Re: IF archive on CD-ROM


24 Oct 1995 12:55:24 GMT

In article 95Oct24120354@stint.cl.cam.ac.uk, gdr11@cl.cam.ac.uk (Gareth Rees) writes:
>Unfortunately, Walnut Creek cannot legally publish the contents of the
>IF archive without checking each program and each game for its licence
>to see if it may be legally distributed (and it may not, unless it has a
>licence to say so). In cases where a program has a licence that does
>not explicitly allow commercial redistribution (I am presuming that the
>Walnut Creek project is a for-profit project) Walnut Creek will have to
>contact the author and negotiate a licence agreement.
>
>In fact, almost none of the material on the IF archive has a licence
>permitting commercial redistribution. "The Magic Toyshop" is one such
>(beging released under the GPL), but I'm not sure there are any others.
>
.
.
.
>It seems to me that there is an obvious reformulation of the GNU General
>Public Licence which would achieve this. I would suggest something like
>this:

...
> 3. You may charge a fee for the act of transferring a copy.
...

Why would you need to reformulate the GPL? It is there already
(in version 2):

1. You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the Program's
source code as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you
conspicuously and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate
copyright notice and disclaimer of warranty; keep intact all the
notices that refer to this License and to the absence of any warranty;
and give any other recipients of the Program a copy of this License
along with the Program.

You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy, and
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
you may at your option offer warranty protection in exchange for a fee.

Bjorn Gustavsson