March 2007
- [ANNOUNCE] Midgard Online Andreas Weidenhaupt
- [ANNOUNCE] Midgard Online Morris Cox
- [ANNOUNCE] Midgard Online Michael Hartman
- [ANNOUNCE] Midgard Online Andreas Weidenhaupt
- [ANNOUNCE] Midgard Online Michael Hartman
- [ANNOUNCE] Midgard Online Mike Rozak
- [ANNOUNCE] Midgard Online Andreas Weidenhaupt
- [ANNOUNCE] Midgard Online Damion Schubert
- [ANNOUNCE] Midgard Online Andreas Weidenhaupt
- [NEWS] Trident Games Prepares New Online Game Using Skotos Engine Shannon Appelcline
- [TECH] MMOG Design List Weston Fryatt
- [TECH] MMOG Design List Lachek Butalek
- [TECH] MMOG Design List Adam Martin
- [TECH] MMOG Design List Mike Rozak
- [TECH] MMOG Design List Weston Fryatt
- [TECH] MMOG Design List Hyrup, Darrin
- [TECH] MMOG Design List Morgan Ramsay
- [BIZ] Unauthorised Publishing of My Work mud-dev-list@jaruzel.com
- [BIZ] Unauthorised Publishing of My Work Lachek Butalek
- [BIZ] Unauthorised Publishing of My Work Sean Howard
"Lachek Butalek" <lachek@gmail.com> wrote:
> First off, IANAL.
I'm not a lawyer either, but I have plenty of experience with having my
work ripped off.
> Your source package contains no license file or readme file containing
> the license.
This was a mistake, since it is possible that people may gain access to
the package without going to your webpage. It is very likely that this
package was selected specifically because the lack of such things made it
seem like public domain. They aren't technically right, but it seems like
a safer bet (most people on the internet are thrilled to have their work
ripped off - or would be if only it would happen to them *sigh*, you're so
lucky - this is a discussion on self esteem and attention, but the less
professional you look, the more likely someone is going to assume that you
are one of those retards rather than somebody who cares.
> Your web download page lists the "restriction"
> (attribution required if you intend on modifying the code) but in a
> very informal way.
The formality of the requirement doesn't matter.
> Since the source package could have been downloaded
> by someone with no intention of modifying the source, redistributed
> around the web for a while, and finally ended up in the hands of the
> author of "Build Your Own Games" who would have had no idea what (if
> any) restrictions you placed on the code, you cannot claim that the
> code was misused with malicious intent. Always, always, always
> including the license file in your source package, and make removing
> the license file from the source package a breach of the license.
Even without proper attribution, if you received material from a third
party source, you cannot assume that it is public domain - unless
explicitly stated as such. This is to prevent situations exactly like
this. Copyright law is sort of a default "you can't (or rather shouldn't)
do stuff with somebody else's work without permission" - the licenses and
stuff are just fancy ways of detailing that permission up front. Without
those licenses, one must contact the copyright holder personally to get
that permission. Permission is NEVER assumed.
> As I haven't read the book, I don't know if your
> name appears in the code listing or not, but even if it doesn't I
> think you'll have a very hard time proving to a judge that you are
> somehow owed recompense for the reprinting of your open sourced code
> without attribution, when your license is so vaguely stated.
All he'd have to do is show that he created the work in question and that
it was used without his permission, either implicitly or explicitly.
Technically, it would be the responsibility of the author and publisher to
make sure that they are in the right republishing the code - even without
attribution in the source package, I'm sure a quick google search will
reveal the author's email address where they could ask. Publishers like to
protect themselves real good, and I doubt they would purposely ignore a
potential issue in this matter (plagiarism is a huge black mark against
publishers). Instead, it is far, far more likely that the author just
stole the code and 'forgot' to mention he didn't create it.
My recommendation is to simply email the publishing company about it - not
the author. Don't be demanding or anything. Just say that you are upset
and frustrated. A copyright holder telling them they plagiarized his work
without permission should be red light enough.
At the very worst, they won't email you back and you can chalk it up to a
life lesson. What's more likely is that they will talk to the author and
end up blacklisting him, perhaps removing the code from a reprint or
something. You likely won't get any compensation for it, but honestly,
with amateur copyright protection, the best thing you can hope for is that
they don't do it again. And you would not believe how incredibly difficult
even that much is.
