Legal access to Access

[Noel]

In my office we have about 30 work stations, many of these, but not all, have
a local licensed copy of Microsoft Access. All of them have a local licensed
copy of Microsoft Excel. Can I legally place an .mdb file on the file server,
accessible to all users - including those who do not have Access installed -
and allow them to interrogate the file via ADO through VBA code in Excel?

Seems like a straightforward question to me, but I am having the devil's own
time getting answered. Some insight would be much appreciated.

Thank you, Noel.

 

[Dirk Goldgar]

In my office we have about 30 work stations, many of these, but not all,
have
a local licensed copy of Microsoft Access. All of them have a local
licensed
copy of Microsoft Excel. Can I legally place an .mdb file on the file
server,
accessible to all users - including those who do not have Access
installed -
and allow them to interrogate the file via ADO through VBA code in Excel?

Yes. The Access application is protected by copyright, but .mdb files
themselves are not.

 

[Noel]

Thank you, Mr. Goldgar. What a wonderfully rapid response - all of five
minutes. I am sure in my mind that your answer is correct - but it would be
nice to have it in black and white from Microsoft themselves. I have searched
their sites to no avail; are you able to point me to something that spells
this out? Please don't spend any time on it - I am just hoping you will be
able to say "Yes, of course, you will find it at ... " from the top of your
head.

Thanks again, Noel

 

[Tony Toews [MVP]]

Thank you, Mr. Goldgar. What a wonderfully rapid response - all of five
minutes. I am sure in my mind that your answer is correct - but it would be
nice to have it in black and white from Microsoft themselves. I have searched
their sites to no avail; are you able to point me to something that spells
this out? Please don't spend any time on it - I am just hoping you will be
able to say "Yes, of course, you will find it at ... " from the top of your
head.

I've never seen such anywhere. But consider the situation with a
..doc, .xls or .ppt file. Those, including VBA code, can be
distributed without royalty. Indeed OpenOffice can create and update
files in that format. (I would presume.) So it's the same situation.

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm
Tony's Microsoft Access Blog - http://msmvps.com/blogs/access/

 

[Noel]

Thank you, Mr. Toews, that is good enough for me. I was unaware that Open
Office could create files in .mdb format - that is compelling evidence.

 

[MikeB]

Read Tony's response again. He said that OpenOffice could create files
in .doc, .xls and .ppt formats. He didn't say .mdb. But that doesn't
change the advice they gave you.

M

 

[Tony Toews [MVP]]

Read Tony's response again. He said that OpenOffice could create files
in .doc, .xls and .ppt formats. He didn't say .mdb. But that doesn't
change the advice they gave you.

<smile> Thanks for taking the words out of my keyboard.

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm
Tony's Microsoft Access Blog - http://msmvps.com/blogs/access/