23 Dec, 2010, Lyanic wrote in the 1st comment:
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I saw this posted on TMC, but I decided to cross-post it here:

"But have a look at dbnu.info:4321. Check out 'help donations'…"

Rabble rabble rabble!?

Seriously, though, policy violations is serious business.
23 Dec, 2010, tphegley wrote in the 2nd comment:
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This guy is on my server. I will contact him about it. As of December, he said he wouldn't be back until January.
24 Dec, 2010, David Haley wrote in the 3rd comment:
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Was it ever conclusively determined that taking donations actually, legally violates the license? I thought that was still a raging flame war somewhere…
24 Dec, 2010, Zeno wrote in the 4th comment:
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Iccy deemed it against the license in his view for us auditors. But the audit panel is down right now, so…
24 Dec, 2010, Lyanic wrote in the 5th comment:
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David Haley said:
Was it ever conclusively determined that taking donations actually, legally violates the license? I thought that was still a raging flame war somewhere…


They're not just taking donations. They're selling in-game stuff in exchange for "donations".
24 Dec, 2010, tphegley wrote in the 6th comment:
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I've sent him a message about it and pointed the link to here.
24 Dec, 2010, David Haley wrote in the 7th comment:
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Ah, well, giving in-game stuff in exchange for donations is much more clearly against the license. That wasn't clear from the OP. (I don't think that Iccy saying this or that is really a legal resolution of the other question, by the way.)
24 Dec, 2010, dbna2 wrote in the 8th comment:
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For some odd reason my copy of dbsaga didn't have the copy write files for smaug or Diku or Merc for that matter. I have recently just read the files as soon as tphegley got a hold of me. Rewards will no longer be given out for donations. Please note that I apologize for any problems this may have caused, and it will not happen again. But take ease in knowing that all Donations have went towards the mud, whether it was given to the server owner as a donations for upgrades, paying for the server, or domain name.
24 Dec, 2010, Igabod wrote in the 9th comment:
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I don't get why people keep using the word "donation" here. You're not donating anything when you give money to a person in exchange for something else. A donation is given without the expectation of anything in return. It's called a transaction when something is given in exchange for money.
24 Dec, 2010, Mudder wrote in the 10th comment:
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I agree with Igabod. If you provide IG things with a respective price, that is selling. Though if someone were to donate an arbitrary amount of cash and you gave them an arbitrary gift they had no certain way of knowing whether or not they would receive then, I think, it becomes a "thank you" gift and not a merchant/customer transaction.
24 Dec, 2010, Lyanic wrote in the 11th comment:
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Igabod said:
I don't get why people keep using the word "donation" here. You're not donating anything when you give money to a person in exchange for something else. A donation is given without the expectation of anything in return. It's called a transaction when something is given in exchange for money.

That's why I put "donation" in quotes. The only reason the word is used at all is because that's what they were calling it (ie: 'help donation'), trying to skirt the issue.

Mudder said:
Though if someone were to donate an arbitrary amount of cash and you gave them an arbitrary gift they had no certain way of knowing whether or not they would receive then, I think, it becomes a "thank you" gift and not a merchant/customer transaction.

However, that is not the case here. Their 'help donation' entry explicitly laid out what each $1 of "donation" earns for your character.
24 Dec, 2010, David Haley wrote in the 12th comment:
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It might be nice if the original post were edited to make it clear that these are not donations – the OP does not make it clear that these are crystal clear violations, and not the debatable (or at least debated) question of actual donations.
24 Dec, 2010, kiasyn wrote in the 13th comment:
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IRL you donate to breast cancer and get a pink ribbon etc.. how would this sort of thing translate into MUDland
24 Dec, 2010, David Haley wrote in the 14th comment:
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I believe that if you got a purely decorative item that did nothing and served no purpose whatsoever other than saying you donated, it would be acceptable. At least, assuming you're in the camp that believes donations are acceptable in the first place…
24 Dec, 2010, Asylumius wrote in the 15th comment:
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I've always been of the opinion that accepting donations is fine, so long as all the revenue goes towards hosting costs, advertising, etc., and that no rewards are given in-game (or that would otherwise provide any kind of advantage).

I know of a couple MUDs that have CafePress stores, for example, and I think that's fine too.

Until a real copyright / IP lawyer sits me down and explains it to me in person, I'm going to base my opinions on the spirit of the license, which in my opinion, is that donations are okay as long as they aren't used to thinly veil the purchasing of equipment, levels, etc.
24 Dec, 2010, Jamdog wrote in the 16th comment:
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I wonder how likely it is that Sebastian Hammer, Tom Madsen, Katja Nyboe, Michael Seifert or Hans Henrik Staerfeldt will suddenly file a lawsuit against any Diku-family MUD that openly charges players for in-game perks?

I suspect it's pretty unlikely…
25 Dec, 2010, Runter wrote in the 17th comment:
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These breast cancer organizations aren't bound by relatively draconian licensing. If you can't self fund your game don't use diku.
25 Dec, 2010, quixadhal wrote in the 18th comment:
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Jamdog said:
I wonder how likely it is that Sebastian Hammer, Tom Madsen, Katja Nyboe, Michael Seifert or Hans Henrik Staerfeldt will suddenly file a lawsuit against any Diku-family MUD that openly charges players for in-game perks?

I suspect it's pretty unlikely…


Translation: You can probably get away with stealing their work and doing what you want, despite the intentions of the authors, so why not?

*shrug* Probably true. All I can say is what goes around, comes around. While people here will shun you for knowingly violating a license, and you may think that really doesn't matter much. A few years down the road, your name and/or work might be noticed and remembered by someone who did care, and it might cost you a future job or the ability to sell a future product because one of those people you didn't care about suggested you had a history of copyright violation.

The internet never forgets. As Runter said, if you want to collect money for your game, write your own driver or shop around and choose one that allows such activities. If you're serious about making your game, you're going to be putting a LOT of time into it anyways, so spend a few extra weeks to do the research. If you were just tossing something up to whip up a few rooms and bash things… don't bother. We have plenty of those kinds of games already.

Happy non-offensive, non-denominational, holiday season!
20 Feb, 2011, Rarva.Riendf wrote in the 19th comment:
Votes: 0
'You may under no circumstances make profit on *ANY* part of DikuMud in any possible way.'
Err if donations only covers the running cost of operation can you call this 'profit' anyway ?
20 Feb, 2011, Cratylus wrote in the 20th comment:
Votes: 0
Rarva.Riendf said:
'You may under no circumstances make profit on *ANY* part of DikuMud in any possible way.'
Err if donations only covers the running cost of operation can you call this 'profit' anyway ?


http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionar...

Quote
3: net income usually for a given period of time


Net income is one possible way, regardless of how you use the money.

-Crat
http://lpmuds.net
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