AberMUD-4
Michael Lawrie
breaking the law if they have a copy of this program. I am not sure how this
came about and don't really think anyone is that bothered, but in order to set
things straight for the record...
When the Americans took and edited the old AberMUD (it can be traced as coming
from Southampton University) they changed it and redistributed it with an
apparent disregard to copyright and broke rather a lot of the conditions laid
down in the original license (enclosed).
A quick summary of the points ignored is:
1) When they modified Soton-AberMUD and re-distributed it, they didn't
distribute a copy of the original source with it.
2) They didn't include a copy of the AberMUD license with the copy they
then distributed.
3) They changed the Unveil password, something expressley forbidden in
the original license.
4) They missed three people out of the credits who were responsible for
quite a lot of alterations to the Southampton version. Wether they
were in the credits originally is not that certain, though they were
on the title page.
5) The didn't ban or disallow use of the special arches mentioned.
6) They spelt "Aberystwyth" wrong in their documentation.
I feel that if the author of a program (especially a program as popular as
AberMUD) distributes a program freely with so few conditions then the least
people could do is try to abide by them.
Michael Lawrie.
---
AberMUD conditions of distribution. Southampton, January 89.
Conditions Of Distribution Of AberMUD
-------------------------------------
The Software, both source code, design and scenario are copyright Alan Cox,
Richard Acott, Jim Finnis, And Leon Thrane, save for the Blizzard pass section
of the scenario which is (C)1988 Alan Cox, save for versions of the scenario
on the ZX Spectrum 128K microcomputer.
(C) 1987/88 All rights reserved.
The software is freely distributable providing that the distribution
conditions and the restrictions placed upon the distribution, as stated herein
are also passed on with the software and that none of the rights to
distribute AberMUD and to use it may be denied to the recepient, neither
may the recepient be asked to surrender any of these rights.It is the duty of
the distributor to ensure that this file is distributed WITHOUT MODIFICATION and
to take reasonable steps to ensure that the recepient of the software is aware
of its existance. A statment to the effect of "Please read the distribut file
carefully" will be regarded as reasonable.
The software shall not be used in any form or variation to make any form of
commercial gains, be they financial or otherwise. Anyone wishing to use the
software for commercial gains should contact the authors, as listed above in
the copyright message.
The software shall not be distributed to other people, unless this message,
and the original source are distributed. You are welcome to distribute
modified sources ONLY if the original is included too. We welcome the
distribution of modified sources, or versions of the software ported to other
machines, subject to these conditions. However the UNVEIL command shall
neither have its password changed, nor the command be disabled to any player
of the game, on this or any subsequent version of the game. (The function of
the UNVEIL command is to enable the three people who know the password to
set their own level). Also, the UNVEIL code shall not be altered in any
respect!
No additional aid of any form will be made available nor will any advice be
given on its upkeep and modification save if the authors decide to do so on
their own whim.
The personas Anarchy, White, Atropos, Silverlake, Moog, Debugiit, Lorry,
Tbag and Wraistlyn shall not be used by any persons, and shall have suitable
passwords set upon them to ensure this, save with the permission of the authors.
The user of the system is however free to change the special privileges
wired into these personas to suit himself, and his own personas, with
the exception of the UNVEIL command, which must be left unaltered.
The credits list for the game may not be altered save for the addition
of new credits, which must be clearly seperated from the original credits
with a statement which makes it clear that the extra credits are NOT credits
to the original version.
None of the names on the copyright message printed by this program shall
be removed from the copyright message.
These conditions on the release of AberMUD are to be governed by the law
of England as of 17/5/1988.
Finally we would like to thank the following people
Chris Samuel Who wrote much of the debugging utilities for the original
"Judge Death" Honeywell version of AberMUD
Robert Ash Our Honeywell system manager whose advice on the original
"SYS$MAN" Honeywell version has proved invaluble, and whos comments
that it was not possible started this whole crazy lark
Lorry The ArchWizard
For the idea of SETIN SETOUT .... (and maybe a couple of other
things :-)
Arthur The Button
And other mindless amusements which kept us happily insane
Terry Hawkes For development to the Southampton version of the game.
Life
Without which it would be a) impossible and b) pretty pointless
Dave Price Our Unix Support squad, who very kindy conveniently overlooked
Tim Cairnes the huge amounts of filestore that I have been using recently,
Gavin Harrold to develop the game system
And all the many people who have played the game, giving it life and meaning
and whose invaluble comments have helped to improve the game system, and
who have proved beyond doubt that I can't spell suddenely
WE PROVIDE NO WARRANY OF ANY SORT FOR THIS SOFTWARE. ABERMUD IS
PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY OF ANY KIND , EITHER EXPRESSED OR
IMPLIED INCLUDING , BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND
FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. THE TOTAL RISK AS TO QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF
ABERMUD IS YOURS. SHOULD THE SOFTWARE PROVE DEFECTIVE WE MAKE NO UNDERTAKING
TO CORRECT OR REPAIR FAULTS WITHIN THE SOFTWARE.
WE, AND ANY OTHER DISTRIBUTORS OF THIS SOFTWARE AND MODIFIED FORMS OF
THIS SOFTWARE ARE NOT LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES CAUSED BY THE OPERATION OR
FAILURE TO OPERATE OF ABERMUD UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, AND REGARDLESS OF
THE FORM THOSE DAMAGES MAY TAKE, EVEN IF YOU HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE
POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES OR OF ANY OTHER CLAIM.
THROUGHOUT THE CONDITIONS OF DISTRIBUTION, ABERMUD SHALL BE HELD
TO INCLUDE ALL OF THE COMPONENTS OF ABERMUD OF WHAT EVER FORM, BE THEY
GENERATED BY THE SOFTWARE OR SUPPLIED.
/* Old Reference */
For reference this is release 3.7.14
Anyone with release 3.7.13 already need install only the new bprintf.c module.
/* New Reference (Lorry Oct 88) */
We lost version numbering quite a while back, however, it is fair to say that
this is an entirely new version of AberMUD and is not compatible in anything
other than user-file formats with any previous version. Its probably safe to
call this 3.7.16.