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TbaMud license change
- thomas
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We are currently in the process of doing the same to the tbaMUD code.
But we need your help, the contributors over time, to let us know that you are ok with this.
A lot of the snippets we've added to the code base over time, has had no license terms, neither given outright or implied. We could just assume they were public domain, but I think the correct way to interpret them is to assume they follow the same license given by the original code, the CircleMUD license, unless otherwise stated.
So, please leave a comment on this post if you've contributed, letting us know that you're ok with changing the license for your intellectual property to the LGPL. Read more about it at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Lesser_General_Public_License
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- cunning
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- Papaya Pete
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I am not against this or anything. It is cool being able to share what we have worked on with othere. I just don't quite understand what changes exactly when this new license begins.
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- thomas
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It matters a great deal for you as a user of the code base.
You are not required to expose your own code or content.
You can use your code for more things (specifically, the old license prohibit "any monetary gain", including donations to pay for servers, which has been a sore point with many DIKU and CIRCLE muds for many years).
Any snippets you put up on sites like this or on mailing lists will be LGPL unless you specify a more strict license (just like it's circle license today). Again, this means that others can use them in their own code bases with no problems.
For those of us who have been around for a while, the circle license has been somewhat of a limitation to the use of the circle derived mud code bases in larger projects. We've been limited by the wording of the license. A switch to a more general, open source, license like the LGPL has been a wish for a long time now.
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- Parnassus
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- thomas
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The change is that currently, if you do that, you can't make any monetary gain. The current license is based on the former DikuMUD license :
This means that it's not an open source license. Now we finally have a chance (because the DikuMUD license changed and the CircleMUD license changed after that) to make it - real - open source I think we should take it.You may under no circumstances make profit on *ANY* part of DikuMud in any possible way. You may under no circumstances charge money for distributing any part of dikumud—this includes the usual $5 charge for 'sending the disk' or 'just for the disk' etc.
Yes, this means someone may take your area and use it on a mud. Has that not been the purpose all along? Now, though, they may be able to get donations to run the servers. To be frank, I hardly think any MUD is now popular enough to garner a higher return than that.
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- thomas
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thomas wrote: This means that it's not an open source license.
In case anyone wondered - this line in the definition of Open Source Software is not covered by the old license.
6. No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor
The license must not restrict anyone from making use of the program in a specific field of endeavor. For example, it may not restrict the program from being used in a business, or from being used for genetic research.
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- krinosx
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If I modify the tbamud code and use it in my own 'fantastic super lucrative mud server', must I release my version of the code?
Its not clear to me if the LGPL is applied only to software redistribution of if its like the AGPL that enforce the code release even if I am just providing a service based in the library code.
If I am hosting a MUD Server, so I am not redistributing the code, in this way can I keep my changes to my private use?
Thanks in advance!
Kind Regards
Giuliano
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- thomas
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However, the requirement does not extend to the case where your users are connecting to your code via a network. So your 'fantastic super lucrative mud server' would be safe as long as you are not selling it. And then, you'd only need to give the source to the people you're selling it to.
Actually, the GNU Affero General Public License (commonly called the AGPL) has this requirement. This is why we are not adapting that one.
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- thomas
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- thomas
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Sharing a couple of letters in a title is not enough to make a claim of ownership or to have any say over distribution. Or I'd be a millionaire, since my last name has a couple of letters also found in Apple, inc.
And actually, that's one of the patches where we have been in touch with the author and gotten a positive response.
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- fungi
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Further, there seems to be some confusion over copyrights and trademarks. They are both a sort of intellectual property (as are patents), but are not otherwise related. Copyright licenses are quite a separate thing from trademark licenses.
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