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.

[weirdami]

If the guy released the code on Aminet, that sounds like his approval to do just what you were going to do. I say go ahead and upload it.

[TiredOLife]

I agree.
It would be pretty pointless uploading the source code if you could do nothing with it.

[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.

[vk3heg]

EDanaII wrote:
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.

Send 'em an Email and ask!

[amigadave]

EDanaII wrote:
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.

You got the game and the code from Aminet, improved the graphics and whatever else needed to allow it to run in 24bit color and are now just returning it to Aminet!  I don't see how it could be any problem for anyone, including Aminet.

I say "Go For It"!!!

Let us know which game it is so we can download it and compliment you for your hard work.

[itix]

If the original author does not say you can not spread modified version you can probably proceed.

However try to reach author and ask for permission. If you can not reach original author but you wish to upload it you should use slightly different name to differentiate from the original version. Obviously you should upload your version with source code.

[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.

[Matt_H]

As long as you're not replacing the original upload, I don't see a problem.

[itix]

Well, that's part of my dilemma, Itix. The original author does say it's OK to distribute but not to modify.

If the author say it is not OK to modify then you cant distribute modified version. You could submit binary patch instead.

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.

If you know his real name maybe up to date email address appears at google.

[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.

[mdwh2]

What exactly does the licence say?

It's a shame that someone would go to the efforts of releasing the source code (which IIRC was fairly rare on the Amiga in the mid-90s), but then say people can't modify it. But if that's what it says, then you aren't allowed to distribute a modified version. In practice, it's unlikely anyone (Aminet or the original author) would know or care, but if you were to ask Aminet, the only answer they could surely give is that you can't distribute copyrighted material that violates the licence.

[cgutjahr]

But, as I mentioned above, I'm more concerned about how Aminet would interpret his statement.

We (Aminet) usually do not check licenses of sources uploaded more than twelve years ago when moderating a new upload - if you wouldn't have mentioned it, nobody (neither us nor the original author) would have noticed ;-)

But now that you did mention it, there's only one possible answer we can give you: If the author does not want you to distribute modified versions, we of course can't host a modified version. Trying to get in touch with the original author was the right thing to do.

while Aminet asserts that I am forbidden to upload any copyrighted material.

"Copyright" and "License" are two different things. Pretty much everything on Aminet is copyrighted, but all of it comes with a license that allowes free distribution (either by everybody, or at least by Aminet).

[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.

[quenthal]

Sometimes these things are handled by using binary patches, maybe it is an option in this case too?