[McIDAS #OJS-778821]: request access to McIDAS

Hi Andre,

re:
> I work on LNCC (Laboratório Nacional de Computação Científica), in
> Brazil. This is a Governamental Research and degree-granting educational
> Institution. I'm a long time (since 2005) Unidata program member/user
> and the department where I work does research on the atmospheric and
> oceanic areas. Since 2005 we had our LDM/GEMPAK/McIDAS system running
> fine, but a couple of days ago the computer "crashed" and we lost all of
> our data and installed programs and such.

Ouch!

> Then, I decided it was the right time to update our LDM/GEMPAK/McIDAS
> system, but when I try to download McIDAS it says that I'm not allowed
> to access McIDAS anymore and that I should "contact
> address@hidden <mailto:address@hidden>
> to request access to McIDAS using the current email address with which
> you have registered".

Yes, this is the correct procedure.

> So, here I am, requesting access to McIDAS. This is the e-mail I have
> registered on the Unidata page.

Here is where things get difficult because of some guidelines that SSEC
(the developers of McIDAS) recently sent to us (Unidata):

  "SSEC considers permissible users of the international university community
  to be those who are using McIDAS-X for academic classroom instruction or
  academic research by students related to obtaining a degree. Research 
institutes
  and government agencies that use McIDAS-X for meteorological research or
  operations must purchase a license from SSEC for the non-academic use. Given
  this clarification, and if Unidata users remain within the licensing terms
  that include no re-distribution of any portion of the software, SSEC is 
agreeable
  to providing this software to the international university Unidata user 
community."

This clarification now restricts us (Unidata) from making our distribution of
McIDAS (Unidata McIDAS-X/-XCD) available to institutions like CPTEC and LNCC
which are government labs AND degree granting institutions) _unless_ they are
members in good standing in the McIDAS User's Group.  SSEC contacted CPTEC to
inform them that they must purchase a license to use McIDAS from UW/SSEC before
they are allowed access to either the SSEC or Unidata distributions of the 
package.

SSEC made this clarification in order to generate additional monies for 
development
and support of McIDAS.

So, LNCC must now become a member of the McIDAS User's Group before you can
download McIDAS.  Please send send an email to the MUG <address@hidden>
to initiate this process.

> Without further ado, thanks for the help and the attention.

I apologize for the change in SSEC policy that now restricts us from giving you
immediate access to McIDAS!

Cheers,

Tom
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Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: OJS-778821
Department: Support McIDAS
Priority: Normal
Status: Closed