Re: Question about notification clauses

[Jeffry Smith <smith@missioncriticallinux.com>]

>  * Revised TinyMUD / TinyMUSH 2.0 copyright:
>  *
>  * Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
>  * modification, are permitted provided that: (1) source code distributions
>  * retain the above copyright notice and this paragraph in its entirety,
>  * and (2) distributions including binary code include the above copyright
>  * notice and this paragraph in its entirety in the documentation or other
>  * materials provided with the distribution.  The names of the copyright
>  * holders may not be used to endorse or promote products derived from 
>  * this software without specific prior written permission.
>  *
>  * THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED ``AS IS'' AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED
>  * WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
>  * MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
>  *
>  * ---
>  *

This one looks all right to me.  You can distribute source and binary, can 
modify, but have to do copyright notice.  Looks like a variation of the BSD 
license.

>  * TinyMUSH 3.0 Copyright
>  *
>  * Users of this software incur the obligation to make their best efforts
>  * to inform the authors of noteworthy uses of this software.
>  *

I suppose "best efforts" is OK, if you try & can't you can distribute.  So far 
so good.

>  * All materials developed as a consequence of the use of this software
>  * shall duly acknowledge such use, in accordance with the usual standards
>  * of acknowledging credit in academic research.
>  *
>  * TinyMUSH 3.0 may be used for commercial, for-profit applications, subject
>  * to the following conditions: You must acknowledge the origin of the 
>  * software, retaining this copyright notice in some prominent place.
>  * You may charge only for access to the service you provide, not for
>  * the TinyMUSH 3.0 software itself. You must inform the authors of
>  * any commercial use of this software.

As has been stated before, how do I notify the authors if they die or go out 
of business?  If I can't notify them, I can't distribute / use, according to 
this.  This violates DFSG 6 (discrimination of field of endeavor), since 
non-commercial use is allowed without notification.  I suspect it also 
violates DFSG 1, since a non-commercial entity can distribute, but a 
commercial entity couldn't.

Note that, if they left it at "best effort," I suspect it would be OK.

>  *
>  * The authors have made no warranty or representation that the operation
>  * of this software will be error-free. The authors are under no obligation
>  * to provide any services, by way of maintenance, update, or otherwise.
> 
> 

Do you know why they changed the license?  I'd query upstream, with a copy of the DFSG, and ask them to look at how to accomplish their goals without breaking the DFSG. 

Another alternative (what happened with OpenSSH), is to use TinyMUSH 2.0 as a base of a new project.

jeff