[DGD] Commercial question

[Shentino]

ach, good point.  What the law says and what a judge/jury is going to
say are two entirely different things indeed.

I remember a quote: "We're the jury, dread our fury".  Good advice to
follow when we have juries made of passionate human beings instead of
precise robots.

On 3/30/06, Noah Gibbs <noah_gibbs at yahoo.com> wrote:
>  Actually, I think 'income' in the US doesn't require a profit motive.  And
> while receiving anonymous donations may not be illegal, it's quite possible
> that soliciting them would be.
>
>  So basically, Dworkin has said, "you can't make money off this, whether it's
> profit or not".  If you have a stranger walk up to you on the street and give
> you $50 for undisclosed reasons, that's kosher (probably, and assuming you
> really don't already know them).  If you put a link on your web site that says,
> "MUD admins need to eat too, here's an anonymous donation link", a judge and/or
> jury is likely to suspect that you're playing fast and loose.
>
>  That is, in the end, the final test - does a judge/jury believe that you got
> income from the MUD?
>
>  For that reason, it's a good idea to stay away even from the appearance of
> that.
>
> --- Shentino <shentino at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > My two cents:
> >
> > If the donations are optional, and no strings are attached to them,
> > then IMHO no license can stop you from receiving this money, as it
> > would be a freewill offering on the part of the players, or, as I
> > prefer to call them, miscellaneous citizens that coincidentally are
> > also playing your mud, because total strangers who liked the mud, but
> > didn't play it, would also inevitably donate just cause they think the
> > mud is cool (although in my case it would likely be out of pity :P).
> >
> > Besides, if you accept anonymous donations it's kinda hard to tell
> > who's who, and a donee may or may not be a player. :P  And in any
> > case, keeping the mud up on donations (or lack thereof) would be
> > entirely optional on my part from the donee's point of view, since
> > they have no warranty on how the funds are going to be used.
> >
> > However, owing to the confusion this has generated, I'm not going to
> > start up a donation acceptimg mud until I get more clarification,
> > preferably from Dworkin's revised copyright and NOT a lawyer in a
> > court case or a consulting job.
> >
> > I sincerely hope that Dworkin's revised copyright will shed some light
> > on this.  If his lawyers are half as good as Dworkin is at coding,
> > winding up in court over this would be a fearful thing indeed.  :P
> >
> > Especially since I haven't GOT the big bucks to run a public mud out
> > of my own pocket (i.e. without donations), and with the 100K/year
> > licensing fee for commercial use, I'd have a very hard time getting
> > enough capital to even START a pay for play biz like Skotos without
> > starting a corporation and making an IPO, let ALONE keep it running.
> > I'm just a small fry in college.
> >
> > Speaking of which, I humbly ask Dworkin to make it possible for a
> > small hobbyist to run a decent mud on donations.  1.2K a year is quite
> > a bit cheaper than 100K/year, but still a bit pricy for even MY type,
> > the kind who go to college on federal grants and live on welfare.
> > Cheap is a relative term, and what may be chump change to one person
> > can be a fortune to another. ;)
> >
> > __________________________________________
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> >
>
>
>
>
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