Q_Liberator copyright

[pjw]

Im trying to find the copyright status of Q_Liberator. I believe it was liberated at some point but I cant find any reference to it.

[RalfR]

??? Meanwhile it is freeware.

From Dilwyn's site: "QLiberator is a comprehensive BASIC compiler for the Sinclair QL's on-board SuperBASIC language. Originally marketed by Liberation Software as a commercial product, the compiler and some associated utilities were made freeware in 2017 by the authors, Ian Stewart and Adrian Soundy."

Ah ok, I think I understand... The copyright of the (original) code is still by both programmers. This might raise the question of whether we were even allowed to decompile and recompile it...?

[dilwyn]

That statement was written by me, based on my interpretation of what had been agreed at the time, and is not a statement by Ian and Adrian.

They had indicated a willingness to release the sources, but those original sources could not be recovered.

This is my opinion of the copyright status of the post-Liberation versions. If there is doubt, what I write below should be judged by someone with more legal expertise. I am NOT in contact with Ian and Adrian to check directly with them.

In the absence of the sources being retrieved and released, the decompilation of Q-Liberator into its component sources should be an acceptable substitute in my opinion, since the release of the original sources had already been agreed. Any derivative work made from those decompiled sources should remain original copyright of Ian and Adrian and only released in accordance with what was agreed with those authors for the Liberation Software versions (last release v3.36), but with appropriate credits for those involved (Martin and Per).

[RalfR]

Not to forget Embee, who has made all the big work .

[dilwyn]

Not to forget Embee, who has made all the big work .

Of course.

[pjw]

Thanks for your input. I guess the closest we get to a "contract" is this here viewtopic.php?p=17851#p17851. RWAP will no doubt have the correspondence somewhere should the need ever arise.

Ive just finished putting together a new Qlib V3.46 distro. The reason I havent changed the version number is that the code has not changed. However it now comes with almost all of the toolkit code extensively commented. This makes it easier to understand each toolkit by itself, and thereby also reveals some of the inner workings of the compiler.

All the toolkits have been reassembled and the resulting code recompiled with the BASIC source code to check that it all works. Most of the included documentation has been revised and hopefully improved a little, with some missing information added and much of the waffle excised.

I recommend updating the Source (or Systems) disk for those who are interested in how Qlib works. The User disk has not changed much but the added information might be found useful. If youre only interested in original QL systems, Qlib V3.36 should be all you need. However, V3.46 will also work on original QL systems although you may have to update some of your other software, such as TK2.

As the dumbest mistakes usually only reveal themselves the moment AFTER one presses the PUBLISH button, I would be glad if one or two people would offer to review this distro before it goes for general distribution. PM me for the download link. After three or four days its "published and be damned!"

[NormanDunbar]

I would be happy to give your work a review to see if all was ok. However, I don't really use Qliberater all that much and I certainly don't "put it through the mill" with my SuperBASIC code.

I shall give it a miss this time for those reasons, however, I must thank you for all the hard word, it is appreciated even if I can't make use of it, others can.

Cheers,
Norm.