EDIT: Still waiting on my e-mail though... heh...
-- JoeBoomz
IONCROSS
Edited by - JoeBoomz on 10-10-2003 23:32:31
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Please let us continue to constructively discuss MS legaliti
The general place to discuss MOD''ing Freelancer!
33 posts
• Page 3 of 3 • 1, 2, 3
Sat Oct 11, 2003 3:17 pm
Okay, folks. I stopped reading about half way through, so, if this has already been covered, pardon me.
Disclaimers: I work in a software development firm. Intellectual property law is a part of the business. I am not a lawyer.
Copyright is not something that you claim. It is something that is part of your legal rights as a producer.
Microsoft (MS) and/or Digital Anvil (DA) have copyrights on the Freelancer game.
You have copyrights on any ORIGINAL material (mods) that you add to the game. Please note that ORIGINAL material means something that you created from scratch, not something that you translated from elsewhere, unless that translation is in the public domain.
In order to give up or transfer your copyrights, you have to produce legal documentation to that effect or a court needs to declare that the material has become "common usage" a la Xerox referring to the photocopying process.
Modding is considered "derivitive works". This means that you, as a producer, have a legal obligation to acknowledge the source you are deriving from. In this case, that means that you must put into the mod's documentation that MS and DA hold the rights to the game.
All of that said, MS and DA MAY have a right to demand licensing for the development of derivitive works. Since FL is not a development tool, it could be argued that the license does not cover modding. Unnfortunately, that is the kind of legality I am not qualified to argue.
As a counter argument to MS owning the copyright of any derived works, they do NOT have rights to any databases or programming developed by the programmers that I work with, in spite of the fact that MS owns the rights to Microsoft Access.
_____________________
As easy as herding cats!
Disclaimers: I work in a software development firm. Intellectual property law is a part of the business. I am not a lawyer.
Copyright is not something that you claim. It is something that is part of your legal rights as a producer.
Microsoft (MS) and/or Digital Anvil (DA) have copyrights on the Freelancer game.
You have copyrights on any ORIGINAL material (mods) that you add to the game. Please note that ORIGINAL material means something that you created from scratch, not something that you translated from elsewhere, unless that translation is in the public domain.
In order to give up or transfer your copyrights, you have to produce legal documentation to that effect or a court needs to declare that the material has become "common usage" a la Xerox referring to the photocopying process.
Modding is considered "derivitive works". This means that you, as a producer, have a legal obligation to acknowledge the source you are deriving from. In this case, that means that you must put into the mod's documentation that MS and DA hold the rights to the game.
All of that said, MS and DA MAY have a right to demand licensing for the development of derivitive works. Since FL is not a development tool, it could be argued that the license does not cover modding. Unnfortunately, that is the kind of legality I am not qualified to argue.
As a counter argument to MS owning the copyright of any derived works, they do NOT have rights to any databases or programming developed by the programmers that I work with, in spite of the fact that MS owns the rights to Microsoft Access.
_____________________
As easy as herding cats!
33 posts
• Page 3 of 3 • 1, 2, 3
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