Aminet Copyright Upload Dilemma

[EDanaII]

In an effort to keep my skills sharp, I just recently took an ancient Aminet WB based game and upgraded it graphically to 24-bit. The original author uploaded some twelve years ago with sources and I decided to take advantage of that fact to get more familiar with the Amiga's API's.

The problem is, the original author asserted his copyright in the code, which I have not removed, instead only taking credit for the latest version, while Aminet asserts that I am forbidden to upload any copyrighted material.

While this doesn't seem that much of a dilemma -- I personally don't have any problem returning the program to Aminet -- I thought I might put the question to the community and see how it felt. I simply don't want to break any taboos.

Remember, I intend to leave the copyright in the original authors name taking credit only for the additional features that I added.

Thoughts?

Ed.

[EDanaII]

I'm not actually worried about the original author, for exactly the reasons you guys cite. I'm merely wondering what Aminet might make of it. :-)

Ed.

[EDanaII]

Well, that's part of my dilemma, Itix. The original author does say it's OK to distribute but not to modify. However, I can't imagine him caring now, after all these years. But, as I mentioned above, I'm more concerned about how Aminet would interpret his statement.

I suppose I should contact the author, but his email is ancient and I don't believe the company exists anymore, so I suppose I can drop aminet a line.

Of course, my ultimate goal is to do an object oriented version of the program, rewriting it from scratch and, therefore, making it mine, but that would take a lot more time. For now, I just want to give this back to the community.


@ AmigaDave

It's just a humble Blackjack game. It allowed me to get more familiar with the Amiga developer environment, so it's not too much to cheer about. :-)

Ed.

[EDanaII]

I decided to email the original author. Three of the four available emails I had for him bounced. The fourth has not returned but I suspect it's abandoned. I've not heard back yet. If I don't hear after a week, I think I'll assume it doesn't matter anymore. Then, if Aminet doesn't like it, they can always let me know and remove it.

Ed.

[EDanaII]

The original document says, and I

Distribution:
Feel free to redistribute this archive as often as you like. Just do me a favor and don't change it. These files should be in the archive...[Lists files in archive]

I guess the question for me here is that he declared "don't change THIS archive."

However, this still begs the question, why release the source, if you don't want it to change.


@ cgutjahr

If I upload it as a new archive, under a new version, would that be acceptable?

Ed.

[EDanaII]

Cool it, Dietmar, you're making a big deal out of nothing. My asking was merely politeness and what Koafter (and others) has suggested isn't murder. You're accusations and insinuations are uncalled for.


@ cgutjahr

All right, will do. Unfortunately, I've uncovered a few more bugs I didn't know I had, so it may take me a while longer to get the new archive together.

Ed.

[EDanaII]

@ Dietmar:

Cool it, Dietmar, you're making a big deal out of nothing

If you don't want opinions, don't open a thread and ask for thoughts.

It's not your opinion I'm knocking, it's your _attitude._ Hence the choice of the words "cool it" instead of "shut it." Show some manners.

Ed.

[EDanaII]

@ Roj,

If you weren't confused before, I bet you're confused after listening to us!  :lol:

Confused? Nah... More like amused. There are two arguments going on in this thread, one of principle and the other of the practical. And while I'm all for being principled, there are times when it just doesn't make any sense. Is this one of those times. Don't know. Don't care. :-)

Ed.