Licensing & alternate download locations

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CheeseRedux
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Licensing & alternate download locations

Post by CheeseRedux »

As those who read the forum frequently have probably noticed, we've had a couple or three requests for alternate download locations for OXPs whose primary source is currently unavailable. There is no shortage of people willing and able to help with stopgap measures in these cases, but things start to get murky when the OXPs themselves ship with no license file. Being the friendliest board this side of Riedquat we pride ourselves in being helpful, but we also don't want to infringe on the rights of the OXP creators in any way.

Before moving on, I'd like to direct your attention to the Sticky on Licensing OXPs. Since we're talking about making temporary homes for unavailable OXPs, there's a quote from the Master and Commander that I find interesting:
aegidian wrote:
If an OXP has been issued with no indication of a license or intentions of the author then the strictest degree of licensing should be assumed, ie. no copying, no reuse, ask the authors before doing anything with it.
[my underlining]

On the one hand it's pretty clear-cut: No license = no copying.
But then there's the intentions part. What kind of leeway can be assumed from statements made by the author regarding use? Say someone makes an OXP, and posts a link on the board along with the words "Hey, I made this thing. Do what you want with it. Hope you like it", and then promptly disappears never to be heard from again?

My main question is this though: If there exists a license but not inside the OXP, what then?
Is it good enough if the license is mentioned on this board?
Is it good enough if the license is mentioned on the wiki?
If it's mentioned on the wiki, is it necessary that the author himself (herself) wrote the entry?
Basically, what I'm looking for here is some input from those with more experience than me in these things (which means more than none), so that we can reach some sort of consensus.


On a personal level - and this is probably absolute nonsense from a legalese perspective - I differentiate between authors that are reachable and unreachable. If someone is still around and answers on the hailing frequency, I'm not gonna start spreading copies of their work without their explicit permission.
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Vaztr
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Post by Vaztr »

Mr Cheese,

I don't want to take this thread off-topic because your point is a very valid one - esp. for me because...

I am setting up what I hope will be a single source of all files Oolite at www.alaise.com.au/Oolite/OXPList.html

I am steadily 'sucking' all the OXPs from the wiki and soon hope to begin adding the program EXEs and then doco in what I hope will be a 'backup' for anyone that needs a file 'NOW'

The site will be a no-nonsense - text based entity with pointers directly to the files by name.

I really hope that your question above doesn't mean I have to exclude some files because of this issue

Clarification would be AWESOME!!!

Thanx

VAZ
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Kaks
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Post by Kaks »

On the subject of author's intentions, I do seem to remember Simon B writing on this forum that all his oxps were free to upload & modify, but I can't point to the exact forum post to back this assertion up at the moment.

And I do believe Caracal's licence terms were spelled out on his now vanished site, as well as on the wiki entries, which he apparently perused and approved of personally... :)
Hey, free OXPs: farsun v1.05 & tty v0.5! :0)
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Lestradae
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Post by Lestradae »

https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.ph ... 1&start=19

As I don't want to double-post, please follow the link.
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Simon B
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Post by Simon B »

Simon Bridge
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