Hi Jim,
>> PAKU PAKU By Jason M. Knight, Paladin Systems North. >> Version 1.6 - 9 November, 2011 >> >> Halted: Graphics Sound Timer - Releasing Memory - Complete >> This game is released as "Cardware". If you enjoy it please send a postcard >> to: It says IF you ENJOY it then PLEASE send a postcard. This is not a required registration and it does not override the following: >> Source Code (C) Jason M Knight and released to the public domain. If you are >> going to give something away, lands sake just GIVE IT AWAY!!!. Can he be any more clear about giving it away? > Also: The exit message says the source code is both "copyright" (C) > and released into the public domain. You can't have both. You cannot do the copyleft "inverted (C)" sign in DOS text mode. > If you release something into the public domain, you give up > all rights. That settles all other questions. > So which is it? Is the software "cardware" (only enforceable if you > claim copyright) or is it "public domain"? You can't have both. And > unless Jason M. Knight is here to clarify, we can't provide insight > to intent. It is public domain, as clearly stated in the license. Do not condemn people for mentioning that they love postcards and thereby "tainting" the purity of their gift to the public domain... Solving your paranoia about the license by rejecting a perfectly fun clone of Pacman is not what makes the distro any better. > I don't believe changing just the documentation will be enough here. > The game prints this message, which is precompiled into the game exe: > >> Please note that Beyond the Titanic is a SHAREWARE game. Try to sue the authors for improperly freeing their own game ;-) > There are several red flags that point to this being a shareware game. > The biggest red flag is there on the top line: it says it's shareware. > It even puts it in ALL CAPS so you don't miss it. The question is whether those who made it free and open source actually own the copyright. As they also released the source, they are in any case not just some weirdos who confuse abandonware with freeware. Chances are that the actual authors wanted to liberate their software. The problem is: Will you be able to contact them to get a waterproof license and binary from them? We are having the same problem with AHCICD right now. The survivors of the author have uploaded unchanged sources and binaries to a website which clearly states that nobody should try to pay for registration, while everybody should enjoy the software including source, but because they are no programmers, they have not changed and copyright messages displayed by the old binaries and, alas, not even the old readme files. > Eric seems to have a lot of time and seems vested in trying to > keep these games, so perhaps Eric can do this. Nope. I already wasted a lot of time to recompile NGE Nibbles and there still are some people breathing in my neck that I have to fix the documenation of THAT to properly adhere to the license of NGE Nibbles. At the same time, I am trying to resist the temptation to make NGE Nibbles use PCX instead of RAW graphics. Wondering whether that would also force me to create PCX versions of the grabbers to keep the toolchain in the source code semi-complete: The original tools to draw the artwork are unknown anyway, so I could just convert the art and put a note somewhere that artists will have to SOMEHOW convert the raw files produced by the grabbers into PCX now. If they want to use the grabbers while producing new artwork at all, that is? This could also be TGA instead of PCX. In both cases, the game would only be able to load SOME of the various flavors of compression, color depth etc. of the format. Eric _______________________________________________ Freedos-devel mailing list Freedos-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-devel
