#C LTD
6 messages in this thread
Ben, thank you for the (almost) complement, but I must tell you
that writting a driver (vd0:) is much easier than writting a handler
(ram:).
Can I have some feed back on the following:
1.3 workbench comes with a recoverable ram disk that supports the
1.2.1 kickstart autoboot stuff. This allows you to boot from your
recoverable ram disk. However, the recoverable ram disk is (apart
from the autobooting) a giant step backwards. It does STATIC memory
allocation and is quite slow.
I don't have time to add autobooting to vd0:. What I was wondering
was what would you people think if I released the source code to
the recoverable ram disk. Would anyone out there be interested in
adding the autoboot stuff? I might be willing to do so ONLY if I
can be sure that it would be impossible for anyone to SELL the
derivitive code as a product. Anyone have a feeling for the
legal issues here?
BTW adding autoboot is not hard.
Perry
/exit
Perry,
I like the idea of you giving the source to someone you feel can and
will do the job correctly. But I really shudder of all the hacks that will
emerge if you made the code freely distributable! I hope Ben picks up the
gauntlet cuz I know he could do it justice.
Perry,
I go along with Steve on this one… release it to someone you can trust,
rather than making it generally available. While I have always been a fan of
freely available source code, I doubt you can safeguard against commercial
explloitation of the code with any practicality.
-larry
Perry,
I'd love to see your source code…BUT there are legal issues for you
to consider. I certainly understand why you don't want the source and/or
deritivatives of it used in commercial products..why should someone else get
paid for your efforts! That's the rub…how do you prove their code came
from your code? Any fairly competent programmer can change code a bit,
rewrite a few sections here and there and suddenly you have no way to prove
the source was a derivative of your code.
It only takes 1 selfish person to screw things up for us honest
folks, so it's up to you…yes, I'd certainly like to see the code.
Don
Perry,
It's not really a legal problem with restricting further commercial use of
your source code, it's the practical problem of proving that a particular
commercial product uses your source and the expense inherent in prosecuting
such a claim in court. I assume that you've copyrighted your code. As owner
of the work, you can license its use on any lawful condition you want. But
legal rights these days really are worth no more than the practical ability
to enforce them. Lawsuits of the sort you'd have to consider to protect your
intellectual property rights in this field tend to be very costly and often
are difficult to justify on a dollars and cents basis.
I think you'd be far better able to police license restrictions if you
were to license a _small_ number of people and thereby be better able to
control things and trace any violations.
Darron
Perry – I think you need to read the file on the "readMe" disk of the 1.3
gamma4 stuff titled "You Must Read This" very carefully… I think you just
made public some non-public things; probably should delete that message, too.
In any case, I'd prefer you NOT release your vd0 code – someone would only
break it and confuse the issue – if you're going to release it, give it to
someone who you *know* will carry on your tradition of sharp, bug-free
coding… cheath, or someone like that. Someone community minded, and
technically immpeccable. –Ben–