Is it within the legal right to charge people off the ROM codebase?
let me better define my question, if a mud allowed 1 free account to a person but charged an extra 5.00 a month to have unlimited account's is it legal? or would it still be breaking the rom license?

Such activity is prohibited by the license.

so if someone wanted to do that they would need the creators of ROM to give them permission?

I believe that restriction began with the Diku crew. I believe ROM is Diku/Merc/ROM... so to be given permission to open a pay-for-play mud, you would need to get permission from the creators of each codebase. Which, I believe, is not possible, since a couple have left the online community.

Darrik Vequir

i see but its still free to play, but just limited to 1 account, thats still breaking the licence?

Yes, if you are making money then it is still breaking the license.

thanks for your help

There is only one license for DikuMUD, and it prevents you from making money. Merc is a derivative of Diku. ROM is a derivative of Merc. If you run a ROM, you cannot profit from it.

By the way, there is also a DikuII (aka "Valhalla") which DOES have a commercial license. However there are no Merc (let alone ROM) derivatives based on it, and the license itself only applies to DikuII.