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Date: Sun, 04 Aug 2002 08:19:23 -0400
From: John Colagioia <JColagioia@csi.com>
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Subject: Re: IF library licence / game licence
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Kevin Forchione wrote:
> "John Colagioia" <JColagioia@csi.com> wrote in message
> news:3D4BDCBC.9060002@csi.com...
>>I would argue that supplying source for such things too early
>>*encourages* such bland rehashes, because there's less thinking
>>and programming involved.
> And when, do you think, is the appropriate time to release source for such
> things, so as to discourage their use in bland rehashes? At what point in
> time is there going to be more thinking and programming involved? 5 years?
> 10 years? 20?

I would think my position on the issue would be fairly clear, by now.
The author built it first; he gets "dibs" on deciding a release date,
whether that be before the game's release, simultaneously, five years
later, or never.

That's part of what choosing a license is about.

> Any decent or determined programmer can recreate any programming effect from
> a work of IF through experience and familiarity with the libraries involved.
[...]

Which means that the *motivated* programmers will do it, keeping the
uninspired rehashes to a minimum, since those motivations tend to be
(admittedly not always) story-based.

[...]
> Perhaps you mean *further encourages*, rather than simply *encourages*?
> Since regardless of whether the source is revealed, the mere injection of a
> new cool effect has been into the public conciousness will encourage
> rehashing and replication.
> It is, afterall, a phenomenon of the entirity of human endevor.

No, I meant "encourage."  Some people will do it with or without
encouragement.  That's the phenomenon you're talking about;
encouragement is more of an external force.

