Up to Main Index Up to Journal for October, 2012 JOURNAL FOR TUESDAY 16TH OCTOBER, 2012 ______________________________________________________________________________ SUBJECT: No GPL for WolfMUD - Halloween trick or treat? DATE: Tue Oct 16 21:06:20 BST 2012 Recently I have given a few people preview copies of the WolfMUD prototype. I've still not released/published the source or binaries yet :( However, from the feedback I've received, I think I'm aiming my editor in the right general direction :) So ... What next? I'm code wrangling like mad and plan to release the prototype for Halloween come hell or high water. It may still be missing a few tests. It may have a few lines of uncommented code. It may even be a complete and utter shambles. Like any good self respecting genie in a bottle, it will be released! However, it will not be released under the GPL ... ... ... *plink* [1] I have thought long and hard about this and even written a couple of journal entries on my deliberations. Finally I have decided *NOT* to release under the GPL. OK, calm down, calm down, stop swinging your keyboards around[2]. Finished? That's better. Now then. WolfMUD will be released under the BSD 2-Clause License[3] OK, settle down, settle down... Why? Selfish reasons of course ;) I want WolfMUD to reach the largest audience possible. To do that the less barriers there are the better. Have you tried reading and understanding all of the GPL license and it's implications? I *WANT* people to take WolfMUD and make changes that turn it into *THEIR* WolfMUD. I don't want tonnes of identical WolfMUD clones out there on the internet. I want each WolfMUD to have some uniqueness. If people want to contribute code back then that's great, but you don't have too and you can still distribute your version. Should you want to contribute code back to WolfMUD you can. Instead of having to complete a Contributor License Agreement (CLA) you can release your patches under the BSD 2-Clause License and I can fold the changes back in with your copyrights on your code/patch and attribution in a contributors file.[4] More finer details to come. So 14 days and counting... __ /// / __ __ \ \/ __ \/ _ \/ _ \\/\/\// \ \/\/\/ / -- Diddymus [1] ASCII like most forms of text does not emit sound effects very well. If it did you would recognise this as the unmissable "pin drop in silence" special effect #42. [2] I shudder at the thought of what damage a hefty IBM Model M would do to someone's skull. I also shudder at the thought of the damage inflicted on the person wielding such a keyboard with reckless abandon :) [3] See https://opensource.org/licenses/BSD-2-Clause [4] You are not signing away your copyright. You are licensing your patches and giving me the right to use your code under the same terms as you can modify and use my code. Up to Main Index Up to Journal for October, 2012