Top Mud Sites Forum - View Single Post - Aardwolf commercially violating diku licence

Fiendish · 11-02-2003, 02:41 PM

Oh, no. You misunderstand. The license is absolutely clear. It says you may make no profit. That's 100% clear. The copyright holders may not then go back many years later and say, "Wait a minute, we didn't mean that. We meant something else." That is the point of the lawyer's response. The changes that you claim they wanted to make, absolutely do not fall within the wording of "Thou shalt make no profit. Thus spaketh the lord." I'm sorry you missed it. I'll explain further.

Since this is the only document distributed with the software that stipulates any restrictions on use, then it IS the contract. The user must agree to whatever it says in order to use the DikuMUD code. The person has no legal obligation to agree to whatever else the copyright holder said later on that is not a part of the contract. This is not a case of the user claiming ambiguous meaning. It is a case of the copyright owner claiming ambiguous meaning. In that event, it is entirely the copyright holder's fault for not making a contract that says what they meant. Since both parties agreed at the time of the writing of the contract that the wording of the contract was accurate, then neither party can then go back and say "Wait a minute, this means something else." This means that the DikuMud copyright is not violated by a mud taking donations as long as donations do not constitute profit, regardless of in-game rewards, because that is exactly what the license says.

Please remember that this is all from a lawyer, and anything you say, until shown otherwise, is not.

11-02-2003, 02:41 PM	#93
Fiendish New Member Join Date: Oct 2003 Posts: 19	Oh, no. You misunderstand. The license is absolutely clear. It says you may make no profit. That's 100% clear. The copyright holders may not then go back many years later and say, "Wait a minute, we didn't mean that. We meant something else." That is the point of the lawyer's response. The changes that you claim they wanted to make, absolutely do not fall within the wording of "Thou shalt make no profit. Thus spaketh the lord." I'm sorry you missed it. I'll explain further. Since this is the only document distributed with the software that stipulates any restrictions on use, then it IS the contract. The user must agree to whatever it says in order to use the DikuMUD code. The person has no legal obligation to agree to whatever else the copyright holder said later on that is not a part of the contract. This is not a case of the user claiming ambiguous meaning. It is a case of the copyright owner claiming ambiguous meaning. In that event, it is entirely the copyright holder's fault for not making a contract that says what they meant. Since both parties agreed at the time of the writing of the contract that the wording of the contract was accurate, then neither party can then go back and say "Wait a minute, this means something else." This means that the DikuMud copyright is not violated by a mud taking donations as long as donations do not constitute profit, regardless of in-game rewards, because that is exactly what the license says. Please remember that this is all from a lawyer, and anything you say, until shown otherwise, is not.