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] - 21 Nov 2007 22:03 GMT
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.

Signature
Sheng Jiang
Microsoft MVP in 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).
[quoted text clipped - 21 lines]
>
> Thanx in advance for responses! :)
William DePalo [MVP VC++] - 23 Nov 2007 00:53 GMT
> 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
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> ...
> (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/details.aspx?FamilyID=5e86ec97-40a7-453f-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/details.aspx?familyid=10CC340B-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