Profiles of those who have examined the Medievia IV code

Profiles of those who have examined the Medievia IV code

Richard Woolcock (aka KaVir)

I'm a professional software engineer in the telecommunications industry (although I've also worked in aerospace designing the software for LCD aircraft displays). I've been involved in mudding since University in 1993 and am probably best known as the creator of GodWars - a Merc 2.1 derivative codebase used by over 60 different muds. I also won the maintainability category of the 16K mud competition (scoring 10 out of 10 in that category) and came third place overall, only missing second place by 0.1 points (the score being out of 50).

Having reviewed the Medievia code extensively, I was so disgusted at the blatent plagiarism that I decided to put this site up so that other people could examine the evidence for themselves. There is absolutely no question that Medievia IV is based upon Merc 1.0, a Diku derivative.

Michael Seifert (one of the original Diku team)

I have been shown the MidThieveia code - version 4 I believe it was (approx. in 1997). Only a very brief examination was required in order for me, as an author of DikuMud, to recognize my old code.

There is no doubt that it is Diku based. I can not say if it was also Merc based as I am not familiar with the Merc derivative.

In any circumstance, Diku Mud is copyrighted with the US copyright office. The TX# can be found on the Diku Mud website.

J. Herlihy (aka AxL)

Computer Information Systems major, currently employed as a Multimedia Specialist. I have been involved with Diku Muds since the fall of 1991, and a part of the administration of one of the longest-running Dikus, KallistiMUD (now called Legends of Kallisti) since 1992.

I also maintain a list of the "oldest DikuMUDs", a list of ~30 muds that have run since 1993 or so, and which is also featured on the dikumud.com website.

I have been a vocal opponent of Michael Krause and his mud, Medievia, since the very beginning. I've also seen the code myself, and am 100% certain that it is derived from Merc code, which is derived from DikuMUD.

Simon Burnet

I am a Computer Science student at Birmingham University, England, studying Software Engineering. I have been involved with computer programming for 15 years now, and Mudding since 1992. I am a member of the technical support team for one MUD host (soon to be 2), and am webmaster for another. I own my own MUD which is also a derivitive from DIKU.

From my experience with the various codebases, I can say with absolute certainty that Medievia is a) based upon a DIKU, specifically Merc 1.0, and b) that Medievia is in breach of the license under which Merc and other DIKU derivative MUDs are distributed.

The look and feel between the Medievia source code that I have thoroughly viewed, and the Medievia which is currently operated by Vryce (Michael Krause) are extremely similar, so I have no reason to think that it has been recoded from scratch since the distribution I have, and so it is my opinion that they are still using the Merc code.

This means that they are breaking the law, and I am absolutely horrified that the owner, Vryce (Michael Krause) has, until this time, got away with operating his MUD for profit. Hopefully this will soon change.