Legallity of OpenTTD

ConductorBob · Post by **ConductorBob** » 04 Jul 2004 03:04

Okay, I did a search for the legality of OpenTTD and found nothing. I also looked over the letter of the law and I beleive OpenTTD is perfectly legal under a couple of conditions:

1) It must always remain Freeware
2) You must tell Chris Sawyer about it... (?)
3) You must classify it as a fan-game, this way you can steal all the graphics and sounds that you'd like!

Anyone else know anything about this or want to argue?

RPharazon · Post by **RPharazon** » 04 Jul 2004 03:20

1. And it always will

2.Oh, he has his ways of knowing, he could be an active forum member under our noses.

3.This is a fan-game, created by the fans, for the fans, and ideas from the fans.

SHADOW-XIII · Post by **SHADOW-XIII** » 04 Jul 2004 12:09

ConductorBob wrote:I also looked over the letter of the law and I beleive OpenTTD is perfectly legal under a couple of conditions....

not really ... 'using' newest law from EU it is illegal (and TTDPatch is somewhere between legality/illegality) ... however I doubt anyone will be interested in it until in will bother the company that got TT(D) rights (Atari, I suppose)

Stylesjl · Post by **Stylesjl** » 04 Jul 2004 12:36

Who cares they want to this game anymore they don't honestly care

Why is it that people care about the legality of it? Its 9 years old they coundn't honestly give a rats arse whether it even existed or not

Stop complaining about legality and just keep going with things like normal

Spaz O Mataz · Post by **Spaz O Mataz** » 04 Jul 2004 13:17

This has been brought up before. no one is really sure if it's legal or not as the code is just converted to C# or C++ but the more the code is changed (to include new stuff) the more legal it will be

NCarlson · Post by **NCarlson** » 04 Jul 2004 14:18

I agree, who cares, lets just go on. If they cared we would probbaly have heard a long time ago, and it's not like there is any real liklyhood of a company filing legal action against anyone involved in the project without giving a chance to simply abandon the project (sueing a private individual making a free game doesn't really acomplish that much, and can get very expensive).

dominik81 · Post by **dominik81** » 04 Jul 2004 14:21

Spaz O Mataz wrote:...as the code is just converted to C# or C++ ...

It's neither C++ nor C# *shudder*. It's pure C.

ConductorBob · Post by **ConductorBob** » 04 Jul 2004 14:57

Good old arguements, See i agree its legal, as long as you dont take some major things, like train names and maybe music... If anyone has a box that the game came in, look on the bottom, that would really solve all problems.
On the bottom it has to say what items are Trademarks? Anyone got a box?

edk256 · Post by **edk256** » 04 Jul 2004 16:10

In the US it is legal, for no one has actively kept the TTD copyright, nor trademark. Also, no one in the US government would give a ___, for Atari doesn't lose money - they aren't making the game!

LordOfThePigs · Post by **LordOfThePigs** » 04 Jul 2004 16:34

I don't know for other countries, but in Switzerland, computer programs are treated exactly the same as litterary works regarding Intellectual Property....

So basically, if the interface is changed sufficiently so that it cannot be said to have been concieved by it's original author, it cannot be considered as a violation of the Intellectual property.

No protection is granted for the "inner workings" or "concept" or anything, just the GUI.

So I guess openTTD in it's current state falls under exactly the same law than a Spanish translation of an English book IMO

@edk256: for what I know, you do not have to actively keep a copyright. Copyrights are implicit, As soon as you produce something, it falls under your copyright. I think that any copyright expires 50 years after the death of the author. (we might not want to wait that long)

lucaspiller · Post by **lucaspiller** » 04 Jul 2004 18:23

Here in the UK I think copyrights last for 100 years after when it was last copywritten(?).

ChrisCF · Post by **ChrisCF** » 04 Jul 2004 18:33

No, 50 years after it is first issued in fixed form. Hence, 1984 is out of copyright these days, and you should be able to find it on Gutenberg.

mpettitt · Post by **mpettitt** » 04 Jul 2004 18:49

ChrisCF wrote:No, 50 years after it is first issued in fixed form. Hence, 1984 is out of copyright these days, and you should be able to find it on Gutenberg.

70 years from the death ot the author. 50 years from death is Berne convention, and the UK (along with many other countries) has extended this. In the case of corporations, it is more complicated, hence Disney still having rights to Mickey Mouse...
Either way, doesn't apply to OTTD as the original author is still alive...

Korenn · Post by **Korenn** » 04 Jul 2004 19:47

Chris: 1984 + 50 = 2034? or am I missing something?

ChrisCF · Post by **ChrisCF** » 04 Jul 2004 19:56

1984 was a book written by George Orwell, first published in 1948.

Hmm... looking at it in more depth, it breaks down as follows:

Copyright:
* Literary, musical, artistic, dramatic works: author's death + 70.
* Film: latest death of (directory, screenwriter, composer) + 70.
* Sound recordings: first publication + 50.
Special case: "Copyright on works which inspire related merchandise such as cloting or toys expires after 25 years." So if Star Wars were made in the UK, it would be out of copyright by 1998.

For some cases, you have only design right which expires at the first of:
* 15 years after publication
* 10 years after first commercial use

SHADOW-XIII · Post by **SHADOW-XIII** » 04 Jul 2004 21:33

Spaz O Mataz wrote:This has been brought up before. no one is really sure if it's legal or not ...

it is known that it is illegal ... there is nothing unsure

ChrisCF · Post by **ChrisCF** » 04 Jul 2004 21:50

Put simply, the things we know:

* OTTD is illegal. It originated as a straight port from TTD
* TTDPatch is legal. For all intents and purposes, it is a trainer, which I believe is legal if it does not modify the stored program on disk.

MYOB · Post by **MYOB** » 04 Jul 2004 22:47

In my opinion its legal till Atari deliver a writ to me. And theres really a snowballs chance in hell of that happening. Its not like OpenTTD has gone unnoticed, its been mentioned in two SourceForge Sitewide Updates, and has been on OSNews, SkyOS's official site, some BeOS sites, and feck knows what else. I think Atari know and don't care. Its not like Chris Sawyer owns the game anymore anyway.

ChrisCF · Post by **ChrisCF** » 04 Jul 2004 22:59

MYOB wrote:In my opinion its legal till Atari deliver a writ to me.

Last year, I parked in a disabled spot every day for two weeks (purely as an experiment to prove a point) and didn't receive any parking tickets. Does that make it legal?

You kill someone and escape the country. Does that somehow make murder legal?

We are looking at FACT, not OPINION here. You might be of the opinion that it is legal, but the fact remains that it is ILLEGAL. Many people forget that most uses of the "record" button on a VCR are illegal. The fact that nobody is pursued for it does not change the fact that it's illegal.

Stylesjl · Post by **Stylesjl** » 04 Jul 2004 23:41

So who cares if its illegal its a victimless crime no one is hurt and a hell of a lot of people are happy

Atari is not making any money people are being made happy and no one is being sued

Perfect justification for breaking the law

Now shut up about legality its not significant

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