Question TbaMud license change

As some of you may be aware, the CircleMUD code has been relicensed under LGPL.

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

I am fine with it, its only fair that what i gave/donated/mailer code over the many years is covered under this license

Absolutely yes

I suppose the question I have to ask is, "how does this effect me?" Would this mean posting my code so others could check it out?

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.

The switch to LGPL means very little for you as a contributor to tbaMUD.

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.

I think I read somewhere that, to a builder, this means that the areas will now become available for people to use in other bases than TBA since all parts of TBA will become open license. I don't know if this is true but if anybody wants stuff I write and are willing to keep my name on it and can figure out how it works enough to change it into another base, that's fine with me. Of course, chances are they'd do it no matter how TBA is licensed.