Look, it's really simple.
The , states:
"Authors of literary or artistic works shall enjoy the exclusive right of authorizing adaptations, arrangements and other alterations of their works."
Only the copyright holder can give you permission to make an alteration to their work. The only way to gain permission from the Diku team is via the Diku license.
states:
"You may under no circumstances make profit on *ANY* part of DikuMud in any possible way."
And:
"You are allowed to alter DikuMud, source and documentation as long as you do not violate any of the above stated rules."
You cannot modify Diku without first agreeing to the license - and the license prevents you from profiting from Diku in any possible way.
It's no different from the distribution clause - everyone understands that you can't sell copies of Diku mud. The only people debating the "paying coders" issue are those who don't realise that distribution is only one of the five exclusive rights granted to the copyright holder; one of the others is the rights to modify the work (aka creating derivative works), as described in the first link I provided.
There is some good information about the rights at the website.
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