On at 2022-07-17 13:42 +0200, Liam Proven wrote:
I wrote a story about this on the Register:
https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/15/cpm_open_source/
Bryan Sparks (president of DRDOS Inc, which is still around) has given
official permission for the modification and distribution of "CP/M and
derivatives". It's on the Unofficial CP/M Web Site:
http://www.cpm.z80.de/license.html
Since CP/M-86 is a derivative of CP/M, as is DR-DOS, Concurrent DOS,
Multiuser DOS and so on, this would seem to be an important legal
precedent.
No, it is not a proper FOSS license. That takes lawyers and lawyers cost money.
But it's the next best thing and I suspect as good as we will ever get.
That's great news, thank you! For the record, here is the exact wording
that we get. The old wording from the 2001-10-19 email:
Let this email represent a right to use, distribute, modify, enhance and
otherwise make available in a nonexclusive manner the CP/M technology as
part of the "Unofficial CP/M Web Site" with its maintainers, developers and
community.
I further state that as Chairman and CEO of Lineo, Inc. that I have the
right to do offer such a license.
Lineo and its affiliates, partners and employees make no warranties of any
kind with regards to this technology and its usefulness or lack thereof.
The new wording in the 2022-07-07 message:
Not sure how to "officially" clear this up except to modify the original email content
removing the constraint to the website/group that was mentioned. So, perhaps, this
will suffice:
"Let this paragraph represent a right to use, distribute, modify, enhance, and otherwise
make available in a nonexclusive manner CP/M and its derivatives. This right comes from
the company, DRDOS, Inc.'s purchase of Digital Research, the company and all assets,
dating back to the mid-1990's. DRDOS, Inc. and I, Bryan Sparks, President of DRDOS,
Inc. as its representative, is the owner of CP/M and the successor in interest of
Digital Research assets."
On the assumption that DR-DOS is included among the CP/M derivatives,
which would agree with the fact that DRDOS, Inc. did sell DR-DOS 7.xx
(and the shortlived DR-DOS 8.xx) and so had the rights to those, this
means that EDR-DOS is now free!
As for this being "not a proper FLOSS license", I think it is clear
enough that it allows usage, distribution, and modification, which is
all that is needed for free software. It is true that this is what
people call a "crayon license", but a lot of free-ish DOS software does
have such. I consider this free software.
Regards,
ecm
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