BayCom Software:
Commercial or Public Domain?
We are often asked about the status of the BayCom terminal software.
Is it public domain, is it shareware, or is it commercial software?
Actually, it's none of the three. When formulating our copyright conditions, we tried to keep to the spirit of ham radio.
Copyright note from the BayCom 1.60 software manual:
Copyright note:
Due to a number of unfortunate events we are forced to protect the copyright on BayCom software and this manual more strictly than before. As it was never intended to make more money with BayCom than what was necessary to cover the cost of developing hardware and software and perhaps fundraising for amateur radio projects, it should be noted that the developers had the benefit of the amateur community in mind. They did not intend to suppot businesses with freebies, who in several cases have illegally supplied the software with modem products.
As it is always regrettable when legal action has to be taken to stop software
pirates, we would like to outline our policy once again:
The purchase of BayCom software entitles you to use the software for your own packet operation at your own station. It may only be used for non-commercial purposes in amateur radio. The authors do not accept liability for any loss or damage that may result from the use of BayCom software or hardware. Amateur radio regulations must be adhered to under all circumstances.
The authors permit to copy the software privately and hand it on to others, provided that:
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the software is not offered for sale, and is not handed on together with a commercial product, e.g. a modem.
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it must not be mounted on file servers or distributed via the amateur packet network or any other electronic network or CD's. Anyone violating this rule will be required to pay full royalities for all distributed copies.
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all copies made must be individual copies, multiple copies are not permitted.
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the software is handed on its original release format, including particular the copyright marks. Individual parameter settings in SCC.INI or the terminal SCC.EXE may be modified.
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the manual must not be copied.
You see: we're happy if you copy the software and give it to a friend on a personal basis. Similarly, feel free to use a copy that you obtained from a ham friend. We certainly won't prevent anyone from enjoying packet radio just because they can't fork out a bundle for the software.
However, we get a bit itchy if people mount the software on an FTP server or make it available over the web.
What really gets up our nose (and some culprits have had to learn this the hard way) is when commercial dealers package the software with their own modems and thus make a buck out of our work, without us (or our representatives) seeing a cent of it.
Keep in mind that we sell BayCom hardware and software to support further development in packet radio. Quite a number of projects in Germany and elsewhere have benefited from this. However, when we cooperate with a business, we want to see some tangible benefit in return.
A list of official BayCom partners around the world is
available. So if you intend to buy a modem, ask them! In several countries, non-profit clubs are our partners and sell modems and software to fundraise for their activities. In this way, amateur radio in these countries benefits from the BayCom project, too!