--
Sean Howard - [BIZ] Unauthorised Publishing of My Work David Johansson
- [BIZ] Unauthorised Publishing of My Work Lachek Butalek
- [BIZ] Unauthorised Publishing of My Work David Johansson
- [BIZ] Unauthorised Publishing of My Work Sean Howard
- [BIZ] Unauthorised Publishing of My Work Keith Dunwoody
- [BIZ] Unauthorised Publishing of My Work Sean Howard
- [DESIGN] Homogenized MMORPG Engines (Was: A rant against Vanguard reviews and rants) Morris Cox
- [DESIGN] Homogenized MMORPG Engines (Was: A rant against Vanguard reviews and rants) Caliban Darklock
- [DESIGN] Homogenized MMORPG Engines (Was: A rant against Vanguard reviews and rants) Adam Martin
- [DESIGN] Homogenized MMORPG Engines (Was: A rantagainst Vanguard reviews and rants) Craig Huber
- [DESIGN] Homogenized MMORPG Engines (Was: A rant against Vanguard reviews and rants) Morris Cox
- [DESIGN] Homogenized MMORPG Engines (Was: A rant against Vanguard reviews and rants) Jeffrey Kesselman
- [DESIGN] Ray traced environments John Buehler
- [DESIGN] Ray traced environments Jeffrey Kesselman
- [DESIGN] Ray traced environments John Buehler
- [DESIGN] Ray traced environments Damion Schubert
- [DESIGN] Ray traced environments Tess Snider
- [DESIGN] Ray traced environments John Buehler
- [DESIGN] Ray traced environments Adam Martin
- [DESIGN] Ray traced environments Jeffrey Kesselman
- [DESIGN] Ray traced environments Mike Rozak
- [DESIGN] Ray traced environments Jeffrey Kesselman
- [DESIGN] Ray traced environments Jeffrey Kesselman
- [DESIGN] Ray traced environments Jeffrey Kesselman
- [DESIGN] Ray traced environments Acius
- [DESIGN] Ray traced environments Jeffrey Kesselman
- [DESIGN] Ray traced environments Mike Rozak
- [DESIGN] Ray traced environments Chris Richards
- [DESIGN] Ray traced environments John Buehler
- [DESIGN] Ray traced environments Ling Lo
- [DESIGN] Ray traced environments John Buehler
- [ANNOUNCE] Magic Study John Buehler
- [ANNOUNCE] Magic Study Mike Sellers
- [ANNOUNCE] Magic Study John Buehler
- [ANNOUNCE] Magic Study John Buehler
- [TECH] Randomly-generated Faction Names cruise
- [TECH] Randomly-generated Faction Names John Buehler
- [TECH] Randomly-generated Faction Names Johnicholas Hines
- [TECH] Randomly-generated Faction Names Lachek Butalek
- [DESIGN] Ray traced environments John Buehler
- [DESIGN] Ray traced environments Adam Martin
- [DESIGN] Ray traced environments Jon Leonard
- [DESIGN] Homogenized MMORPG Engines (Was: A rant against Vanguard reviews and rants) Sean Howard
- [OFF-TOPIC] City of Heroes tangent (was: genre vs creativity) Michael Hartman
- [OFF-TOPIC] City of Heroes tangent (was: genre vs creativity) Jean, Yannick
- [OFF-TOPIC] City of Heroes tangent (was: genre vs creativity) Michael Hartman
- [OFF-TOPIC] City of Heroes tangent (was: genre vs creativity) Damion Schubert
- [OFF-TOPIC] City of Heroes tangent (was: genre vs creativity) Jeffrey Kesselman
- Reasons for Play [was: City of Heroes tangent] cruise
- Reasons for Play [was: City of Heroes tangent] John Buehler
- Reasons for Play [was: City of Heroes tangent] Sean Howard
- Reasons for Play [was: City of Heroes tangent] Michael Hartman
- Reasons for Play [was: City of Heroes tangent] Jeffrey Kesselman
- Reasons for Play [was: City of Heroes tangent] cruise
- Reasons for Play [was: City of Heroes tangent] Jeffrey Kesselman
- [OFF-TOPIC] City of Heroes tangent (was: genre vs creativity) Jeffrey Kesselman
- [DESIGN] Turn Around Time On Experimentation (Was: A rant against Vanguard reviews and rants) Adam Martin
- [ANNOUNCE] What Makes A Next-Gen Game? Morgan Ramsay
- [ANNOUNCE] What Makes A Next-Gen Game? Lachek Butalek
- [DESIGN] Multiplayer interactive fiction Mike Rozak
- [DESIGN] Multiplayer interactive fiction John Buehler
- [DESIGN] Multiplayer interactive fiction Paolo Piselli
- [DESIGN] Multiplayer interactive fiction Mike Rozak
- [BIZ] Austin Game Conference Contacts? Jeffrey Kesselman
- [BIZ] Austin Game Conference Contacts? Daniel James
- [MEDIA] A good, hour-long news segment about Second Life Mike Rozak
- Combat Systems (was: Reasons for Play) Adam Martin
- Combat Systems (was: Reasons for Play) Adam Martin
- Combat Systems (was: Reasons for Play) Hudson, Thomas C.
- Combat Systems (was: Reasons for Play) Jeffrey Kesselman
- Combat Systems (was: Reasons for Play) Kerry Fraser-Robinson
- Combat Systems (was: Reasons for Play) Jeffrey Kesselman
- [Announce] CircumReality - A grahical MUD (kind of) develoment toolkit Mike Rozak
- Importance of emoting (Was: A rant against Vanguard reviews and rants) Hudson, Thomas C.
- Importance of emoting (Was: A rant against Vanguard reviews and rants) Jeffrey Kesselman
- Importance of emoting (Was: A rant against Vanguard reviews and rants) Shannon Sullivan
- Importance of emoting (Was: A rant against Vanguard reviews and rants) Dana V. Baldwin
- Importance of emoting (Was: A rant against Vanguard reviews and rants) Jeffrey Kesselman
- Importance of emoting (Was: A rant against Vanguard reviews and rants) Tess Snider
- Importance of emoting (Was: A rant against Vanguardreviews and rants) Richard A. Bartle