    Dead Souls II FAQ

    Written by Cratylus @ Frontiers, November 2006

    What is Dead Souls II?

    How does it differ from Dead Souls 2?

    Why are you releasing Dead Souls II into the public domain?

    Why don't you release Dead Souls 2.x into PD?

    Why did you remove the documentation?

    Why would anyone want to run this crippleware?

    Hey this file doesn't look like it's PD!

    I would have let you release my stuff into PD. Why didn't you ask?

    Ok, where do I get it?

    What's the catch?

    What is Dead Souls II?

    Dead Souls II is a public domain version of Dead Souls. It contains
    much of what was released as "Dead Souls 2.1.1", meaning it
    is dramatically more featured and complete than the previous
    public domain version, which is Dead Souls 1.1.

    It is critical to note that the driver source and
    windows executables are most emphatically NOT public domain.
    The contents of v22.2b14/ and win32/ are copyrighted
    material, and it does not belong to me, so I cannot release
    the rights to that.

    Only the stuff in lib/ in the Dead Souls II distribution
    package is public domain.

    How does it differ from Dead Souls 2?

    The main differences are:
    - Roman numerals are used in the name, to distinguish the versions.
    - DS II does not contain documentation files in /doc.
    - All of the library files (NOT the driver!) are public domain.
    - Some files not written by me have been removed, notably stargates, LIB_SHOP, and the commands: about, boards, dsversion, quell, unquell, arch, wiz

    Why are you releasing Dead Souls II into the public domain?

    I started the DS resurrection project for the fun of it. I'm not under the
    delusion that this will make me money. I'm in it because I like lib coding,
    and it was really fun to do.

    DS 1.1 being in the public domain dramatically facilitated the project,
    and it has always been my intention to make DS available to the public,
    so they can enjoy it as much as I have.

    Along the way I've run into all sorts of nasty people who appear to
    take pleasure in nitpicking details about licensing and whatnot. I
    really couldn't care less about such stuff. I just like to code. The
    rest is just a game of "gotcha" that I can't be bothered to participate in.

    So, in releasing my code into the public domain, I achieve the following:

    1) I give back to the community a little piece of it in shape better than I found it.
    2) I increase the likelihood that someone else will pick it up, make it their own, and also give back.
    3) I get to not think about licensing, which is just a waste of my time.

    Why don't you release Dead Souls 2.x into PD?

    The material in Dead Souls II is the stuff that I'm done working with.
    It's static.

    But I'm still working on Dead Souls development in general, and while
    I'm still doing that, I'd like to exercise some measure of control
    over it. I'm still working on Dead Souls 2.x, and for that reason, I
    am retaining my rights to it for now.

    Why did you remove the documentation?

    Two main reasons. First, a lot of it isn't mine, so there's that.

    Second, I feel differently about the release of prose. It's one thing
    to free code...its use is unambiguous and somehow it just makes sense.

    But to me, my prose represents more of an expression of my creativity,
    as opposed to the simple sweat that code is.

    This doesn't mean you can't use it. You're welcome to use the
    documentation from the non-PD version of Dead Souls. I'm just
    not releasing it into the public domain.

    Why would anyone want to run this crippleware?

    Well, see, it's not crippleware. Sure, there are a few files I
    removed because they're not mine, but in terms of code, DS II and
    DS2 are something like 99% the same.

    Hey this file doesn't look like it's PD!

    I've gone through the lib with a fine-toothed comb. Even if it
    seems like someone is explicitly retaining rights in a file,
    you can safely presume that this file was already PD by the time
    I got it.

    If you're certain, though, that I've missed something, please
    let me know, and I'll address it right away.

    I would have let you release my stuff into PD. Why didn't you ask?

    The authors of the files I excluded might be surprised that
    they weren't asked about including their material in DS II. With
    the exception of the author of one file that would have been an incredible
    hassle to rewrite from scratch, I decided not to contact authors. I
    simply didn't include other people's stuff.

    The reason isn't that your stuff isn't "good enough".

    It's that I wanted everyone to see that I'm putting my
    money where my mouth is. Before asking anyone to give up
    their IP for free, I wanted to demonstrate that I'm not
    asking you to do anything I wouldn't do myself.

    So, you can probably expect that there will be at least one
    more release of DS II, including stuff that folks sign
    off on turning public domain.

    Ok, where do I get it?

    Download the new public domain version of Dead Souls here:

    http://lpmuds.net/files/deadsouls/dsII.zip

What's the catch?
You can expect to find a few bugs here and there in Dead Souls II
that are fixed in more recent versions of the 2.x family. This
is because DS II is, as I mentioned before, static.
If you run into trouble running DS II, you can certainly
ask for help, but if the problem is resolved in later versions of DS 2,
I'm not going to develop a fix for DS II. If you're using the
public domain version, I assume it's because you're a DIY kind
of person. So...DIY.
The only advantage to using DS II over DS 2 is that you know
you can use the lib in nonstandard ways, like fork lib development,
sell it to the Chinese, whatever, and I simply cannot prevent
you from it.
If all you're doing is running a mud, though, DS II really
doesn't do anything for you. I'd suggest installing one
of the current, proprietary versions of DS 2.
But hey, at least now you have a choice one way or another,
and choice is good.
The end.
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