Re: RES: Where to put Open Transport Tycoon (openttd)
On 5/19/05, Joe Moore <joemoore@iegrec.org> wrote:
> I'm slightly confused by this.
>
> In the case of OpenTTD, you seem to be asserting that because OpenTTD has
> no use other than to combine with the copyrighted data files -- to present
> a scene similar to the original Transport Tycoon, the work is critically
> dependant on the copyright license of the data files.
>
> However, in the case of quagga, even though the quagga .deb (built with
> I_WANT_SSL but dynamically linked) has no use other than to combine with
> the copyrighted library files -- to present a scene of a unified,
> functional program, the conflicting license terms of the individual
> components do not cause a problem.
>
> Where does this distinction come from?
I'm glad you asked that. A game's "audiovisual displays" at run-time
form a "literary or artistic work" of a kind that utility software
does not. The division between "mise en scene" (non-literal elements
that nevertheless form part of the protected expression in a literary
work), "scenes a faire" (stock elements of the relevant genre), and
"methods of operation" (intrinsically uncopyrightable, as are ideas
and "scenes a faire") is therefore quite different.
It's not the TTD data files whose copyright is infringed by run-time
use with OpenTTD; it's the "mise en scene" of TTD as an interactive
literary work. Micro Star v. FormGen is quite eloquent on this topic.
Cheers,
- Michael
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