Hi d-legal@ regulars,
I've recently adopted Mark Baker's inform package. It's non-free beyond
doubt, but I'm worried about the distributability of several files
therein:
Besides the "official upstream content", i.e. compiler, library, manuals,
which is covered by a 'distributable if no substantial changes are made
and for non-commercial use only' license, there are several dozens of user-
supplied include files (which serve the purpose of modules, i.e. you can
include them into your game to enhance its functionality), a good share
of them without any copyright and/or licensing info at all.[2]
Download source is the IF Archive, which states in its uploader README[1]:
] [...]
] The archive makes no blanket claim about the copyright status of the
] archive files. Unless a file, its included license, or its description
] explicitly states that it is in the public domain, then the file's
] copyright rests with its author and the file is only available on the
] archive for personal use. You may freely download games and play them,
] and the games and files can be made available for download from the
] Archive and its official mirrors. The files and games on the archive
] may not be compiled for commercial distribution without permission
] from each and every author of the files you would like to
] distribute. Note that commercial distribution includes selling games
] or game compilations on online auction sites.
] [...]
This says nothing about non-commercial distribution - and because of
that and (even if that README allowed it) because this README is not
a click-through agreement that every submitter of that archive has to
acknowledge before uploading, all files which do not contain an explicit
permission for redistribution are effectively undistributable, right?
Thanks for clarifications,
Jan
[1]: http://www.ifarchive.org/if-archive/README
[2]: My current work-in-progress package while scanning all those files
for copyright and license statements is at
-> http://www-pool.math.tu-berlin.de/~hesso/deb/inform_6.31.1-2.dsc
That deb still contains the files in question so it's easier for
you to review - they're in the archive anyway. I'll immediately
remove them if my argumentation is ack'ed here.
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