Website

[woody57]

Do NOT forget the line stating that downloads from this site are NOT intended for COMMERCIAL projects & NO liability is accepted for claims or damage incured by
their downloading or useage.

Since your ALL working for free why have BOGUS claims costing you money by otherwise IMPLIED responsibility ?

[Dizzy]

well mayby this site could be some inspiration

[Zetr0]

*in a yoda type voice...*

"indeed... to woody57 & Hungry Horace you must listern!!...",

forgive me those whom already know this

English law depicts the following on Copyright: (Copyrights and patents act 1988)

Owner of Copyright is refered to as the Author (or bodies) of referenced recorded works. Thus if a company used a program that randomized numbers for a lottery draw, it is in effect by law the author of that sequence, this still stands true even if they did not own the copyright of the generating program but obviously was using it under license.

Copyright duration: This actually varies upon type as:

1. A Program & documentation lasts for 70 years after the authors death.

2. If computer generated only 50 years after Authors death.

Permitted Acts Under English Law after 1992

1. making backups to ensure a second copy is available in the event of orginal copy becomming damaged, lost or corrupt.

2. adapting a program in order to correct an error or bug

3. Decompilation when this is done purely to facilitate an interface to a program and there is no otherway of finding out.

point 3 needs a litte extra to understand.
3.
i.e if some one was developing a word processor package is entitled to decompile a competing package for the sole purpose of finding out the format in which documents were saved. Obviously if the competing company had published its formats then there would be no reason for this.

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Infringement:

okay so where does the website sit on infringment, i have spoken to quite a few lectures of law in the copyright area and here are the three boiled down portents.

1.
If the item belongs to a company that has been liquidated and their copyrights have not been transfered they become part of the public domain.

2.
If the item belongs to a company that has been liquidated and their copyrights can be transfered to other body(ies) and thus are not part of the public domain.

3.
if the item belongs to an individual then the referal of such work remains thiers for the permitted time UNLESS such work has in part or whole featured in any public domain

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Technical Aspects

so to extrapolate if i ripped graphix from a psygnosis game, i could contact sony entertainment to find out if the rights to all works by psygnosis works were transfered to sony entertainment or not.. the later bequiths them to the public domain.

If the item belongs in the public domain then there is no issue.

However, if i wanted to show graphix for captive to use in another project i would have to contact Anthony Crowler as it has never been released as public domain (in whole or part), I am however allowed to both copy (backup) and leagaly decompile his work to find the save and loading formats and any other item i wish that facilitates futher function or corrects errors.

if the graphics / scenes have been published in any publication this becomes a VERY grey area for litigation as once published *depending on journal* deems if such belongs in part to the public domain. There are still precidents being set in the area and the ground proves volitile.

from my interpretation upon 16 pages provided HMSO government, woody57 hit the nail on the head (i think he spends to much time in his woodshed reading magazines *and hitting nails on the head* for a grown man )

The best way would be to assume all works are / have existing copyrights and the way to show such works would be to obviously have a disclaimer stating that all works belong to their respective copyrights and is provided here only as information on such works. you can go into a major one about not being used for any commercial projects but there really is no need to as copyrights already provide that coverage.

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Forward

Another way to look upon this aspect is in reguard to Permitted Acts Under English Law after 1992 item 3. whereby decompilation to facilitate futher function of software etc. although this is a little tenuious would provide manipulations and developments for arguments sake, memory arrangement routines etc.

definate food for thought.

wow now thats a big postie hope it helps.

[Zetr0]

Heys guys,

If it helps i have something that might be of use, but atleast of some discussion.

I knocked this up in Webstyle4 for ya, its quick and easy to mod stuff for it... especially if ya have dreamweaver too

its just an idea to get the discourse flowing

[cebulba]

Helle ZetrO and thanks for the complete answer to my question.

However, since the website is hosted by a .de Domain - I'm unsure if these laws are the same over here in Germany. I guess they are similar but may in some detail different.

Thanks for the layouts in addition. Unfortunately as stated before the website (and the layout) is already done by me - and looks similar like the one you posted

I have decided to make a big disclaimer on the website which everybody has to agree on to the get full access to the website.

Furthermore it might be better just to get GFX from back2roots.org games (they already asked for making them available for public download, so why should the company have problems with a public download on the sprites? ).

I have seen Flash Remakes of RICK DANGEROUS and IK+ (very good ones btw) - does anybody know if the authors had ask for using the gameplay and sprites in front?

[BippyM]

I don't see the point of doing this site if you're not gonna host ALL the sprites!!

If you are worried then somebody else I'm sure will risk hosting it.. lets be honest the worst that is likely to happen is you are asked to remove sprites etc..

