RES: Where to put Open Transport Tycoon (openttd)
De: Michael K. Edwards [mailto:m.k.edwards@gmail.com]
> Note that there is no question (IANAL, TINLA) that openttd
> infringes the copyright on Transport Tycoon in any jurisdiction
> that recognizes the doctrine of "mise en scene", i. e., pretty
> much any jurisdiction that has a copyright law. See Micro Star v.
> FormGen.
I don't recall if 17USC117 makes any mention of it, but functional
cloning of any program is protected by Brazilian Computer Programs
Law in art.6, III (''It does not constitute infringement on the
computer program author's rights: [...] III - the occurrence of a
program similar to other, preexistent, when the similarity is by
force of the functional application characteristics _or_ of the
observance of technical or normative regulations _or_ limitation of
alternative form for its expression'' -- underlines and terrible
English translation are mine).
>
> In general, Debian should not be distributing game clones, in
> main, in contrib, or anywhere else. The fact that copyright
> holders rarely bother to pursue legal action against half-assed
> clones of obsolete games does not mean that they are legitimate in
> the eyes of the law.
The mise en scene infringement would only be in the case of the
maps and scenery of the game, which, in casu, won't be distributed
by Debian. Anyway, you are quite right that game clones are not
completely legitimate in principle, exactly because they would
*normally* come with the infringing sprites, maps, sceneries, etc.
>
> Cheers,
> - Michael
--
HTH
Massa
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