Newsgroups: comp.mail.mush
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!gumby!smaug!cs.hope.edu!jipping
From: jipping@cs.hope.edu (Mike Jipping)
Subject: Re: X version of mush?
Message-ID: <1991May6.121505.11107@cs.hope.edu>
Sender: news@cs.hope.edu
Reply-To: jipping@cs.hope.edu
Organization: Hope College Dept. of Computer Science
References:  <12641@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM>
Date: Mon, 6 May 91 12:15:05 GMT

> Are there any plans to port mush to Xwindows? I'm running Sun's
> OpenWindows now and I'd like to have my mushtool back!

This brings up an interesting question that's been in the back of my head
for a while.  Maybe the MUSH gurus can clear this up for me.  (NOTE: this
is not a flame, and I do not mean to offend.  I'm just musing about
something that's been on my mind.)

I understand that MUSH as gone commercial -- in the form of ZipMail from
Zipcode, Inc. (or is that Zipcode Software, Inc.?)?  I've also read -- in
this group -- that users and/or potential porters of MUSH are expressly
forbidden from producing an X version of same.  I understand that ZipMail
is the X version of MUSH with some pretty funky enhancements.

Given that the above is correct (please right me if it is not), I have
some questions:

   (1) Can someone -- even the authors -- retroactively place
       restrictions on a piece software whose source has been placed in
       the public domain?  

   (2) If so, what in the MUSH copyright allowed me to compile it and/or
       fix bugs I found in the first place?  Has that changed now that
       restrictions have been placed on it?

	(3) Now, what about this --> using recently posted software, I can
       generate a Sun devGuide-compatible specification of a SunView
       application and eventually turn it into an OpenWindows
       application.  (devGuide is a GUI design tool).  By rearranging the
       buttons and windows, changing the code to match OpenWIndows/X
       semantics, and calling this MUST (Mail User's Shell Two), have I
       violated the restriction above.  Since I have a non-enhanced
       version of MUSH, am I illegally in competition with Zipcode
       Software?

I'm just musing.  As someone who has benefitted greatly from public
domain contributions (I'm using GNU Emacs to contruct this message!), and
one who donates once in a while, I'm curious about these issues.

Thanks for a discussion, and for not ad-hominem flaming.

      Mike Jipping
      Hope College Department of Computer Science
      jipping@cs.hope.edu  (BITNET: JIPPING@HOPE)

      "Koo koo ka choo"
                  -- Simon and Garfunkel, "Mrs. Robinson"