Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!psuvax1!psuvm!cunyvm!ndsuvm1!mtus5!esdyke
From: ESDYKE@MTUS5.BITNET (Erick Dyke)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: NoiseTracker V2.0 out!
Message-ID: <90223.223448ESDYKE@MTUS5.BITNET>
Date: 12 Aug 90 03:34:48 GMT
References: <9008111912.AA01990@jade.berkeley.edu> <26554@usc.edu>
Organization: Computing Technology Services, Michigan Technological Univ.
Lines: 31

An interesting question would be, What if the modifications were distributed
as patches?  None of the original code would be released, the author would
get his bucks, and legit owners would get an improved program.

This has been done quite a bit on the Amiga....Patches for everything from
the PCTools from extras, to programs that remove security from programs
(A bit shady...But nice for legit users...) are distributed quite a bit and
no one seems to mind.  But...is it legal?

I talked to my company lawyer, for -hits and grins so to speak, and he was not
sure but it was his belief that you can mangle software you OWN as much as
you like, you just cant distribute it in MOST cases (More on that later), and
that you can market anything to enhanse an existing program the same as
you can write a book to use Word Perfect.  As long as you dont distribute WP
with your book.

The reason I said most cases above is that he thought that their was some
percentage, between 40-70%, that if you changed the code that much, and the
changes were -->INSERT some legal term for actual improvements not just bug
fixes, or changing the text for the help file <-- you could resell it under
a different name.

From my knowledge of programming it would seem to me to be real tough to add
40% of GOOD changes to a program, but who knows.....

Well, I did what he said not to do....Quote him...If anyone cares he said
he would try to find time to look for the actual laws on the stuff.  He said
that they seem to change daily, if anyone cares I post the actual stuff when
he finds it...

Erick