The Columbia Crown The Kermit Project | Columbia University
612 West 115th Street, New York NY 10025 USA • [email protected]
…since 1981

Kermit 95 Pricing and Licensing Options

Applies to:  Kermit 95 version 2.1 for Microsoft Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP/Vista/7 and IBM OS/2.
Effective: 16 February 2003
Last update: Thu Mar 10 15:16:35 2011
THIS PAGE IS HISTORICAL.  BEGINNING IN 2011, THE KERMIT PROJECT AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IS NO LONGER TAKING ORDERS FOR SOFTWARE, LICENSES, SUPPORT CONTRACTS, OR BOOKS. KERMIT 95 BULK LICENSES MAY BE ORDERED FROM COLUMBIA TECHNOLOGY VENTURES. CLICK HERE FOR INFORMATION.

I. GENERAL TERMS

Kermit 95 software and the accompanying documentation are copyrighted and protected by law. They may be used only under license. The licensed material may not be posted in public download areas, submitted to user groups, placed on "free software" or "shareware" CDROMs, included with any product, or redistributed in any other form without license to do so.

All prices, terms, and conditions are subject to change.

All prices are in US dollars.

Kermit 95 2.1 is available for Microsoft Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows NT (4.0 or later), Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7, Intel and compatible PC platforms only, and IBM OS/2. Kermit 95 is not compatible with Windows 3.x, Win32s, Windows CE, or Pocket PC, and is no longer available for Windows on Alpha or PowerPC platforms, where Windows was discontinued some years ago.

II. INDIVIDUAL COPIES

The Kermit 95 2.1 shrinkwrapped retail package The Kermit 95 2.1 retail shrinkwrapped package contains the Kermit 95 CDROM (which contains the Kermit 95 software for all supported platforms plus the Kermit 95 online HTML manual) and the C-Kermit 8.0 CDROM. The cheapest and fastest way to get the retail shrinkwrapped package is from Amazon.com.

Individual copies and small quantities of Kermit 95 are also available for discounted sale and electronic delivery (no physical package) from e-academy.com (now known as OnTheHub.com). This is the fastest and cheapest way to get Kermit 95 in individual or small quantities when you don't require a physical package. At this site you can also download a free full-featured 21-day trial version.

Beginning in 2011, Columbia University no longer sells and ships the Kermit 95 shrinkwrapped retail package, since it is available at lower prices from many other sources, such as those below. E-academy delivers the software online with no physical package; the others deliver the physical shrinkwrapped retail package show in the picture (click to enlarge).
Amazon.com e-academy Buy.com Barnes & Noble Blackwell UK Manning Publications Co.
Note: Although the Amazon page shows the K95 1.1 package and a 2000 release date, the product is indeed K95 2.1.

III. KERMIT 95 BULK RIGHT-TO-COPY AND OMNIBUS LICENSES

CLICK HERE for the Bulk Right-to-Copy license order form.
CLICK HERE for the Omnibus license order form.
(But read the following material first.)

Minimum quantity: 100.
Minimum extension: 100.

The licensee is entitled to make the licensed number of copies of the software for internal use (or, under terms of Section V, for customers or clients). This license is available directly from the Kermit Project at Columbia University, there is no other source. License packages are fabricated here on order, pre-registered to the licensee with a unique serial number, and with the number of license seats indicated.

A bulk right-to-copy license consists of:

  1. A CDROM containing a preregistered copy of the Kermit 95 software, or the equivalent delivered electronically.
  2. A Kermit 95 Bulk License form for the number of copies purchased

All users within (or clients of) the licensed organization share the same registration and serial number. The license covers employees (and in the case of academic institutions, also students) of the licensed organization, including contractors during the period of their contract. The Discount column shows the discount against the single-copy retail price of $75.

Quantity Discount Unit Price
100-249 86.67% 10.00
250-499 88.67% 8.50
500-999 90.40% 7.20
1000-2499 92.00% 6.00
2500-4999 93.33% 5.00
5000-9999 94.67% 4.00
10000-19999 95.60% 3.30
20000-39999 95.93% 3.05

Any number of copies (100 or more) may be purchased by paying the unit price per copy appropriate to the range.

"Site" or "unlimited" licenses are not available. To achieve freedom from copy counting and license administration, simply purchase sufficient licenses to cover the maximum expected number of users.

The licensee must assume responsibility of preventing all manner of external access to the software, including, but not limited to, unauthorized redistribution of the software in any form by employees, or placing of the software on file servers, ftp servers, or Web pages that are accessible from outside the licensed organization.

III.A. GOVERNMENT AND NONPROFIT DISCOUNT

Government agencies (but not for-profit government contractors) and nonprofit tax-exempt organizations are entitled to a twenty percent (20%) discount on the final price. This discount applies only to bulk right-to-copy licenses.

III.B. RESELLER DISCOUNTS

Contact us.

III.C. LICENSE UPGRADES

The licensee may increase the size of its license by paying for additional copies at the rate appropriate for the total number of copies licensed, including those in the upgrade, for which maintenance payments (next item) are current. The minimum size of an ugrade is 100 copies. For example, if 999 copies were originally licensed at $7.20 per copy, then 100 to 1500 additional licenses may be purchased at $6.00 per copy; 1501 to 4000 licenses at $5.00 per copy, and so on.

