Take the 2-minute tour ×

I have inherited a project from a client, who believes he has all the source code, but unfortunately this particular VB6 application used a bunch of custom controls that the original programmer will not give up (he may in fact have purchased the licenses himself, so he may be right in not turning them over, on the other hand since he has been cut-off from the project there may be a bit of spite involved - I have no idea and it doesn't really matter.)

Anyway, the project uses the following controls:

PVOutlookBar.ocx PVList.ocx PVCombo.ocx PVXplore8.ocx PVDateEdit.ocx PVTime.ocx PVDt80.ocx

and as far as I can tell they were from a company called Protoview which was bought up by Infragistics...and none of these controls are supported anymore, though they can be purchased at full price.

My client is very reluctant to spend over $1000 to get his hands on these controls, especially since 1) they are no longer supported at all by the vendor 2) we have no guarantee that if these are purchased that it will work (i.e. maybe there is a lot of other stuff missing too). 3) there are no refunds, even if we bought the wrong stuff...4) we only need to get it running enough to start the port to a more updated language, either vb.net or C# (and thus would need to possibly buy the controls again).

My question is, is it legal if someone had these controls, and was no longer using them, to sell them? I would assume that the if you were no longer using a piece of software, you could transfer the license (the hope would be to find someone who has them lying around and would be willing to part with them for a lot less than buying the new).

Anyone know any sources for buying "old" software, especially controls such as these? I found this site: http://www.retrosoftware.com/ but they don't have any of the stuff I need. Thanks.

share|improve this question

1 Answer 1

up vote 1 down vote accepted

I Am Not A Lawyer, but I think the legality of transferring a license depends on the original license terms for the controls used by ProtoView. Some licenses allow it and some explicitly forbid it.

Certainly the license agreement Infragistics is currently using does not allow you to transfer the license.

share|improve this answer
Thanks...never actually read the license agreements, but I guess non-transferable is a show stopper in terms of using some "old" copy that someone had. –  E.J. Brennan Jan 30 '10 at 21:22
Yes, unfortunately. Before buying a 2nd hand copy you would need to look at the license agreements that applied when the original purchaser bought the software, if you want to avoid breaking the law. –  MarkJ Jan 31 '10 at 15:31

Your Answer


