From: BURROWS "Jim Burrows" Date: 23-Sep-83 07:26 PM To: BURROWS ! From list -> _SY:[230,216]DND.DIS Subject: DND/DEMO program To: @DND.DIS: This afternoon I had a conversation with Jerry Lester of DEC's legal department about the history of the DND.BAS/DND.B2S/DND.PAS/DEMO.PAS programs. After I described the origins of the game, and its indirect relationship to the Avalon Hill Telengard (TM) game, he told me what DEC's legal position in the matter has to be. 1) The program(s) MUST NOT, under any circumstance, BECOME a part of any of DEC or DECUS commercial offerings. 2) In fact, ALL COPIES of BOTH VERSIONS of the program must BE DESTROYED. The game must be REMOVED from ALL DEC COMPUTERS. 3) No further connections between DEC or DEC employees and Dan Lawrence's "dungeoning" game should exist. I got the very strong impression that if Jerry had found out about DND from any source other than one of the people involved, he would be taking strong official actions to effect all of the above. Further, we can be sure that if after a reasonably short period of time, it comes to Jerry's (or anyone else in legal, or any of a number of upper management) attention that there are still copies of the game around, some significant official action will have to be taken. Therefore, please go cooperate in getting rid of DND as quickly and as effectively as possible. Get rid of any copies you have, and pass on the information that this needs to be done to everyone you know who has a copy. Further, if you are aware of any copies that might have made their way out of the company, please inform me or Jerry Lester. DND is a great game, but we just can't afford to have it around given its questionable history and relationship to other companies' products. Look at this as an opportunity to motivate others or yourself to develop a new, better role-playing/adventure game that has no relationship to other commercial games. We've needed a new game for a couple of years. If you have any questions please call me. (Oh, and as an aside, don't accept games from non-DEC employees unless they can and do give you unconditional access to it, so that DEC's interests, claims, and responsibilities have no chance of overlapping or interfering with those of other companies.)