[DGD] Commercial Licenses?

[Stephen Schmidt]

On Fri, 21 Feb 2003, muphicks wrote:
> I was wondering this as well. If a mud was run free of charge with a
> link provided for purley optional donations, would this be allowed? Or
> would a commercial license be required in this case?
> Anyone know if this is feasible? Or allowed?

I do not know if anyone has done this with DGD. I know it was
done with LPMud at a fair number of sites, starting perhaps five
or six years ago, maybe earlier. It is of doubtful legality in
my opinion. The LPMud license is written very restrictively and
it is not clear to me that it would permit even optional
donations. Also, there is the real question of whether these
donations can be kept truly "optional" when one accounts for
how grateful wizards tend to be when someone sends in a
donation that makes the difference between the mud closing
and the mud staying open. Does that person receive something
in game terms after their donation? They probably start
getting the benefit of the doubt in situations involving
the wizards, it's only human for wizards to do so.

However, as far as I know no one ever got sued for this
practice, and it certainly is feasible. The main thing
to consider is how you will deal with the case when there
is conflict between two high-level players, the wizards
must make a decision, and the player who loses the decision
accuses the wizards of deciding in favor of the other player
because he sent in a $100 donation last month and the losing
player only sent in $25. That is what one should be worried
about in practice, I think.

Steve


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