Mark Guzdial wrote:
> 
> >Stephen Pair wrote:
> ><snip>
> > >
> > > P.S.  We'd like to give special thanks to the GA Tech Squeakers for their
> > > contributions to Swiki.net and Swikis in general.
> >
> >It's nice to give them thanks, but it seems wise that they avoid
> >using SWIKI.NET according to the license terms, lest they be found
> >guilty of modifying, translating, reverse engineering, decompiling,
> >disassembling, or creating derivative works based on, or copying
> >SWIKI.NET. (Who's creating derivative works from whom here?). And
> >watch out for transferring any part of the SWIKI.NET software (like
> >Squeak, Comanche, Swiki, etc.). It's forbidden by the license. And
> >no one may use the name or mark SWIKI.NET or any rendition thereof?
> >Did Mark Guzdial surrender his rights to the name Swiki?
> 
> Mark S., could you please help me interpret your first sentence?  I
> lost the antecedents for "them" and "they."  Are you saying that we
> at Tech could no longer use the term "Swiki" or any Swiki software
> *IF* we use Swiki.Net because use of Swiki.Net puts us under their
> license, and their license says that we can't do anything with
> "swiki" software?  (That does seem funny, since "Powered by Comanche"
> is emblazoned on the front page :-)

Yes, I was referring to the GA Tech Squeakers (but it seems that anyone developing their own Comanche and Swikis variations might be at risk if they use the service). So while Stephen mentioned returning some of their work to the community in one of his emails, the license to use the SWIKI.NET service seems very unfriendly.

> 
> The deal that I struck with Ga Tech lawyers was that GaTech retains
> ownership of PWS and Swiki and the successive versions that we
> develop (such as Comanche), but releases them for use, modification,
> and inclusion with Squeak.  My interpretation is that GaTech would
> not claim ownership of variations of PWS developed by others. We
> didn't argue about the names of anything.  I don't know what rights I
> have to the name "Swiki" since it's clearly derivative of Ward's
> "Wiki."
> 
> I'll talk to Stephen off-list about it.
> 
> I should mention, to be up-front about my role in all this, that I am
> a member of Advantive's Board of Advisors.  Even if I wasn't, I
> certainly would like to see them succeed at their efforts! I was not
> involved in setting up the company nor am I any kind of principal in
> the company -- Stephen and his colleagues decided to work at
> commercializing Squeak and Swiki technology on their own, and then
> they approached me about advising them.  None of the GaTech Squeakers
> are currently working for Advantive (though they're trying to snare
> some of our graduates :-), nor do we receive research funding from
> them. However, we are working cooperatively on our research efforts,
> e.g., finding and correcting bugs, improving the robustness and
> efficiency of Comanche and Swiki.
> 
> Mark
> 
> --------------------------
> Mark Guzdial : Georgia Tech : College of Computing : Atlanta, GA 30332-0280
> (404) 894-5618 : Fax (404) 894-0673 : guzdial at cc.gatech.edu
> http://www.cc.gatech.edu/gvu/people/Faculty/Mark.Guzdial.html


-Mark Schwenk