Yes, the 4DOS license was my mistake and I feel really bad about it. When I originally spoke with Rex about releasing the 4DOS source code under an open source license, Rex was agreeable - but adamant that he did not want someone to copy his source code to create a competing commercial product on Windows.
We went back and forth on how to release the source code. IIRC, he didn't want the GNU GPL. We settled on the MIT license, but Rex wanted something added that would keep people from making a competing product on Windows. In one email to me, Rex Conn wrote: *>The only restrictions I'd put on the source code is that it not be used for**>an OS other than FreeDOS or any commercial products without my* *>permission.* I naively suggested Rex could add a term that said people could use it on FreeDOS. And that's what made it "not open source." (As I said - that was a mistake. I know better now.) The standard MIT license <https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT> is: Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions: The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software. THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE. The license from 4DOS.ASM is below. I highlighted the differences. IANAL, and I do not represent the Open Source Initiative, but I believe term 3 *might* (maybe) be acceptable because that term basically says you cannot turn this into closed-source software (parallel to the GNU GPL which says someone else cannot take a GNU GPL'd project and distribute it under a non-GPL license, or distribute without source code). I know that term 2 is the main problem, because it severely limits what you can do with the source code (for example: port it to Linux). I suggested something like term 2 to Rex, but Rex added term 3 on his own. If term 2 is removed from the 4DOS license, perhaps this would be an OSI-approved "open source" license. Ideally, terms 2 and 3 would be removed, so it's just a plain MIT license. ; Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy ; of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal ; in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights ; to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell ; copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is ; furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions: ; ; (1) The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all ; copies or substantial portions of the Software. ; ; (2) The Software, or any portion of it, may not be compiled for use on any ; operating system OTHER than FreeDOS without written permission from Rex Conn ; <rc...@jpsoft.com> ; ; (3) The Software, or any portion of it, may not be used in any commercial ; product without written permission from Rex Conn <rc...@jpsoft.com> ; ; (4) THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR ; IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, ; FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE ; AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER ; LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, ; OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE ; SOFTWARE. On Fri, Mar 27, 2020 at 4:15 PM Random Liegh via Freedos-user < freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net> wrote: > The problem is that while it's free to use and to modify on FreeDOS, it's > restricted to FreeDOS (officially speaking; rumour has it that you're > allowed to use it on any DOS based OS unofficially[1]). > > You can't (for example) port it to BSD and run it there. > > That makes it a non-free license in the GNU sense. I think one of the > goals of FreeDOS is to distribute software that you can do *anything* with > (including port to other OSes should you want to). > > I agree that the situation is wasteful, and I miss the addition of 4dos as > well. But I understand the thinking and it's valid. > > R. > > [1] https://www.4dos.info/sources.htm says: > > * contrary to the above permission "to deal without restriction". When > asked "what about MS-DOS, PC-DOS, DR DOS etcetera?", Rex Conn answered:* > > * I don't have any problems with people using it on those OS's > (although* > > * I'd be surprised if there was a lot of MS-DOS or PC-DOS action left).* > > * That license was written by the FreeDOS people – it was probably > worded* > > * that way because it's impossible to list every possible variation of > the DOS OS's.* > On 3/27/2020 12:07 PM, userbeit...@abwesend.de wrote: > > Hi! > > I just read > throughhttp://wiki.freedos.org/wiki/index.php/Releases/1.3/Packages. In > Section > Utilities 4DOS is marked as "no not include" for FreeDOS 1.3. > > ?!?!?! I thought that 4DOS was specifically free to use with FreeDOS. > Wasn't this the ONLY limitation of the license? Shouldn't it therefore > be completely free in a FreeDOS distribution, for private and commerical > use? Actually, this is the only way it was meant to be, wasn't it? > https://www.4dos.info/sources.htm > "The Software, or any portion of it, may not be compiled for use on any > operating system OTHER than FreeDOS…" > > A. > > > _______________________________________________ > Freedos-user mailing > listFreedos-user@lists.sourceforge.nethttps://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user > > _______________________________________________ > Freedos-user mailing list > Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user >
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