Tay, my rant was not directed at you, neither for doing the software in the first place, nor for approaching Matt to work out what has proven to be a satisfactory resolution to the issue. I am assuming that your approach to Matt was not one based on the thesis "You can't tell me not to release this; the OGL says I can, and rules/processes can't be copyrighted anyway!", as it appeared some in this thread were advocating; rather, I am assuming that you approached him saying "I'd like to understand what your objection is; here's what I've done, and these are my sources; can we work something out?" THAT is the approach that I would advocate; it has a fundamentally better chance of favorable results.
By all means, understand the details of the relevant license(s), whether TLL, OGL, FFSL, Traveller Fair-Use, or whatever. Disagree with the licensor's interpretation, if appropriate. But resolve the difference of opinion politely and with a cooperative approach, not with a combative approach as appeared to me to be what was advocated from certain quarters. THAT approach is, IMO, more likely to result in Matt - or Steve, or Marc - saying "Enough of this, shut it all down, I don't want to keep dealing with this." Likely? I don't think so, given the past support for fanac in the Traveller community. But not out of the realm of possibility; the industry is rife with stories - admittedly, mostly from early days, and centered on one or two particularly egregious examples - in which licensors tried to completely bar fanac. But in an era where some industry associations have won outrageous judgements against individuals whose "offender" status was questionable, can you really afford to count on a history of forbearance? Especially when "open source", "crowd source", and "fair use" are under attack? It wouldn't take more than one counter-incident...
Tay, when you are ready to distribute your program, I would welcome the opportunity to host it in Freelance Traveller's Computer Connection. Please contact me via email (
editor@freelancetraveller.com) if you are interested.