Author: Peter Berger
Date: 04:39:55 01/08/04
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I really don't understand how this licensing scheme is supposed to work, and even less after reading your explanations. a.) Someone might write a Gothic Chess engine just for the kicks. He doesn't need a license, obviously. Though your patent might forbid to even do this, everyone can write any piece of code for his personal and private use - no one can monitor this. b.) He might write an engine to take part in your championship(s). He needs a license to take part, but why all the trouble (for both sides) ? You could simply ask for a slight fee to enter the prize championship itself with similar effects. Some people might still decide to go for the license to be able to participate, but I don't see the benefit for either side. c.) He might want to offer his engine for free download later. Very unlikely IMHO. But let's assume someone were interested - he obviously needs to be sure that you won't rise prices later, so there would have to be some kind of contract - most likely to guarantee an eternal 1$ price. Even if 40-50 people did this (which is a *very* high estimate) , you wouldn't make any profit at all. But in reality I don't expect anyone to go through this kind of trouble just to potentially offer something for free later - this should be against your interests though, as you probably want to rise the popularity of Gothic Chess. d.) He might consider to go commercial eventually. This is the only section where I can understand the purpose of a license system. But no one will know that when he starts - so he would first get your cheap 1$ license, and at the moment he starts to consider going commercial seriously, he would be in for some negotiations with you. It is easy to predict how this will influence the decision to commercial Gothic Chess programming - as it is not possible to calculate the risk beforehand (let alone the potential market ;) ), it is very unlikely anyone will give it a try. As you are a vendor of Gothic chesssets and similar stuff I understand the need for a patent in general. But when it is about the programming side, I don't think your license policy makes too much sense - and you should consider to change it IMHO. It's all none of my business of course - but as you chose to discuss it here ..
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