distribution of changes

distribution of changes

[forsyth]

>>a member of an organization that has a licensee (I'm proud that
>>I sneaked that clause into the shrink-wrap).
that explains it.  i thought that clause was stunning.  thanks very much!

distribution of changes

[Felix]

Dennis Ritchie:
> It would be reasonable to assume for practical purposes that anyone
> who goes to the trouble of subscribing to 9fans is either a licensee or
> a member of an organization that has a licensee (I'm proud that
> I sneaked that clause into the shrink-wrap).

cute.  but at the moment, I'm neither, and probably not going to find
a spare $350 (plus $ for a disk drive, etc.) in the immediate future.

well, can I claim that I'm a member of an organization called the USA?
but there's probably a legal definition of "organization" that
precludes this..
--

distribution of changes

[Dennis]

The question arises

   Since we are bound by the licence not to distribute modified versions 
   of THE SOFTWARE to anyone without a licence, do we have a plan by 
   which we can authenticate licensees?

It would be reasonable to assume for practical purposes that anyone
who goes to the trouble of subscribing to 9fans is either a licensee or
a member of an organization that has a licensee (I'm proud that
I sneaked that clause into the shrink-wrap).

Anyone can get the entire authentic source for $350.  I'm quite
certain that quoting fragments of it on a mailing list, or archiving
repaired versions of things on an FTP site, is unlikely
to be objectionable until the quantity grows
to a level at which Plan 9 can be reconstructed more cheaply
by seining out its source from the list--that is, the point at which
demonstrable harm begins to exist.  If that happens, expect
mail from us asking you to stop, please; also expect mailbombs
from 9fans readers who already have the system and don't
want to find another copy in their mailboxes.

	Dennis