I was unclear when I made my statement. By 'clean' I meant the code was being rewritten from scratch. I am using the Netrek XP 2006 v1.2 codebase as a reference for the protocol and behaviors, but not using the code. The new code will be released under BSD with proper attribution. Sorry for the confusion. Appropriate files will be checked into source control shortly. -----Original Message----- From: netrek-dev-bounces at us.netrek.org [mailto:netrek-dev-bounces at us.netrek.org] On Behalf Of Zach Sent: Monday, April 09, 2007 1:59 PM To: Netrek Development Mailing List Subject: Re: [netrek-dev] Windows C# client On 4/9/07, mark at mark.mielke.cc <mark at mark.mielke.cc> wrote: > > Writing from scratch is an unusal description for a protocol that I do > not believe to be well documented. :-) > > I suggest that Dave is speaking about offering credit to the original > authors of any works that are used as a reference for re-implementation. > Even if not legally required, it is a gesture of goodwill that would > avoid people being upset, such as Trent on a similar issue. > > In terms of legality, it is grey. If I could prove in a court of law > that your code was originally mine, it doesn't matter if you change > the names of a few variables, or changing the indentation. This came > up with the recent SCO claims to UNIX, and therefore Linux. In a true > clean-room implementation, the coders would preferably have never seen > the code they are re-implementing. If I can prove that my coders have > never even looked at the software, than any similarities could be more > easily written off as coincidence, or common programmer methodologies > or patterns. > > For Netrek, I doubt that you could write a Netrek client without using > another implementation as a reference. It might be re-architected, but > the content will be the same. I see. Thanks mark. Maybe we can have "Write netrek client in clean room" contest to attract wider netrek attention from the global developers community :) Zach _______________________________________________ netrek-dev mailing list netrek-dev at us.netrek.org http://mailman.us.netrek.org/mailman/listinfo/netrek-dev