Re: Licensing, distributing Apple II system software, and IIcomputing

[Rubywand <rubywand@swbell.net>]

Eric Shepherd writes ...
> 
> in article 39DBB63E.EA313E77@swbell.net, Rubywand at rubywand@swbell.net
> wrote on 10/4/00 3:59 PM:
> 
 ....

> > confusion about the status of DOS 3.3 in a more positive light.
> 
> There's no confusion here.  I discussed the matter with Apple Software
> Licensing and they made it clear that A2Central.com's license does not
> include DOS 3.3.

     While excluding DOS 3.3 seems pretty dumb, it is not an impossibility. The exclusion
would, however, constitute an odd amendment to the User Group Software Distribution
Agreement presented at http://developer.apple.com/mkt/swl/pdf/UserGroupSDA.pdf .

     The same document (Exhibit A on page 7) specifies "Apple II System Software" as an
included group and mentions DOS 3.3. If your particular agreement has the "Apple II System
Software" provision but lacks specific mention of DOS 3.3, the most reasonable
interpretation would be that someone at Apple figured out that DOS 3.3 _is_ Apple II
system software and deleted the mention to avoid redundancy.

     Support for the above comes from a simple definition of terms along with the
observation the ProDOS is not mentioned in the exhibit and, yet, is supposed to be
included. (If ProDOS is "system software", so is DOS 3.3.)  A similar consideration would
apply to Pascal. Then, too, common sense tells you that excluding DOS 3.3 and Pascal makes
no sense.

     Basically, it looks like you got a pretty sorry reading of your distribution
privileges from your Apple rep. (You might contact someone connected with another user
group, like Sandy Warnken, to see if he or she has heard anything about excluding DOS
3.3.)


> 
> > The reference to A2Central.com "members" is odd for a free public on-line
> > 'zine. Magazines generally have subscribers, not members. 
> > Possibly, A2Central.com has been registered as a kind of users group.
> > This would automatically convey a license to distribute Apple's II
> > series software to members.
> 
> A2Central.com is a registered Apple User Group.  Being a user group doesn't
> automatically convey a license to distribute Apple software.

     Which is why the statement you quote specifies _registered_.


> You have to
> fill out and sign a 14-page Software Distribution Agreement and have Apple
> sign and return a copy to you before you can do so.  We made the software
> available for download -- including the license agreements you must agree to
> before downloading the software -- immediately upon receiving the signed
> agreement back from Apple.  A2Central.com is proudly in full compliance with
> the terms of its license with Apple.
> 
 .....

     Good; and, good luck with your software distributions.



Rubywand