (i.e., not Express) of VS VC++ .NET 2008, and compile
my program the final time with it? ( I assume this is true)

(2) Somehow license SAPI? Somehow license .NET Framework?

Even though Vista comes with SAPI (5.3) pre-installed and installing SAPI
5.1 is free, I could see where MS might want a license fee for selling
software that utilizes it. On the other hand, this ability does help sell
the development tools, so they might just leave it at that.

I also am assuming no license is require to distribute a product made with
VS just becuase it was developed with VS (i.e., MS doesn't expect to get
direct financial benefit from a product built with their tools other than
the profit from the purchase of the tools).

I'm also assuming MS has no approval rights as to what I can and can't
develop with thier tools (moralistically or otherwise).

Thanx in advance for responses!

 

[Sheng Jiang[MVP]]

You can build commercial application using express versions, see
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/express/aa718399.aspx#general
You can redistribute the redistributable components of Visual Studio and
Windows Platform SDK as outlined in their EULA respectively.

 

[William DePalo [MVP VC++]]

I'm developing a product I eventual plan to sell commercially. I'm
currently developing the prototype with MS VS VC++ .NET 2008 Express /CLI
(managed). ...
When I go commercial, what all do I need to do to be legit? Will I have
to:
...
(2) Somehow license SAPI? Somehow license .NET Framework?

IANAL, and I don't speak for Microsoft, but AAUI, you don't so much
"license" their technology as distribute it.

SAPI5 has a "merge module" here

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...97-40a7-453f-b0ee-6583171b4530&DisplayLang=en

which you can install on your customers' machines with your application. The
same is true of the .Net framework, take a look at this page for example:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...0B-F857-4A14-83F5-25634C3BF043&displaylang=en

I'm also assuming MS has no approval rights as to what I can and can't
develop with thier tools (moralistically or otherwise).

Check the EULA the comes with the compiler.

Regards,
Will