Why I equate RR/MC with LEGO - FREE, 'FREE' and UNFREE

[Mathewson]

In my house I have about a cubic metre of LEGO. This
consists of a nucleus of LEGO pieces that were given to me
for Christmas 1965, bits bought with my pocket money as a
child, a whole lot I bought from a shop going out of
business when I was 22, some given to my children, and some
I found in a plastic bag next to a dustbin in Scotland
(some people are just plain stupid).

My children and I often make things with these LEGO bits:
whose constructions are they?

Well: 

1.the intellectual property rights are ours.

2. The bits from which the models are constructed belong to
us.

BUT, some of the pieces are not simple cubes, but all sorts
of fancy, twiddly bits invented by LEGO employees.

Presumably I am legally quite entitled to give away / sell
my model of Alezander Nevsky Cathedral in Sofia without the
LEGO company slamming a 'cease and desist' order or
somesuch on me. Presumably I can also market the design
(while making it clear that it requires LEGO bits).

Just to make things really awkward, I also have pieces from
a toy set made in Malaysia that fit together with LEGO. Now
I haven't a clue whether those Malaysian pieces are
'Original' or constitute a rip-off of LEGO.

OK, OK . . . I also have Original install floppies for
Hypercard 2.2.1 and so on.

NOW the big question is, surely, how like LEGO Runtime
Revolution and Metacard are?

I have just had an e-mail from Jane Weidman, who works for
Canonical (i.e. Ubuntu Linux) and she says I cannot release
my EFL programs under a NU-type licence.

This is getting a bit black-and-white again, and what is
needed is a MIDDLE WAY - a licence (ideally authored under
the supervision and approval of RR) that RR/MC authors can
use when they chose to release their end products made with
licenced versions of RR/MC into the FREE software arena.

sincerely, Richmond
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See Mathewson's software at:

http://members.maclaunch.com/richmond/default.html
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