Can I legally...

Based on that, you can use it on your own sites, but i would not use it as part of the default cheetah code. Reason is including it in cheetah is distributing it, and that does not comply with personal use.

You will find that pretty much all modules written for dolphin have that personal use statement within the license.

 here is whats on the page for the module - and I say module loosely.

License: IMPORTANT: This is a commercial product made by Scriptologist. It cannot be modifiedfor other than personal usage.

One thing that kept me interested in Dolphin was the forum feedback I received from people like Alex-T,  Leonid,  Deano,  Geek_Girl and even Anton. Each of them saved my day more than once by supplying little code snippets or work-arounds.  I won't go into specifics because I don't want to make anyone feel their contribution(s) was/were less important that the others.

Many of the snippets were personal in that they may not be something every member wants. Thus it's probably a good thing to keep the snippets out of Cheetah's code, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't share them.

Over the years I've converted several snippets into tutorials which I'll publish here when I finish an unrelated project I'm currently involved with. Unfortunately most of the snippets I've seen, affect the Script's core files and this can be a huge problem when upgrading to a newer version. I've thought of one way it may be handled, but it may not be all that brilliant.

I'll put it here for what it's worth and maybe someone can come up with a better idea.

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Firstlly, I'm pretty sloppy when it comes to altering core files. It would help if I kept a record of the changes I made. 

Secondly, I was bought up on a language called Clarion which may have been similar to Pascal or something else. It made me lazy and my effort with PHP was mainly due to some of it's similarities with Clarion.

Clarion used "Include" files to include code that was used over and again. It read like this:

If lastname, firstname;  // Convert to Firstname and Lastname

      Include  firstname_to_lastname_converter;  //As an example, this may  contain 100 lines of code.

endif;

Maybe we could do something like this:

// Use Deano's multi-column display instead of Cheetah's single column display.

Cheetah code;
    Include Multi_Column_Display;
More Cheetah Code;

At the top of the file, maybe we just enter:

// File modified. Includes at lines 234, 609, 1021
require_once( 'inc/header.inc.php' );
require_once('includes.php);   // A file containing all your code snippets.

When upgrading, a quick check with a program like WinMerge will tell us what old core files contain Includes.  It will be a lot quicker to enter one "Include" line in the new file than multiple lines of code.

If you got it from Anton, his license is very lenient. It doesn't mention Dolphin, it just states:

* IMPORTANT: This is a commercial product made by AQB Soft. It cannot be modified for other than personal usage.

* The "personal usage" means the product can be installed and set up for ONE domain name ONLY. 

* To be able to use this product for another domain names you have to order another copy of this product (license).

* This product cannot be redistributed for free or a fee without written permission from AQB Soft.

* This notice may not be removed from the source code.

The second (*) says it all. One domain only, nothing about any specific software.

In my opinion, just do it. I already have.

but that's the thing. it isn't like I was given a module or a product that had an absolute function. it was just an instruction on what code changes to make. to me, if I teach you how to ride a motorcycle - what you do with that knowledge is up to you. I can't tell you that you can't teach others how to ride a motorcycle.

plus, the original code changes were written a long time ago. my purchase was made in 2010. since then, boonex has changed their coding which make the instructions inaccurate. would that invalidate the license?

That depends on the license terms of the code your putting in. Unless it specifically states that is can be freely distributed, then i would not do it.

so, many years ago, I purchased what I thought was a module for dolphin. it ended up just being an instruction text file about a few code changes. I love the functionality and wondered why it was never incorporated into dolphin. can I legally make the equivalent changes - which I am sure will have some difference from the original changes - and then submit the commit?