Electronics > Microcontrollers

Can Segger legally enforce J-Link EDU Mini restrictions?

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Zipdox:
The Segger J-Link EDU Mini has some restrictions applied, mainly "You may use the J-Link EDU Mini for non-profit educational purposes only!" I don't plan on violating this, I don't even have a company, but it seems silly to me because as far as I'm aware there's no legal mechanism for enforcing such a restriction, or even figuring out if someone is violating it. Usage of the product itself doesn't rely on any service provided by J-Link. In my option the whole J-Link product lineup is massively overpriced, it seems almost criminal how much they charge for them.

ataradov:
They can. The  same way as software companies can enforce license violations even if product does not rely on the cloud. In case of companies, one disgruntled employee reporting abuse may be enough to ruin your day. How likely it is to happen - probably not likely, but do you want to take on this risk?

I don't really understand what is so special about J-Link, especially for ARM. Just use any CMSIS-DAP debugger and you get support by a ton of tools.

Now, if you also like Segger tools that come for "free" with the hardware and can't live without them, then this is the costly part. They are just offloading that cost to the hardware because they know people will try to cheat the system.

Zipdox:
The thing is, you're not explicitly agreeing to the restrictions when you buy it through a distributor. A link to the restrictions is in the description, which you might not have read, and there's no checkbox or confirmation you have to click to buy the product. They cannot prove you explicitly agreed to the terms.

ataradov:
I bet those terms are in their license for the software anyway.  The click though thing is just to make you even more aware of it.

Also, don't you need .edu or other educational email to even order it? Did they drop this requirement?

I don't think there is a way to impose terms on the use of the hardware alone. But if you are using it in conjunction with their software, then it is a pretty clear license violation. And without the software, the hardware is nothing special that is not available for basically free.

Zipdox:
I never saw a EULA when I installed the deb package. Also like I said, there's distributors selling the product.

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