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[Spreggo]

Do you know what the TOS of the LP archive are? I'm wondering if they make it possible to grant permission for the material hosted on their server, or if the permission is limited to LP.

[Footkerchief]

Regardless of legality, it's still a really dick move to go out of your way not to ask permission.   It's excluding the people who originally made the thing you so cherish from the 'eBook project'.   Is it really such an unbearable Herculean task to fire off like, a dozen emails and actually contact members of the community? 

It might be difficult if he doesn't have their email addresses.  You have SA access and Quintin probably doesn't, so perhaps as a gesture of good faith you could PM the relevant email addresses to him.

[Capntastic]

I could.   Maybe after work.   But no promises, because I don't see why the onus should fall on me.

http://lparchive.org/lpmaster/archivesabout.html#about  <-- Info regarding the LP Archive.  Note how it's SA run.

Edit:  I sent off a few PMs to some of those involved, asking them to either pass along a message or their email address.

[Footkerchief]

e: nm

[Capntastic]

This place left blank to prevent a DICK MOVE.

[Footkerchief]

Haha, noted.

[Capntastic]

But seriously folks, I don't care either way.   I just think that if you're going to praise Boatmurdered you should at least have some consideration for the people who made it.   If you disagree with that simple sentiment, then I literally have no idea how you can consider yourself an upstanding member of the DF community.

[sarack]

But seriously folks, I don't care either way.   I just think that if you're going to praise Boatmurdered you should at least have some consideration for the people who made it.   If you disagree with that simple sentiment, then I literally have no idea how you can consider yourself an upstanding member of the DF community.

I don't think anyone is saying that the original players shouldn't be acknowledged. What we're saying is that getting in contact with the players could be hard or even impossible in some cases. People change aliases and move on all the time, so chances are it has happened to at least one of these players.

This is quite possibly the most horribly incorrect understanding of copyright law I have ever read, with the possible exception of "it's okay to have a game ROM so long as you delete it within 24 hours." This is simply staggering in how wrong it is.

Congratulations, forum goer. Congratulations.

You've thrown out my comments as garbage, but failed to say why or offer superior comments. Well done. In other news, perhaps the fact that most of us are in different countries (I would imagine) is the reason for all of this argument? If this is the case, we should just leave it and agree to differ.

-----
Attempting vainly to get this topic back on track, >100 pages for one story seems incredible. Perhaps instead of one massive book for all well-known stories, a set of smaller books, one for each, would be more viable. Otherwise we'll end up with a .pdf with several thousand pages, plus pictures. This would be hard to fit on most older flash drives, etc, let alone printing it out.

[LegoLord]

Since this seems to be such a fuzzy issue, I looked into copyright, and found this.Berne Convention. Apparently all you have to do is fix your idea in a physical medium.  Precisely what "physical medium" means seems to be a bit fuzzy.  It can include a computer file.  But then there's another thing that adds to that convention dealing with the internet, and the wikipedia page is short and undetailed.  So I'm not sure how things go with something like Nist Akath or Boatmurdered, which has been posted online.  But if the authors have copies of the files, it looks like they might have copyright, I think.

Simply put, I think it might just be best to play it safe, rather than risk being sorry, and make an attempt.  If contact can't be made, go right ahead I guess, as long as they are acknowledged - I don't see what else could be done.

[Capntastic]

I'm gonna throw it out there that these public DF forums have their own art and creative writing sections.   It would be pretty blatantly illegal, and uncool, to compile and redistribute works posted there without asking beforehand.

[Quatch]

Not a legal opinion, but if you make an attempt, and give credit you've done your part. These posts seem to be made in a public forum with no "do not copy or redistribute" request, so there may be implied consent for noncommercial distribution. At least, IMO, moraly.

The greater tragedy would be the loss of the story by lack of an archive.

[Darkfall]

Edit:  I sent off a few PMs to some of those involved, asking them to either pass along a message or their email address.

This is Starkravingmad over on the SA forums.  I'm one of the Boatmurdered authors.  I don't have a problem with my section being used, under the following criteria:

1) It's not sold or profited from directly in any way (I don't count some indirect form of profit like increased Dwarf Fortress donations to Toady)

2) The names/handles of the original posters are kept intact by their contributions in the stories -- whoever is doing the consolidation shouldn't just lump it all together and try to pass it off as his own, or take out all the names and put them at the end in a little "these people helped write this" section or anything like that.

Aside from that, I guess I don't care much.  Although I can't speak for the other authors.  I would suggest that you do whatever you can to contact them before using their stuff without permission.  I appreciate Capntastic taking the time to tip me off that this was happening.

[Sankis]

This has been sent to all parties involved.
=======

Dear sir

I am the proprietor of all copyright in the literary work entitled Boatmurdered (The "Work"). I have reserved all rights in the Work, which was first expressed in material form on November 10th 2006.

It has come to my attention that your work entitled DF eBook Megaproject is identical to our copyrighted Work. Permission was neither asked nor granted to reproduce my Work and your Work therefore constitutes infringement of my rights. In terms of the Copyright Statutes, I am entitled to an injunction against your continued infringement, as well as to recover damages from you for the loss I have suffered as a result of your infringing conduct.

In the circumstances, I demand that you immediately:

1. credit all infringing content to ourselves in the following manner: list my name, the copyright date, and date of licensing on the first and last page of the book;

2. pay a licensing fee in the amount of $200;

3. immediately cease the use and distribution of unlicensed copyrighted material;

4. deliver-up for destruction all unused or undistributed copies;

5. undertake in writing to desist from using any of our copyrighted Work in future without prior written authority from us.

I await to hear from you by no later than close of business on October 19, 2009.

This is written without prejudice to our rights, all of which are hereby expressly reserved.

Yours faithfully,

Matthew "Sankis" Sorenson

=======
If you have any questions or concerns, you may contact me at Sankis@sankis.com.

 

[Footkerchief]

I'm guessing that the copy-paste from free-legal-documents.com was just a pointless troll?

[LegoLord]

[ quote from Sankis ]
Looking into that, the fact that the only place you specifically mentioned that is a forum you have to pay to view seems a bit unfair.  There's no mention of anything of that nature on the archive that people who are not a member of the SA forum have to look at.

Most people don't even know copyright law to begin with.  It only seems fair that you give a warning before charging money.  And just how was the OP supposed to know that the fromearth.net archive was a special circumstance?

Edit: Probably not a troll, that guy's been a member of the forum for quite awhile.  Long enough that he could easily be the very same Sankis.