Heh, kaz has a good point. MQ gold was taken off playerauctions pretty quickly right? It seems obvious to me that nobody here is really going to be able to take a person who lives in Norway to court over GPL issues, so why not just have a hear-no-evil, speak-no-evil policy on it, and remove any threads about mq gold.
Unless there is someone here I don't know about, who lives in Norway, knows their court system, and is willing to put forth the time, money, etc towards this.... Then I stand corrected. Otherwise, censorship seems like the best solution.
MacroQuest Gold?
Moderator: MacroQuest Developers
'Big' courts..
I talked to a friend of mine that is a lawyer for my uncle that owns a hardware developing company. He told me that GPL has been tested in 'big' courts, but they always settle out of court because GPL is so broad on what is illegal that there's no way to provide a loophole. There's been several instances where companies believed that there was possible copyright violations and the companies usually settle out of court in exchanging code just so each company will see that it isn't happening. When there is what is believed to be enough evidence 1 of a few things has always happened:
1. Settle out of court for some negotiated money
2. company 'a' gets/absorbs company 'b'
3. company files for bankruptcy, changes the name, and 'happens' to remove the code that was possibly copywritten.
I think there is sufficient evidence. Heck, even the MQ icon itself is by definition copywritten, and you could press charges for that alone. When you press charges Sprite will have a few choices:
1. Settle and say 'i screwed up and what do you want from me'
2. Provide source code and say here it is everyone! In which case he would never violate GPL again and we'd take alot of his improvements and make them part of MQ thereby making his program worthless
3. Provide code and prove/try to prove that he has no copywritten stuff(VERY unlikely if not impossible).
4. Say 'sue me' and be all cocky until he's sitting in front of a judge who is waiving his hand in Sprite's face saying 'you paying attention?'
5. Disappear. I.E. commit suicide and end the torture of this barbaric planet called Earth
Of course.. there is also the embarassing possibility that someone will sue Sprite and the lawyer will say 'you can't sue a 15 year old', and everyone will feel like a bunch of morons for letting a 15 year old outsmart an outstanding developing team. If that were to happen then it's off to the parents.
Why do companies not press charges for distributing icons of their software. Why would you want to stop someone that is practically promoting your product? It's when you provide a product that mimicks their software almost perfectly that companies wanna see your code and see what you ripped off from them.
-The Nerd
P.S. Does anyone think that I should not have posted MQ Gold? I was just wondering if anyone thought I screwed up by posting it for download. It's almost as bad as posting a compiled version of MQ, which the developers do not want posted and I would never do. If you have any gripes about it please let me know your side of the story and I might change my mind. Sometimes I just gotta understand both sides of the coin.
PPS - Hey sprite, where's that new version of MQ Gold at? I don't see it on your front page... That's some quality assurance alright!
1. Settle out of court for some negotiated money
2. company 'a' gets/absorbs company 'b'
3. company files for bankruptcy, changes the name, and 'happens' to remove the code that was possibly copywritten.
I think there is sufficient evidence. Heck, even the MQ icon itself is by definition copywritten, and you could press charges for that alone. When you press charges Sprite will have a few choices:
1. Settle and say 'i screwed up and what do you want from me'
2. Provide source code and say here it is everyone! In which case he would never violate GPL again and we'd take alot of his improvements and make them part of MQ thereby making his program worthless
3. Provide code and prove/try to prove that he has no copywritten stuff(VERY unlikely if not impossible).
4. Say 'sue me' and be all cocky until he's sitting in front of a judge who is waiving his hand in Sprite's face saying 'you paying attention?'
5. Disappear. I.E. commit suicide and end the torture of this barbaric planet called Earth
Of course.. there is also the embarassing possibility that someone will sue Sprite and the lawyer will say 'you can't sue a 15 year old', and everyone will feel like a bunch of morons for letting a 15 year old outsmart an outstanding developing team. If that were to happen then it's off to the parents.
Why do companies not press charges for distributing icons of their software. Why would you want to stop someone that is practically promoting your product? It's when you provide a product that mimicks their software almost perfectly that companies wanna see your code and see what you ripped off from them.
-The Nerd
P.S. Does anyone think that I should not have posted MQ Gold? I was just wondering if anyone thought I screwed up by posting it for download. It's almost as bad as posting a compiled version of MQ, which the developers do not want posted and I would never do. If you have any gripes about it please let me know your side of the story and I might change my mind. Sometimes I just gotta understand both sides of the coin.
PPS - Hey sprite, where's that new version of MQ Gold at? I don't see it on your front page... That's some quality assurance alright!
Since sprites program is essentially just macroquest with a few additions, your posting a link to it is the same as posting a compiled version of macroquest, which is something this community has tried to avoid.
Not only that, you also violated the GPL yourself when you did it, since you do not have the source to offer.
As I said before and I really believe this, MQ gold's only method of being advertised is all the controversy going on at this board and in these threads.
Not only that, you also violated the GPL yourself when you did it, since you do not have the source to offer.
As I said before and I really believe this, MQ gold's only method of being advertised is all the controversy going on at this board and in these threads.
-
compuboy
- a ghoul
- Posts: 108
- Joined: Thu Apr 24, 2003 8:19 am
- Location: Good Question, if anyone finds out, let me know
ummm kaz again has a good point, but myself, i really dont like the devils advocate point of view, reminds me of a friend of mine. I must admint though that you keep us reminded of how carefully we must take this situation, and about advertising it, if my product were ever advertized like this, i dont think it would sell too much. and on nerd posting that thing, it seems to me like he is just providing software at no cost to anyone, and is not proviidng any warrentee or support AND is no where even close to claiming ownership.
again, just my 2cp, like it or lump it
PS sorry if i offended anyone in htis espically Kaz, cause his viewpoint is crucial to the rest of us seeing the whole picture
PPs and i may be wrong about NERD posting the program cause i am no where near well versed in the GPL or copywrite stuff.
again, just my 2cp, like it or lump it
PS sorry if i offended anyone in htis espically Kaz, cause his viewpoint is crucial to the rest of us seeing the whole picture
PPs and i may be wrong about NERD posting the program cause i am no where near well versed in the GPL or copywrite stuff.