Copyright-infringing on the forums

[Hyronymus]

As you may have noticed there is a discussion about copyright-infringement in some Locomotion mods released by a forum member. It may be no surprise that the forum moderators do not tolerate any kind of copyright infringement to take place on this forum. It is for that reason that I have asked the forum member to remove ALL links on this forum to copyright-infringing mods within 24 hours.

If you have downloaded any of the copyright-infringing Locomotion mods we strongly advise you to keep those files to yourself at all time and not exchange them publically as these mods are "contaminated".


It may be necessairy to change the current forum rules on copyright to be more precise, clearly the function of this forum has moved beyond the original aim and coverage provided by the existing forum rules. Up till then I like to leave everyone with the following tips to prevent copyright-infringement:

• Asking permission is not the same as obtaining permission
• When asking permission you can never add a deadline before a reply from the copyright holder must be returned: if the copyright holder never replies you still have no permission
• Both copyright holder and permission seeker are strongly advised to keep a time-stamped copy of the permission grant somewhere safe

EDIT January 8th 2012:
There seems to be some confusion about the role of the moderator team of TT-forums when investigating copyright-infringements. Our role is not to gather evidence, our role is to make a decision on eveidence presented to us by the copyright holder. Under no circumstances can the moderator team of TT-forums be held accountable by authors for their own failure to keep track of the permissions they granted.

When an author feels that their copyright has been infringed we kindly ask the author to provide the moderator team of TT Forums with the following details:

• a link to the file or download in question
• the exact model the copyright-infringement applies to
• proof of the suspected copyright infringement, e.g. by bringing in older own work or link to older thread showing it

Allow me to stress that the proof part is essential. Allow me to further explain that the moderator team of TT-forums may ask an uploader of copyright-infringed material to remove all links to said material prior to reaching a conclusion on the claim.
(See http://www.tt-forums.net/viewtopic.php? ... 14#p989756 too)

[Railwaymodeler]

Where is this discussion? Just checked the Locomotion graphics section and I can't find it...

What graphics are affected?

[Illegal_Alien]

There are multiple topics about this, one (now 2) in General and the others in the Modification section.

some examples:

- http://www.tt-forums.net/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=56510
- http://www.tt-forums.net/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=55922
- http://www.tt-forums.net/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=58095
- http://www.tt-forums.net/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=58053

[Hyronymus]

There seems to be some confusion about the role of the moderator team of TT-forums when investigating copyright-infringements. Our role is not to gather evidence, our role is to make a decision on eveidence presented to us by the copyright holder. Under no circumstances can the moderator team of TT-forums be held accountable by authors for their own failure to keep track of the permissions they granted.

When an author feels that their copyright has been infringed we kindly ask the author to provide the moderator team of TT Forums with the following details:

• a link to the file or download in question
• the exact model the copyright-infringement applies to
• proof of the suspected copyright infringement, e.g. by bringing in older own work or link to older thread showing it

Allow me to stress that the proof part is essential. Allow me to further explain that the moderator team of TT-forums may ask an uploader of copyright-infringed material to remove all links to said material prior to reaching a conclusion on the claim.

[audigex]

With the least amount of facetiousness possible (although I'm aware that some is inherent in the question), and asked out of genuine interest... What about the dubious, or at least untested, nature of the copyright status of OpenTTD? Is it a case of "if/when the copyright holder complains, we will investigate" or similar?

[orudge]

As far as the forums is concerned, OpenTTD's copyright is held by its respective authors, and is licensed under the GPL. As far as the origins of OpenTTD go, I don't really see how that makes much of a difference to the forums themselves at this moment in time, and I don't particularly wish to speculate upon what hypothetical third parties might do should they actually spend time and money trying to investigate it, which so far appears to be unlikely.

[Lord Aro]

IMO, even if the game was originally decompiled from TTD sources, by now none (or extremely little) of that is left in the source code of OTTD.
OTTD also does not require TTD graphics/sound anymore, so that is not a problem either

[orudge]

Note also that this isn't a topic to be discussing the legality, or otherwise, of OpenTTD. If people wish to have such a discussion again (not that there's much point), I'll split these posts into the OpenTTD forums.

[ZxBiohazardZx]

what about BaNaNaS?

if an artist finds his own work on BaNaNaS, can it be removed (and thus break savegame etc compatibility?)

[Terkhen]

Check the Terms of Service of BaNaNaS, specifically the first point.

http://bananas.openttd.org/en/manager/tos/

[Transportman]

Check the Terms of Service of BaNaNaS, specifically the first point.

http://bananas.openttd.org/en/manager/tos/

That doesn't actually provide an answer. It just states that it is not allowed to do it, but not what to do when you find your own work on BaNaNaS. I would likely hit the contact button and send an email, but I think it would be good to have explicitly stated what to do and who to contact when you find your work on BaNaNaS while it actually shouldn't be there.

[orudge]

Either way, that's a discussion to be having in the OpenTTD forums, not in this global announcement, so please start a topic there if need be.