[Hungry Horace]

i have to agree with Bippy on this one.
Whilst it does show a great deal of thought and consideration on the part of you all, (including giving me some further insights into English copyright law) i do think maybe everyone is worrying about this a little too much, and it would be a shame to limit the sprites availible without a direct request for their removal.

For example, there's no Sensible Software games on back2roots (apart from the odd demo) yet www.sensiblesoccer.de have had the game availible for download for ages, and with the launch of a new sensi soccer next year, they are even in contact with the makers (and copyright holders) at Codemasters (including Jon Hare ) who seem to have no problems with the game or parts of the game being distributed amongst the SensiSoccer community online. (usually for unofficial updates and stuff)

Just my thoughts.

[woody57]

Since my domain is hosted from the USA & governed under the State laws of the hosting State the server is based in, I am more than happy to give Cebulba FULL access & hosting space /monthly transfer allowance for the site on ONE CONDITION

IT contains ALL the project sprites & he adds whatever disclaimer makes him personally comfortable, as for the overall site content thats ON MY SHOULDERS to answer questions if & when they arise.

Now thanks to Zetro and his updated 1988 version of copywrite terms of law { As a PRS member I have the later 95,99,2001 & 2005 updates of it too ! } The oNLY pertinent question for webhosting is whether it is advertised as a NON COPYWRITE FREE RESOURCE this would allow its use for comercial development as the contents would be classed as Donnated free of restriction

This is clearly not the case and with the aforementioned disclaimers that identify this misuse of the resource opens the USER to prosecution NOT the host source.

As a simple example you can add the McDonnalds logo to your personal letters to friends as a "SPOOF" joke ,but you have NO RIGHT to claim you have permission to use it in a commercial game or advertising campaign that makes money

For this reason the Super BoB Dylan SPOOF of Super Mario got by as PD release because it did not use any sprites from the original game even though the game play was practicly identical

But any attempts to use ripped sprites comercially have allways been blocked when spotted.

Hence the term SPOOF = Comic rendition of an original work .. for example the majority of work by Wierd Al Yankovitch ....and the more OBVIOUS the thing is a poor & humourous copy, the less likely it is prosecutable under US law.

I know it sort of opens the floodgates but without it comedy programme writting teams would be in Court every week.


So back on thread Cebulba deadwoodinc.net is happy to host the sprite project in ALL its entire glory

[Joe Maroni]

good luck with the site...

i think you have all foundations to build the site...

and many many thanks goes to woody57...

[cebulba]

Website is up!

Now please post a description or anything else (welcome message)...

I'm not a native english speaker - so it's up to one of you guys

Also, please upload all sprites to my webserver. I will add them to the downloads and gallery....however this is also available for registered users

I still need to make some fixes but I guess the current status helps a lot in handling all rips.

and here's the URL:
http://www.amigavision.de

Cu,
Olli Knagge

[Joe Maroni]

you´ll get the first stuff soon..

[Adeptus]

Originally Posted by woody57

Hence the term SPOOF = Comic rendition of an original work .. for example the majority of work by Wierd Al Yankovitch ....and the more OBVIOUS the thing is a poor & humourous copy, the less likely it is prosecutable under US law.

But he still has to pay royalties to the song's authors for use/performance of the music... hence why no more than half of any album is "direct" parodies.
(he also has a lot of "in-the-style-of" type parodies, eg Germs sounds like a NIN song but not a specific one...)

[woody57]

Absolutly Adeptus

The principles used however are similar & consequently my point of why " BAD copies in the style of" are harder to prosecute than direct VERY close copies

Well Cebulba I joined the site & added a shout comment ...:P

Lets hope the real work of other contributors can be added so future Amiga game "sprite requests " have a REAL home to visit

[Chain]

.. still needs some tweakin

[gifgit]

The website is looking really good
Glad to see those Lemming intro sprites were useful for something.

[cebulba]

Originally Posted by Chain

.. still needs some tweakin

that's happening when you use MOZILLA

I was never a fan of Bill Gates - but when it comes to amigavision - the IE works perfectly

[Duke]

Maybe you could start by fixing those errors.

[gifgit]

Can someone who is fluent in both English and German please help translate this site and perhaps work with cebulba to make this site everything that it should be

[cebulba]

I have changed the websites' language to english.

In the future it's possible to have multilingual options. We just need translations

Any volunteers for a "welcome to amigavision" text? I will work on the site at least one day a week. Unfortunately right now I'm heavy involved in finishing my degree in *fasten seatbelts* "enviromental sciences with focus on enviromental monitoring, remote sensing and geomatics". Call me Master Sc. in a few weeks

[gifgit]

Website is cool, it has a lot more sense to it now it is in english.
P.S how long before our uploads get onto the sprite gallery?