[Kde-games-devel] Updating AMOR

[Sean O'Brien]

I asked the author to release it under the GPL in an e-mail (still waiting for 
a reply), but I think we could use the code anyway.  See the license below.

The author seems a bit confused about the GPL (which he calls the "GNU public 
license"), and his major concern seems to be "free as in beer".  Of the 
source code he says, "You are free to use the source files in any way you 
wish, as long as credit is given.", provided the software remains monetarily 
free.

As far as porting it is concerned, I know very little about C.  However, the 
code seems clean and the Windows-specific sections are nicely separated (and 
should be relatively easy to alter or remove).

I'll join kde-devel and drop an e-mail there, unless someone else knows a more 
specific place this should be discussed.


Full text of license.txt:

Neko 95/98 Source Code License 
 
Note: Because Neko was originally written by 
Masayuki Koba, and ported from his X-Windows 
source code by David Harvey, different portions 
of the Neko source code carry different licenses. 
 
 
IF YOU WANT TO CHARGE FOR YOUR SOFTWARE 
--------------------------------------- 
If you use any of the following files in your software, 
you MAY NOT charge for it as it is covered by the GNU 
public license:  
    Neko.h    Neko.cpp 
    Neko98.h  Neko98.cpp 
 
 
If you use any of the following files in your software, 
you MAY charge for it, but must send 20% of the profit or 
from that software, or $1000 to the author (address at the bottom). 
    Pet.h             Pe1t.cpp 
    DesktopHack.h     DesktopHack.cpp 
    DesktopPet.h      DesktopPet.cpp 
    AlwaysOnTopPet.h  AlwaysOnTopPet.cpp 
 
 
All other files can be used freely as long as credit is given. 
 
 
IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO CHARGE FOR YOUR SOFTWARE 
---------------------------------------------- 
You are free to use the source files in any way you wish, 
as long as credit is given. 
 
 
AUTHOR'S ADDRESS 
---------------- 
dharvey at btinternet.com 
For security reasons, mail me and I'll give out my address. 
 
 




On Monday 22 May 2006 14:51, Andreas Beckermann wrote:
> On Monday 22 May 2006 20:36, Kleag wrote:
> > Le Lundi 22 Mai 2006 20:22, Sean O'Brien a écrit :
> > > I'm currently working on some more AMOR themes copied from the web and
> > > the Windows program Neko98 (based on oneko).  I also would like to see
> > > much of the code (or at least similar functionality) from Neko98 ported
> > > to KDE and merged with the AMOR codebase.  I also think it would be
> > > wise to include
> >
> > It seems (but I'm not a lawyer) that Neko98 is a freeware and not an open
> > source program. So, for direct porting, there would probably be licensing
> > issues. The same for graphics.
>
> I agree. See below.
>
> > Others, what's your opinion ?
>
> A short look into
> http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Haven/4173/neko98_4.zip reveals a
> file "license.txt" that says:
>   This program is totally unsupported FREEWARE [...]
>
> So this program is freeware - but that file does not say anything else
> about the license. This means you are allowed to copy it for free, nothing
> more. In particular you are not allowed to modify the code and/or
> distribute any modifications. Also you are not allowed to charge any money
> for a copy.
>
> So unless there are some other statements somewhere, this program is
> definitely incompatible with the GPL or pretty much any other open source
> license - it simply is not free software.
>
> And you are certainly not allowed (unless stated otherwise by the author
> somewhere) to use any parts of that program in your own work.
>
> Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer either.
>
> > Kleag
>
> CU
> Andi
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