Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!iuvax!uxc.cso.uiuc.edu!tank!uwvax!rocky.cs.wisc.edu!g-tookey
From: g-tookey@rocky.cs.wisc.edu. (Richard Schaut)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Legal to include Command.COM on disk of commercial s/ware
Summary: Definitely a no-no.
Message-ID: <8248@spool.cs.wisc.edu>
Date: 26 Aug 89 23:04:51 GMT
References: <8908262022.AA00807@cunixd.cc.columbia.edu>
Reply-To: g-tookey@rocky.CS.WISC.EDU (Richard Schaut)
Organization: U of Wisconsin CS Dept
Lines: 29

In article <8908262022.AA00807@cunixd.cc.columbia.edu> ia4@CUNIXD.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU (Imran Anwar) writes:
|
|	PLACING A COPY OF COMMAND.COM ON S/WARE FOR SALE: LEGAL?
|
|A friend of mine is developing a program for the IBM PC line but for it
|to be functional it has to have an uncorrupted Command.COM on the same
|disk.
|
|Does he need IBM's permission to do this or pay royalties or what?

COMMAND.COM is a licensed part of DOS, and, therefore, cannot be
distributed outside of the licensing agreement.  However, I
question your friend's desire to distribute COMMAND.COM.  It's
quite impracticle, because COMMAND.COM checks for the version of
DOS it's running on.  You'd not only have to distribute COMMAND.COM
but also the two hidden files IBMBIOS.SYS and IBMDOS.SYS.  What's
wrong with giving clear instructions on how to create a working
disk using the version of DOS that the end user has?


Rick
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