Sender: root AT delorie DOT com
Message-ID: <359B569D.B9E4D74D@usa.net>
Date: Thu, 02 Jul 1998 09:45:01 +0000
From: J P Morris <b52g AT usa DOT net>
Organization: IT-HE
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To: opendos AT delorie DOT com
Subject: Re: Is Dr. DOS still free?
References: <199806280737.AAA18282@ shell1.ncal.verio.com> <199806281136 DOT HAA28158 AT mail DOT enterprise1701 DOT com> <19980701130100 DOT 64878 AT caldera DOT com>
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Tim Bird wrote:
> 
> 
> My understanding is that DRDOS itself is still "essentially"
> free for non-commercial use, but that WebSpyder is not.  Not
> much has changed with regard to the freeness of DRDOS itself
> over the last year.

The final shipping of 7.02 was almost ready at Christmas, but it was
delayed by three things:

1. The last-minute discovery of a bug in the F5 code (fixed)
2. The name-change to DR-DOS
3. The arrival of a new licence agreement from the States

> The license is essentially the same as it has always been.  

When we got the new license, I checked it carefully and found that the
wording of the non-commercial grant had changed to mean that you should
register it after a 'reasonable' period of time, as opposed to the
previous grant, which had no restrictions on non-commercial use.

So to my mind, it's shareware :)

> I helped craft the license, and non-commercial redistribution
> has always been allowed.  It's even bolded in the license, in
> part III, bullet item 6:
> 
> "REDISTRIBUTION OF THE SOFTWARE IS PERMITTED FOR NON-COMMERCIAL PURPOSES"
> 
> The license qualifies this with some junk about not removing copyrights,
> etc., but I can't seem to convince anyone that it's OK to post
> (redistribute) DRDOS for non-commercial use anywhere.

I didn't notice that, or I didn't consider it important at the time for
some reason..

Now, http://www.altos.org.uk (guide to alternative Oses)

It describes DRDOS as "Not really free, but the free evaluation
period is over three months for non-commercial users."

BTW Tim, should 'wether' be 'whether' in the license agreement?

> 
> Tim Bird

-- 
* JP Morris        aka DOUG the Eagle (Dragon)  -=UDIC=-     *
* b52g AT usa DOT net         Author of the U6 developer's kit      *
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