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From: bright@dataio.Data-IO.COM (Walter Bright)
Newsgroups: net.sources.games
Subject: Empire
Message-ID: <1222@dataio.Data-IO.COM>
Date: Mon, 22-Dec-86 14:35:57 EST
Article-I.D.: dataio.1222
Posted: Mon Dec 22 14:35:57 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 1-Jan-87 19:01:17 EST
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Ed states that VMS Empire has passed through so many hands that it is
public domain. It is true that it has passed through many hands, but it
is not public domain. The originals were stolen from me and were submitted
to DECUS. If someone, say, got the sources to Microsoft's MASM, and spread
them around, that certainly would not make MASM public domain. Why is it
different because I don't have the resources to go around suing people?

For all you netters out there, I have looked at the sources posted, and they
are obviously derived from the originals that I wrote back in 1977, even
down to the obscure variable names. The man page for it is nearly word
for word what I originally wrote.

DECUS withdrew from publishing the source to EMPIRE after I showed them
the originals I had done. Please do me the courtesy of deleting the postings.

By the way, the original was in Fortran-10 for a PDP-10, which is way
before either VAXes or VMS existed.

I'm sorry if I got a little hot under the collar, but most of the time
people who wish to post Empire have been nice enough not to after I
requested them not to, and I appreciate that.