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nhl · 04-29-2006, 09:55 AM

There's many more, me included, that disagree with the statement, and this even though we're not running DIKU's or even making money from our MUDs. And I don't have any "agenda" as far as Medievia or commercial MUDs are concerned.

In the case of Medievia, the DIKU driver is constantly being put in the spotlight, and all the other work that Medievia has done, is constantly ignored. I'm pretty sure that with the DIKU driver alone, Medievia wouldn't be able to get, nor keep, any paying customers. The reason people chose to play there, is because of all the content and auxiliary systems they themselves have added to the DIKU platform. If they were running yet-another-DIKU-clone with minimal customization, then I would agree that it's a blatant ripoff of the DIKU teams work, but that is not the case.

I find it strange (and also utterly restrictive) that 5% of the sourcecode (26k lines versus over 500k lines), most (if not all) of which has been recoded since, would still affect the use of the whole codebase. I do not think this is what "derivative work" refers to, and I'll reiterate again, that several lawyers have been asked for their opinion (I consulted one who specializes in international IPR litigation) and their professional opinion has been that the DIKU license would not apply in the case of Medievia. (It would apply were I to sell copies of it, and likely if I were to make profit by running a stock DIKU).

04-29-2006, 09:55 AM	#23
nhl Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 37	There's many more, me included, that disagree with the statement, and this even though we're not running DIKU's or even making money from our MUDs. And I don't have any "agenda" as far as Medievia or commercial MUDs are concerned. In the case of Medievia, the DIKU driver is constantly being put in the spotlight, and all the other work that Medievia has done, is constantly ignored. I'm pretty sure that with the DIKU driver alone, Medievia wouldn't be able to get, nor keep, any paying customers. The reason people chose to play there, is because of all the content and auxiliary systems they themselves have added to the DIKU platform. If they were running yet-another-DIKU-clone with minimal customization, then I would agree that it's a blatant ripoff of the DIKU teams work, but that is not the case. I find it strange (and also utterly restrictive) that 5% of the sourcecode (26k lines versus over 500k lines), most (if not all) of which has been recoded since, would still affect the use of the whole codebase. I do not think this is what "derivative work" refers to, and I'll reiterate again, that several lawyers have been asked for their opinion (I consulted one who specializes in international IPR litigation) and their professional opinion has been that the DIKU license would not apply in the case of Medievia. (It would apply were I to sell copies of it, and likely if I were to make profit by running a stock DIKU).