Path: news.daimi.aau.dk!news.uni-c.dk!newsfeed.sunet.se!news00.sunet.se!sunic!news99.sunet.se!news.luth.se!eru.mt.luth.se!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!newsfeed.internetmci.com!howland.reston.ans.net!blackbush.xlink.net!news.dfn.de!fu-berlin.de!zrz.TU-Berlin.DE!lise!wpp From: wpp@lise.physik.TU-Berlin.DE (Kai Petzke) Newsgroups: comp.lang.beta,comp.object Subject: Re: Mjolner BETA System available for Windows 95 / NT Date: 22 Jan 96 14:37:05 GMT Organization: Technical University Berlin, Germany Lines: 89 Message-ID: References: <4do5sf$39d@krone.daimi.aau.dk> NNTP-Posting-Host: lise.physik.tu-berlin.de X-Newsreader: NN version 6.5.0 #7 (NOV) Xref: news.daimi.aau.dk comp.lang.beta:10628 comp.object:50886 datpete-nospam@daimi.aau.dk (Peter Andersen) writes: >The Personal Edition contains the following components: > * Complete basic system, including BETA compiler with native code > generation, basic libraries with text, file, containers, system > utilities, etc. > * Platform-independent GUI framework > * Persistent store > * Hard copy manual including an overview of the language and tutorial > to the Mjolner BETA System > * Complete manuals in PostScript format >Price: 60$ [...] >The Personal Edition contains the following components: > * Complete basic system, including full-blown native compiler and basic libraries > with text, file, containers, system utilities, etc. > * Complete GUI frameworks: > - XtEnv, AwEnv on UNIX and Linux platforms > - MacEnv on Macintosh platforms > - Lidskjalv on Windows 95 and Windows NT platforms At the beginning of this press release, you say, that a platform independant GUI framework is included with the Personal Edition (at least on Windows 95/Windows NT), while later in that same document, you mention platform dedepandant GUI frameworks, like XtEnv and AwEnv. I would be happy, if you could clarify on that issue. [...] > * The Personal Edition System may not be used for any commercial > purposes. Software developed using the Personal Edition System may not be > sold. In my opinion, these terms are quite hard, and may even not reflect, what Mjolner wants. Therefore I suggest to change it to: * The Personal Edition System may not be used for any commercial purposes. Software compiled with the Personal Edition System may not be sold. Why do I suggest this change? Well, think of a student, that visits a BETA course at university, and therefore gets the Personal Edition for free. She starts hacking with BETA, starts to like it. While toying around she writes a small GUI application. Two months later, she gets a small programming job for some company. They need an GUI, which is just an extension of her toy GUI. With the original copyright, she will have to completely re-write the full GUI, because she will never be allowed to sell the software, which she already developped with the Personal Edition. With the modified copyright terms, our student is only required to buy a license for the full BETA system, so that she can now commercially use those routines, that she already wrote. >Software developed using the Personal Edition System may be freely >distributed without payment (shareware). Again, I need some clarification. Shareware is *distributed* without payment in the first place. However, users of shareware are requested to pay some money, the registration fee, when they use the software for longer than a testing period. So my question goes: is it ok, that I use the Personal Edition to develop some software, give it freely to my friend, and send him a bill two months later? Or do you mean "Freeware" instead of "Shareware"? I am sorry for being so picky on the legal terms. But too often, I have had to watch, how unprecise legal terms started to get their own life, once courts and judges interpreted them in their own way. Kai -- Kai Petzke, Technical University of Berlin, Germany http://www.physik.tu-berlin.de/~wpp/ to learn about Linux, Postgres and BETA. wpp@marie.physik.tu-berlin.de for regular e-mail How fast can computers get? -- Warp 9, of course, on Star Trek.