DOS ain't dead

License choice? (Announce)

posted by mbbrutman , Washington, USA, 23.10.2010, 23:36

Reading and considering ...

The thing that I am struggling with is that I have at least several hundred hours invested in the code, and while I am willing to share the code with like minded hobbyists I am not willing to let purely commercial users benefit from the work without having to put something back into it. So for me, GPL with copyleft is an option. Or a license that explicitly prohibits linking and reselling with commercial code.

Programming is art - this is a creation. My child if you will. I want to share the joy, but it would utterly irritate me to find out somebody was making money off of the code unfairly. Using the existing apps in a commercial environment would be fine. Building and selling a product based with the code included (linked in) would not be. I've had a few inquiries in the last year, so it is a valid concern.

On the other hand, I (and the rest of us) have benefited greatly from open source of all types. And during the day, I get paid to work on open source software. So I clearly understand the value.

My cost for commercial use would be fairly modest - a postcard and a bottle of wine. ;-0

As far as enforcing the license, I'm not too worried about it. The FSF has enough to do. If somebody wants to expend the effort to hijack the code, obfuscate it and try to hide it in their product then I really can't do much about it except pray that I never have to do business with people like that.

Sourceforge is always an option, but I expect this to be a pretty low volume project. I can probably get away with just using the current web page and devoting a small part of a web forum to it. That makes me the bottleneck, but it can always go to something bigger if the need is there. As fun as this code is, it's not DOSBox, Open Watcom or anything major like that.

---
mTCP - TCP/IP apps for vintage DOS machines!
http://www.brutman.com/mTCP

Complete thread:

• mTCP 2010-09-16 Version - mbbrutman, 17.09.2010, 02:16 (Announce)
  • mTCP 2010-09-16 Version - 60-Bytes-BUG fixed - DOS386, 13.10.2010, 03:43
    • mTCP 2010-09-16 Version - 60-Bytes-BUG fixed - mbbrutman, 13.10.2010, 06:16
      • mTCP 2010-10-20 Version - IP Fragments! - mbbrutman, 21.10.2010, 05:59
        • mTCP 2010-10-20 Version - IP Fragments! - ecm, 21.10.2010, 06:06
        • mTCP 2010-10-20 Version - IP Fragments! - Rugxulo, 21.10.2010, 08:21
          • mTCP 2010-10-20 Version - IP Fragments! - mbbrutman, 21.10.2010, 15:23
        • mTCP 2010-10-20 Version - IP Fragments! - ecm, 22.10.2010, 18:48
          • mTCP 2010-10-20 Version - IP Fragments! - mbbrutman, 22.10.2010, 20:40
            • mTCP 2010-10-20 Version - IP Fragments! - ecm, 22.10.2010, 21:59
              • License choice? - mbbrutman, 23.10.2010, 23:36
                • License choice? - Rugxulo, 24.10.2010, 00:55
                  • License choice? - mbbrutman, 24.10.2010, 16:19
                • License choice? | TEST | not DOG-BOX - DOS386, 24.10.2010, 04:05
                  • Problem reports - send me a TRACE! - mbbrutman, 24.10.2010, 16:15
                • License choice? - ecm, 28.10.2010, 23:02
                  • License choice? - mbbrutman, 29.10.2010, 01:33
                    • License choice? - ecm, 29.10.2010, 14:02
            • mTCP 2010-10-20 Version - IP Fragments! - Rugxulo, 22.10.2010, 22:24
              • License choice? - mbbrutman, 23.10.2010, 23:42
        • mTCP 2010-10-20 Version - IP Fragments! - Laaca, 29.10.2010, 07:51
          • mTCP 2010-10-20 Version - IP Fragments! - mbbrutman, 29.10.2010, 17:32
            • mTCP - TSR? - ecm, 29.10.2010, 23:31
              • mTCP - TSR? - mbbrutman, 29.10.2010, 23:50
                • mTCP - TSR? - ecm, 30.10.2010, 00:04