Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!psuvax1!vu-vlsi!cgh!paul From: paul@cgh.UUCP (Paul Homchick) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: Re: A Short History of Arching on Micros Summary: Some things are free, and some things aren't Message-ID: <759@cgh.UUCP> Date: 6 Oct 88 20:46:36 GMT References: <757@cgh.UUCP> <340019@hpsrli.HP.COM> Reply-To: paul@cgh.UUCP (Paul Homchick) Organization: Chimitt Gilman Homchick, Radnor, PA Lines: 123 After I wrote: &> Other BBS operators, tired of lawyers and the entire shareware and &> commercial jungle, began to endorse Zoo, as the only truly public &> format and program. Darryl Okahata (hpnmd!darrylo) wrote: & Just to clarify things, ZOO IS NOT PUBLIC DOMAIN. It comes with & some crippling (in my opinion) licensing restrictions, which almost & insures that it will not become widely used. Just to "re-clarify" things a bit, when I said that Zoo was "the only truly public format and program", I was contrasting zoo with SEA's ARC, and PKware's products and products-to-be; I was not making a statement of zoo's legal status. When compared to anything from SEA or PKware, both the zoo format and the zoo program are public. Essentially, you can do ANYTHING you wish with zoo, except that 1) you may not limit it's distribution, and 2) you can't break it and continue to call it zoo. Many incendiary statements about the zoo copyright policy have been posted on the net, but how many have seen the acutal thing itself? Here is the zoo copyright statement from the 2.01 source package. Draw your own conclusions: =============================================================== COPYRIGHT The following rules apply only to the zoo archiver itself. Currently, all extract-only programs, and all supporting utili- ties, are fully in the public domain and are expected to remain so for the forseeable future. Copyright Statement for Version 1.71 The distribution restrictions placed on zoo versions 1.71 and ear- lier are now relaxed. Version 1.71 and earlier source and the AmigaDOS and MS-DOS binary files may be distributed for any pur- pose, whether commercial or noncommercial, by anybody, provided (a) the files are distributed unmodified and (b) the recipient is notified in advance of being provided the software that "version 1.71 is an outdated version and version 2.00 and higher versions are now available from other sources". However, creation and dis- tribution of any derivative work is governed by the copyright statement for versions 2.00 and 2.01. Copyright Statement for Versions 2.00 and 2.01 The following conditions apply to the C source code, the MS-DOS support package, and to the MS-DOS executable code. Distribution conditions for J. Brian Waters's AmigaDOS implementation may differ and will be stated in the copyright statement accompanying it. "This program" refers to versions 2.00 and 2.01 and separately to each subsequent version of the Zoo archiver and to all derivative works thereof. "Distribution right" means any copyright, compila- tion copyright, license, or other right to control distribution or copying. "Compiled code" means software that can be executed by a computer system. This program is copyrighted but its distribution for noncommercial purposes is permitted, with the following restrictions. - You are prohibited from distributing this program as part of any package over which you claim a distribution right. This restriction does not apply if any distribution right is claimed only over individual items that you own or for which the distribution right has been explicitly assigned to you, and not over the package as a collection. - You are prohibited from making this program available for downloading via telecommunications if you charge a total of more than $8.00 per hour at 1200 bps during evening and night hours. - You are prohibited from distributing this program as compiled code unless you also distribute the source code from which the compiled code was obtained. This restriction does not apply if the compiled code was created by me. - You are prohibited from creating, from this program, any derivative work over which you claim a distribution right. - You are prohibited from creating from this program, whether deliberately or through negligence, any derivative work that violates the compatibility goals stated in the user manual for this program. - You may use this program, and any derivative works that you create, internally within your own organization free of charge. You may distribute such derivative works outside your organization provided you adhere to all other conditions of this copyright policy. The above restrictions may be relaxed by special agreement; please contact me for details. -- Rahul Dhesi 1988/08/25 UUCP: iuvax!bsu-cs!dhesi or pur-ee!bsu-cs!dhesi GEnie: DHESI Plink: OLS806 Phone: +1 317 285 8641 daytime EST US mail: 720 W. Centennial Ave #15, Muncie, Indiana 47303 =============================================================== Where does this say, "please send money"? Or, how about, "source code is available for $100,000." Does anyone see "don't bother asking for information about file layouts?" Or, "please inquire about our porting schedule to the Atari"? It looks to me like: [send no money], [here is the source code, have fun], [file layouts and compression methods are spelled out in the code], and [gee, if you want to port it to the Atari, please go ahead, I tried to make the source as portable as possible]. These provisions allow everyone, everywhere, to make and extract zoo files without making a monitary contribution or without fear of incompatible formats appearing. I suppose reasonable people could quibble about some of these provisions, but compared to the alternatives, the choice is clear. -- Paul Homchick UUCP: {allegra | rutgers | uunet} !cbmvax!cgh!paul Chimitt Gilman Homchick, Inc.; One Radnor Station, Suite 300; Radnor, PA 19087