Date: Tue, 28 Jan 1997 07:43:59 -0800 (PST) From: Gene Buckle To: opendos AT mail DOT tacoma DOT net cc: djgpp AT delorie DOT com Subject: Caldera's response to Sean's comment on lic. agreement. Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII (Note, I've removed Roger's email address just to keep him from being flooded with email) Sean's original message is included after Roger's response. Date: Tue, 28 Jan 1997 13:23:40 -0000 From: Roger Gross To: 'Gene Buckle' Subject: RE: OPENDOS HAS BEEN RELEASED! (fwd) Gene, Sean, Hmmm! Yes the wording is not in the spirit of the agreement. I would say it is worded like this because of third party pieces that we include and we are bound by our agreements with them. Source code, when available, will not be so restrictive because we will only be publishing pieces that we own or have a source code redistribution license for. It is my intention that for non-commercial use, you can do what you like with the software. For commercial use we must restrict it's re-distribution and use because of legal liabilities and warranties etc. The agreement should probably be reworded to make a clearer distinction between commercial and non-commercial use. I'm going to check with the lawyers tonight (morning US time) to see if we might reword it. I think Sean speaks for many so I am grateful to him for his comments. Be assured that we want this thing to be pervasive and hope to make money commercially because of the momentum generated by free end user use. For that reason we would not wish to stifle end user use. Leave it with me. Feel free to post this response to the mail groups. Roger From: Gene Buckle[SMTP:geneb AT web DOT wa DOT net] Sent: 25 January 1997 12:02 To: Roger Gross Subject: Re: OPENDOS HAS BEEN RELEASED! (fwd) Roger, Sean has made some valid points here. Is there any way that the wording of the licensing agreement could be changed or modified? g. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sat, 25 Jan 1997 00:44:07 GMT From: "Sean Nash"@delorie.com To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com Subject: Re: OPENDOS HAS BEEN RELEASED! Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp Gene Buckle wrote: >As Jeff noted earlier, OpenDOS has been released. (On time no less!) >I'm "re-announcing" with the exact URL so folks don't have to go poking >around to find it. >Go to http://www.caldera.com/dos/dos.htm and grab it! >(SEE! It's NOT vaporware! It's not, It's not... ) *grin* >g. Theoreticly you are working with Caldera to simplify and take out copyright code out of OpenDos. If that is true and they plan on releasaing the sources what does this mean? ] Except where expressly provided in this license, Licensee may not ] use, copy, disseminate, modify, reverse engineer, distribute, ] sub-license, sell, rent, lend, give, or lease or in any way ] transfer using any means or medium, including telecommunications, ] the software. Licensee will use best efforts to take all reasonable ] steps to protect the software from unauthorized use, copying, or ] dissemination, and will maintain all proprietary notices intact. This was taken from the agreement that you agree to when you download the software. I am specificly referring to the word "modify". If they are releasing the sources but do not want you to modify them, what is the point??? Here is another question. ] Copying or reproduction of the software to any other server or ] location for further reproduction or redistribution is expressly ] prohibited. If OpenDos is free to non-comercial users, why can people only download it from the Caldera site. I know people that do not have internet access so technicly they could not get the software because the license tranfers to me when I download it, and I cannot give it to them. See the first quote. Why would anyone start to devolope for software that many people cannot legally access when everyone can already make dos (and winblows) programs that the mass of the people can already run. It seems Caldera is just choking any serious attempt at releasing a good user supported dos clone. I for one will not devolope for an opperating system that is controlled by a company with a user policy as strict as Calders. It is legal to dissassemble dos. The dissassmbly has even been in books (ex Undicumented Dos, great book). But with OpenDos, by downloading it you agree not to dissassble it. Just my two cents. Sean Nash