Hi Rich,
a specific proposal has already been put forward to Wolfgang many weeks
ago. It was a small exception for Qx0 in the license, which was to allow
free public distribution of the official Qx0 binaries, while I personally
contribute the fee for Tony Tebby.
For ease of use, I wanted a one-time payment, but I also offered to pay for
additional boards, should the number of boards be higher than expected.
The reason behind this idea was to make sure that every author who writes
code for Qx0, can be sure his executable will be *available*, regardless of
my person. This would give the non-commercial authors a feeling of savety
that their code won't be lost. This will surely not motivate folks like
Richard for major work, but maybe he would contribute a minor fix now and
then. I don't know.
Do you think it could help to re-phrase this to suit the latest draft and
mail it again?
Or would this only lead to further accusation and escalation?
The problem here is that it does fragment the community - I see nothing in the current licence which prevents giving the binaries away for nothing, provided that the 10 Euro fee is still paid to TT for each new copy sold (or given away), so long as you register as an authorised reseller.
Maybe you could highlight the particular clause which prevents this. I think you should be wary of having a specific clause to say that all Qx0 binaries can be distributed freely because this may put off anyone who does want to do some commercial coding for the Qx0. We don't have to worry about people passing the binaries around, as anyone who has a Qx0 will have SMSQ/E already.
As for future support, since the resellers all currently offer free upgrades, it is unlikely that you need to worry about what happens in the future should you not be around..
Let me know the exact clauses in the licence which are stopping you from doing what you want and this gives a point to move forward from.
Rich Mellor
RWAP Software
7 Common Road, Kinsley, Pontefract, West Yorkshire, WF9 5JR
TEL: 01977 614299
http://hometown.aol.co.uk/rwapsoftware
