LICENSE It seems I am granting you a limited license to utilize this software. The program is copyrighted after all. So in that spirit, here are the "rules" you must follow: No more than 5% of the code (in bytes) may be used for your commercial/shareware/freeware products. For each subroutine you do use for your commercial/shareware products, I would like to see a royalty of one cent (per subroutine) for each copy of your program that you sell. No utility utilizing the data structures, files created by, or files of this software may charge a higher fee (shareware or otherwise) than the registration fee I charge. Programs by you that duplicate one or more of the registered commands will invalidate your registration. You are not authorized to release any of the registered code, in whole or in part. It is for your personal use only, and you are responsibile for its protection. Should the code, or any of the programs, that has been entrusted to your protection be found "elsewhere" your registation will be void. You are not authorized to breakup or alter these archives in any manner. You are authorized to distribute the non-registered files onto BBS's, give to friends, etc. Further, programs that use more than 5% of the code, or make use of the software's data structures may, at any time, be fully incorporated into future releases of this software without compensation or acknowledgement on my part. I GRANT NO RIGHT FOR ANY DISK SERVICE OR ANYBODY TO CHARGE ANY FEE FOR THIS PRODUCT. THIS INCLUDES ANY COSTS, INCLUDING POSTAGE AND HANDLING, THAT CAN BE IMAGINED. So, as long you distribute this product for free, I have no problems. It is allowed to be posted on on general payment BBS's, but may not be packaged with other software as part of a package purchase. You may not rent or lease it to others. CD-ROM services may include it on their ROM's. Shareware catalogs may include it in their catalog. Ok, lets get down and dirty: what I want to see is 3rd party software also include their source, and preferably be tested by me first--so I may optionally choose to include it in the next version (you always get credit for your work). If you go off and write a log analyzer (say) and charge a $50 fee for it, I reserve the right to, and probably will, include it in my source. However, since you may be unhelpful in said regard--I will most likely write a better one that utilizes many of your ideas and put it in the program. Why all this? It is mainly to keep quality control over the product, this includes keeping it up-to-date with the best possible routines and options. Any 3rd party software that pops up means I forgot something, or there is a better way to do it than I have done it. And all these silly rules will allow me to do it like the 3rd party guy did. Also, if you are using the code for commercial products then you (really) should develop it yourself--it is hard to maintain someone elses code. And this code will change often. The way around these restrictions: utilize my data structures/etc. as part of a general system (where you are making use of the data from many BBS programs or other). Even then I may "peel off" from your product your ideas, but at least I would not be absorbing your whole product. I want free and open software, 3rd party developers should only develop routines that can be added onto the source, and then released as part of the next version of this BBS software as a whole. The "proper" 3rd party product: 1. design a subroutine to work with this source, 2. send it up to my BBS, 3. I will confirm what it does, make sure it is compatible, and perhaps optimize it, 4. it will then be included as part of the source. If there is a capability/problem that a 3rd party developer sees, I will see it as well, and work to add/fix it. I really do not want to see a hundred files "related" to JDR_BBS--whether code fragments or fully functional sub-programs. If you want to write, say, a log analyzer program without running it by me first, you can BET that the next release will have a log analyzer written by me- -totally wasting your effort, and forcing me to re-invent your wheel. Perhaps the one thing that would really make me mad: if you were to take this software, and use most of it for your own BBS program. It does not matter what language you convert it into. You can reverse engineer it--like AMI/AWARD/etc. does with BIOS, or AMD does with INTEL chips. But like both of these examples, just because the specs are public domain, does not mean you can make duplicates. You can modify this software for your own use, but you cannot modify (or reverse engineer) this software and then re-distribute it (in any form). This has occurred with so many other BBS programs that it makes me mad that nobody out there seems to care. Example: you just bought an Amiga, and decide to make your BBS Amiga specific using the Amiga computer. Having run JDR_BBS for 10 years, you like it. So you make some modifications to get it to work properly on the Amiga. Fine. Then you get interest from other Amiga sysops. So you give them copies, or create a JDR_BBS-FORTHEAMIGA file and post it. Wrong. You should dump your modifications on me, then I will include them in the next release, with a configuration question: "IBM or Amiga?". You will get credit for your modifications, everyone gets an Amiga version, and we are all happy.