[Coco] drivewire serial port progress

[Aaron Wolfe]

I agree it's ambiguous, but I think he was trying to say you can do
whatever you want on your own machine ("you own programs") but you
can't use his code in something that you distribute to others ("for
public release").

Legally, I don't know if his license would hold any water anyway, but
I like to follow the spirit of these things rather than the letter.

The code is not very complex, and Mr. Olsen's implementation is very
basic.  The virtual modem I'm just now finishing up for DriveWire is
much nicer (supports more commands, more efficient, etc).  Porting
this to the Windows version will be easier than adapting Internet
Modem anyway :)

-Aaron


On Mon, Nov 30, 2009 at 11:42 AM,  <farna at att.net> wrote:
> I disagree. Olsen says "You are free to use this code in whole or part for your own programs." That is pretty clear. "... you may not use this code in any way to create the same type of program for public release." does seem to be contradictory.
>
> The way it looks to me is that he doesn't want you to use it as the basis for creating a similar program (just adding enhancements, for example) then distributing it as your own. If you use parts of his code in your program in unmodified condition, and the program isn't simply an "Internet Modem" program, you should be within his intent. You're working on a DriveWire server, which is not an Internet Modem program. You want the server to contain the functionality of such a program, but it is more than just that. I don't think his intent was to prevent anyone from using the code or he'd have left the first statement out. You should be fulfilling his desire if you use the code and acknowledge his contribution in comments in the source. There should be no legal problems here at all since he first states the code can be used -- unless your DW Server is just an Internet Modem...
>
>
> ------------------
> Date: Sat, 28 Nov 2009 22:59:47 -0500
> From: Aaron Wolfe <aawolfe at gmail.com>
>
> Just started working on the Windows code for the Drivewire
> improvements I'm working on.  The license for the "Internet Modem"
> code mentioned above states:
>
> '* This code belongs to Terry R. Olsen
> '* You are free to use this code in whole or
> '* in part for your own programs. But you may
> '* not use this code in any way to create
> '* the same type of program for public release.
>
> I'm interpreting this to mean Mr. Olsen is not granting rights to use
> his code in another project, so using it as the basis for additions to
> Drivewire (or CoCoNet) seems to violate the terms.  I think I will
> write the modem portion from scratch as I did on the linux side, it
> isn't that much work.
>
>
>
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