[DGD] Specific code-license question, DGD server

[Felix A. Croes]

Noah Gibbs <angelbob at monkeyspeak.com> wrote:

>   Felix, this is primarily for you since you own the DGD code and rights.
>
>   If we were to take specific bits of code from the DGD server and modify
> them, they'd still be licensed in the same way (I assume), so they'd be
> freely noncommercially usable, and licenseable for a significant extra fee
> from you or Skotos.  So far, so good.

Actually, there is one part of the code which I also released into the
public domain, and which since found its way into the other LPC servers;
the code for the editor indent command.  But other than that, you are
correct.


>   If they were used in a slightly different context, specifically in a DGD
> MUDLib rather than in a server, they'd still require DGD for use.  So
> that's no problem by itself since any commercial user of the MUDLib
> would already need to have a commercial DGD license, so they'd be
> authorized to use that code.  But then the MUDLib needs to be licensed in
> some way to avoid using that code without DGD -- Joe Random Hacker 
> couldn't port it to an OpenSource MUD server because that would
> allow use of DGD code commercially without Felix being paid.  That would
> be a no-no.  So the whole MUDLib will need to be licensed to avoid that
> situation.
>
>   So basically, the MUDLib would need to either require a DGD commercial
> license for commercial use, or it would need to prevent commercial use in 
> non-DGD environments.  It could be more restrictive but it couldn't be
> *less* restrictive.
>
>   The reason I bring this up is that I was considering writing a telnet
> handler in LPC.  The handler would make it possible to have something that
> acted like a telnet port but using a DGD binary port.  That's useful 
> because you could then modify the code and handle more telnet options, or
> ANSI color, or international characters, all with an unmodified DGD
> server and without giving up telnet options.

There is a perfectly good way to create uncopyrighted code from a
copyrighted example: study the code at your leasure, then start over
from scratch, creating an implementation that may have a structure
similar to the original, but which will none the less be different.
Unless you have a photographic memory, you will simply write other
code that mostly does the same thing.

The source code isn't patented.  Anyone can steal the ideas and algorithms
from DGD, without restriction.  It is only my particular implementation
of those algorithms that is copyrighted.

Though there are some difficulties with having to deal with partial
sequences, an efficient implementation of the telnet protocol can
make profitable use of parse_string().  That would assuredly result
in very different source code.

Last but not least, a warning: my support of the telnet protocol is
not complete, and to be quite honest, not entirely correct.  I
(deliberately) fudged things a little.  For a more correct
implementation, you may want to refer to the relevant RFCs.

Regards,
Dworkin
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