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copyright issues

This is a free discussion forum on Freelancer. This is the place to discuss Freelancer issues NOT covered by the other boards!

Post Wed Apr 30, 2003 11:09 pm

copyright issues

(on second thought, I'm placing this in FD so it stands a better chance of being spotted by an admin)

To get straight to the point: I'd like the Battleship-Encounter-Mod news to be taken off Lancers Reactor IMMEDIATELY. Why? Because the author of that mod, a certain "Vindicator", has copy-pasted MY work word for word (the prick didn't even bother to change filenames) without so much as contacting me for approval. He furthermore has NOT given me ANY credit WHATSOEVER; neither in the readme file of "his" mod nor in his posts on Station Network.

Exhibit A (you need to sign up to read the thread).

Exhibit B (again, registration required to download the file)

I've tried taking this up with Vinnie, but he has yet to respond to the emails I've sent him (big surprise). Needless to say, this pisses me off, and I intend to make a hell of a lot of noise in the meantime.

Edited by - Nephilim on 01-05-2003 13:26:26

Post Thu May 01, 2003 10:02 am

Unfortunately this is a problem that plagues every modding community at some point - thievery. If you have 100% unsubstantiated proof that the coding/mod is indeed yours, then the site should remove it and ban the offender.
Alot of peoples hard work gets stolen because 1) it is difficult to prove 100% the actual creator. And 2) people who claim copyrights don't actually own a copyright, which makes point #1 even harder to do. Mods ARE copyrightable, (though you can't make any $ from them short of donantions) but unless you actually paid the $20 filing fee to the Library of Congress (for USA only) and have had it approved by them (which takes like forever) theres nothing you can legally do about it. Even if you do file and the offender is in another country, there is nothing to be done about it unless you have an international copyright which costs more, takes way longer, and usually isn't something worth a mod for a game. There are unspoken rules in every modding communtiy - if you are going to use others creations within your own :1) ask the original authors permission beforehand - 2) give them credit in your read-me file 3) Respect the original authors wishes - period.

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