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Originally Posted by admiral
Unfortunately, this is wet paper as far as law goes.
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And just a decade later...
Quote:
Originally Posted by admiral
Unfortunately, loose words like that do not constitute a license, whereas well-known licenses such as MIT or GPL are widely recognized as Open Source (OSI) or Free Software (FSF).
Copyright law is complex, and licenses are written with it in mind, by people who understand law.
This is just how it is, and I do not like it either, but anything else than a well-known license is considered a minefield.
Most people won't go anywhere near it, including myself, because it is simply not worth the risks and trouble. Given the relationship between Amiga and legal drama, I can't blame anybody for being paranoid.
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Then why do you think we put it out in the wild? The official source wasn't available so I took it from the original box with masters and, by arrangement with the original owner (who still technically owns it), agreed on the licence above.
The main reason it was released was that people can look at it and see how it was done. It's a curiosity, I don't think anyone would need such tool these days - there are other copiers now that'll handle this more system friendly. I am absolutely confident that as long as no money changes hands and the source is also provided, no one will start a fight.
Please keep in mind everyone's got a life and checking the original agreements to find out if all code can be GPLed is a time consuming and probably also an expensive endeavour. Also this was a decade ago we lifted it from the vault.
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Originally Posted by Jope
That was a parameter copier, wasn't it? This means it cracked the games as it went.
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If I remember correctly... yes.
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Originally Posted by Thomas Richter
Why? That's as clear as it could be. Don't sell, provide the source. It doesn't take a lawyer to express your will.
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Agreed.
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Originally Posted by Bruce Abbott
Considering that X-Copy was the favorite tool of immoral Amiga fans seeking to violate copyright laws, the idea that its own code should be protected by copyright is perverse.
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Well. You can use a knife. Prep dinner, kill the missus. You can use a nail gun. Repair the roof, kill hubby... X-Copy on purpose wasn't a parameter copier, but yes, of course, it got abused. However, cracks can be copied with every tool, whereas originals were never widely spread with the protection intact. I don't blame anyone, but if a game got cracked and then spread... I am sure if there would not have been X-Copy, there'd have been another tool. I mean, there were, e.g. also some very good ones on the public domain. I just remember Rattle Copy by some chap from the Netherlands. Guess that was free, and I forgot which tools I used under Workbench, years later. Whatever.
So I don't get the anger, but maybe I am just too rational.