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Subject: Re: Copying Crafty... Issues?

Author: KarinsDad

Date: 08:52:12 02/18/99

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On February 18, 1999 at 04:19:50, Bruce Moreland wrote:

[snip]
>
>I think there are some bad traps here.
>
>We have the following things that can be done to a freeware program:
>
>A1) Minor evaluation changes.
>A2) Major evaluation and extension changes (plays very different).
>A3) Gut the entire thing and leave nothing but the UI, essentially.

There is another possibility which some people may feel is a gray area.

A4) Use it as a development test suite. In other words, develop your own
components to replace Crafty components, but speed up your development (in some
areas, slow it down in others due to the massive interrelationships between
Crafty components) by having a set of code which will temporarily do all of
those things that you need in a chess program that you haven't yet coded. When
you are finished, there isn't a byte left of Crafty source, but you used it to
create your own.

I personally think that even though you keep this on a standalone machine in
your basement and you replace every line of code (and the project structure,
etc.), that you have modified Crafty. You have just done it many times and
didn't let anyone know you were doing it. However, I can see where others would
disagree that this is a totally new program (it is) and therefore, it isn't
Crafty. My problem with it is that the copyright is clear on changes and does
not care about the whys or wherefores (i.e. the intent of the person modifying
the code is irrelevant to making those changes public). This is a harder area to
make a judgment on.

KarinsDad



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