Alltalk and some of the architectural framework
of Coops have occupied nearly all my free time
for the last 15 years. Alltalk itself has been
in development since 1980.

When I brought Alltalk to MTS as a rapid prototyping
tool, I obtained an understanding with the Arch 3
development manager that in so doing I was not
resigning any copyrights or other legal claims
to the software. I just wanted to use my own
tools at work and allow others to do so at no
charge.

Later, when Alltalk began to get deployed in
system MTS intended to ship to customers, I
felt it necessary to have a legal understanding
with the corporation. I hired a laywer and drafted
a license agreement which vice president Dick
Clark signed with me in 1989. This agreement
allowed MTS to ship my software without charge
and insulated me from personal liability.

This is how matters have remained until recently
when my job assigments have been entirely out
of Minneapolis. Because I am away from home,
it has not been possible for me to perform
my gratis maintainance of Alltalk. Other
engineers at MTS have asked to have copies
of the source code so they can evolve the
product themselselves, but I have been reluctant
to do so because I don't want loose control
of the product and compromise my legal title
to the code.

A solution that seems reasonable to me is
to place Alltalk in the GPL license framework
used by Linux and many other freely available
software packages. This would allow me to
release the sources on the Web, continue
maintain the product myself and also permit
MTS engineers to make contributions without 
any implied claim to the software itself.

Consequently, on March 1, 2000, the website
www.csparks.com/Alltalk will contains a 
source and binary distrubution of Alltalk
that will be publicly available, subject
to the terms of the GPL license which
appear on the site.

I am asking MTS to relinquish any implied
or explict claims to derived work that
is included with the current standard Alltalk
release that has nothing to do with any MTS
engineering applications. This is necessary 
because many engineers at MTS have made suggestions,
discovered bugs and otherwise prompted
me to make changes to the software.
All this work has been performed off company
time except in a very few circumstances where 
grave emergencies in the field called for a 
rapid response from me.

In exchange for this release, I will
remove clauses from the MTS license that
currently prevent the company from redistributing
the software as Alltalk. This will allow
MTS to proceed independently from me should
I for any reason no longer be employed.
I feel this is a better outcome for
MTS because Alltalk has become a significant
resource that should remain in control
of the company with or without my help.

Should MTS decide not execute this release,
it will be a serious inconvienice to me
and under such circumstances I would feel
compeled to withdraw the current license
and execute a contract that would require
payments from MTS to cover the
time I have spent maintaining the product
on my own time. I would also feel obliged
to resign.
 
If MTS chooses not to accept such a charge,
the current license does permit MTS to
retain a copy of my source code for their
own use as of the date the original contract was
executed, but this version of the software
is almost 10 years old and will not operate
with any current MTS applications.

I earnestly feel that it would be in the
best interest of the company to execute
this agreement as it will cost the company
nothing and will allow everyone to use
the software as they think best.

-Hugh Sparks, sparks@winternet.com