III.D. SOFTWARE SUPPORT AND UPGRADES

The licensee is entitled to technical support, software patches, and version upgrades at no additional cost for one year. After that, these services are available only to licensees who have paid an annual maintenance fee of twenty-five percent (25%) of the original license fee, for which bills are sent around the license anniversary.

The licensed organization must provide technical support to its users, and may, in turn, obtain technical support from Columbia University through a designated single point of contact.

If support lapses, and the licensee wishes to renew it, this may be done by:

III.E. SERVER LICENSES

Kermit 95 may be run from a central file server, as long as the number of concurrent users does not exceed the size of the license, and server-resident copies of Kermit 95 are not accessible from outside the licensed organization.

III.F. MIXING AND MATCHING KERMIT SOFTWARE: THE OMNIBUS LICENSE

In response to frequent queries from system integrators and consultants who wish to supply Kermit software to their customers who have a variety of platforms (Windows, DOS, Linux, AIX, Solaris, HP-UX, VMS, etc), a new Omnibus Right-to-Copy license was created effective 1 January 2002, which is exactly like the Kermit 95 Bulk Right-to-Copy License except that it allows any mixture of Kermit 95, C-Kermit, and MS-DOS Kermit. CLICK HERE for the Omnibus License order form.

IV. ACADEMIC SITE LICENSES

Academic Site Licenses are no longer offered effective 15 February 2003. Academic institutions must now use the Bulk Right-to-Copy license, which requires copy counting. The remainder of this section is for historical reference only.

CLICK HERE for the academic site license order form.
(But read the following material first.)

An academic site license consists of:

  1. A CDROM containing a preregistered copy of the Kermit 95 software
  2. The Kermit 95 manual, also on CDROM
  3. A Kermit 95 Academic Site License form

Effective 1 January 2002, there are two kinds of academic site-licenses:

  1. Annual billing: A relatively small initial fee, and then annual maintenance fees.
  2. Lifetime: A somewhat larger one-time payment, granting a license for the lifetime of the product with full support and upgrades, with no annual maintenance fees.

Kermit 95 academic site licenses are available at the rates listed below. An academic site license entitles all students, faculty, and staff at the licensed institution to individual, non-transferable use of Kermit 95, with no copy counting required, as long as they are students at or employed by the institution. End-user technical support must be furnished by the institution. Technical support to the institution is furnished through a single technical point of contact with the Kermit Project at Columbia University.

For any single college or university:

  Annual Billing Lifetime
First year $2000 $5000
Subsequent years $1000 $0

For a large university system, such as a statewide system (e.g. all of SUNY):

  Annual Billing Lifetime
First year $10000 $25000
Subsequent years $5000 $0

An annual billing license can be converted to a lifetime license for a one-time fee of $2000 (single college or university) or $10000 (university system).

All prices are in US dollars and apply worldwide. Rates are subject to adjustment. Prior Kermit 95 purchases – shrink-wrap or bulk – are not creditable towards the academic site license.

Multiple Platforms
All Kermit 95 platforms – Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, OS/2 – are covered by the same license, as long as those platforms are supported by Kermit 95. Support for obsolete platforms is not guaranteed in new Kermit 95 releases, but the Kermit Project has a better record than most for supporting them.

Annual Billing
Technical support and upgrades are included in the first year's license. The license remains active in subsequent years only if the annual maintenance is paid. An active license entitles the institution to continuing single-point-of-contact technical support and to software upgrades at no additional cost. If support lapses, and the licensee wishes to renew it, this may be done by:

  • purchasing a new license:
  • paying the maintenance fees for all years for which they were not paid, including the current year.

Lifetime License
The license remains active in perpetuity, entitling the institution to continuing single-point-of-contact technical support and to software upgrades at no additional cost. Should the Kermit 95 product – or the Kermit Project itself – ever be canceled, the licensee will be furnished with source code.

The institution must assume responsibility for preventing all manner of external access to the software, including, but not limited to, redistribution of the software in any form outside the institution by students, faculty, or staff, or placing of the software on file servers, ftp servers, or Web pages that are accessible from outside the institution.

V. BUNDLING AND RESELLING

Kermit 95 may be purchased under the terms given in sections I, II, and III (but not IV) for the purposes of resale or redistribution, with the following additional provisos:
  1. The given number of licenses is transferred from the supplier to the customer. The supplier no longer owns those licenses, and the customer is not entitled to more than that number of copies of the software.

  2. The supplier must either:

    • Purchase a bulk right-to-copy license and provide all technical support for their customers, or:
    • Provide their end users with the full retail shrink-wrapped package.

Bulk licenses are not intended for single-copy retail distribution. Individual end users must receive the fully documented and supported shrink wrapped retail package. Redistribution of bulk license copies is appropriate in a consulting, contracting, bundling, or embedding framework.

If the licensee has purchased shrink-wrapped copies for resale or redistribution, then each end user registers each individual copy of the software using the serial number provided. If the licensee has purchased a bulk right-to-copy license, then a single serial number and registration applies to all copies.

VI. CONTACT INFORMATION

Frank da Cruz
Director
The Kermit Project
Columbia University
612 West 115th Street
New York NY  10025-7799  USA
Voice: +1-212-854-3703
Fax: +1-212-662-6442
email: [email protected]

Kermit 95 Pricing / The Kermit Project - Columbia University / http://kermit.columbia.edu / 2003-2010