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I don't think you're understanding the dynamics of running a commercial MUD. Outside of MUDs that got their playerbase from the AOL days (Simutronics' games, etc), I think most successful commercial MUDs (including ours) would never have succeeded without the large hobbyist MUD community growing the market in the early and mid 90s, and DIKU was a big part of that. Creating a market is -much- more expensive than plugging into an existing market, and I know Iron Realms would not have had the resources to create a market for text MUDs if one didn't already exist (particularly given that our resources in the early days consisted pretty much only of my time/sweat).
So I think there's an argument to be made that most of us benefited from DIKU's release, including me personally. I just don't see that as particularly relevant though, insofar as the DIKU team apparently doesn't feel it's even really being harmed enough to bother with their very clear legal avenue, and I'd agree. It's hard to point to any real harm they are suffering if the violations people allege are happening are indeed happening.
I also think DIKU II is a non-issue. DIKU was in the right place at the right time, which doesn't diminish its contribution, at all. To presume that DIKU II would have seen any similar success is baseless, particularly given that it's the legacy of work built on DIKU that makes DIKU valuable more than DIKU itself.
--matt
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