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• Cloning a game and releasing the source

  - by Manux

  I'm not really aware of the legal issues surrounding game clones. I'm around halfway done of making a clone, but it's not just the same gaming concepts, I'm literally using the original game's files (which I do not intend to distribute in any way) in my clone. My original intention was to add features to the game (Firefly studios's first Stronghold) while still using the same art. Is it ok to distribute the source of my clone?

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• Is a warning about IAP in freemium games on iOS required?

  - by user1282931

  When I launch the successful iOS game "Clash of Clans", right in the beginning I get the following message in an iOS info pop-up: "Clash of Clans is free to play, but you can speed up your progress with in-app purchases. If desired, purchases can be disabled in the general settings of your device." What's the reason the developer shows this message right in the beginning? Is there any legal obligation to do so?

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• Repackaging Jasper-Reports into an application specific OSGi bundle, legal or not?

  - by Chris

  Hi, I wanted to ask (probably a silly) question regarding the packaging of existing open-source components as OSGi bundles (more specifically Jasper Reports). I have an application that I am converting from a monolithic jar-hell type architecture to something more moduler and OSGi is my weapon of choice. There are various modules I have in mind but one of the modules is a reporting module. My own reporting module will be a jar file containing my code that should reference a Jasper Reports bundle. Trouble is, Jasper reports depends on far far too many libraries and is quite monolithic in its own right. I therefore wish to build my own Jasper Reports bundle but this is where I start getting confused about the legality of repackaging. I don't plan to re-compile but I do plan to re-bundle removing known items that I do not require. Can anyone offer advice on whether I am permitted to repackage (not recompile or extend) open-source libraries into OSGi bundles without falling foul of 'derivative works' clause of LGPL? I noticed that Groovy seems to offer some monolithic jars that include all dependancies and actually goes so far as to re-arrange the packages of its dependancies so that there are no namespace conflicts. This seems to me to be a violation of the license but if anyone can reassure me that this is legal then I would feel safer about my less intrusive custom-bundling of Jasper reports. Thanks for your time, Chris

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• PASS: The Legal Stuff

  - by Bill Graziano

  I wanted to give a little background on the legal status of PASS.  The Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS) is an American corporation chartered in the state of Illinois.  In America a corporation has to be chartered in a particular state.  It has to abide by the laws of that state and potentially pay taxes to that state.  Our bylaws and actions have to comply with Illinois state law and United States law.  We maintain a mailing address in Chicago, Illinois but our headquarters is currently in Vancouver, Canada. We have roughly a dozen people that work in our Vancouver headquarters and 4-5 more that work remotely on various projects.  These aren’t employees of PASS.  They are employed by a management company that we hire to run the day to day operations of the organization.  I’ll have more on this arrangement in a future post. PASS is a non-profit corporation.  The term non-profit and not-for-profit are used interchangeably.  In a for-profit corporation (or LLC) there are owners that are entitled to the profits of a company.  In a non-profit there are no owners.  As a non-profit, all the money earned by the organization must be retained or spent.  There is no money that flows out to shareholders, owners or the board of directors.  Any money not spent in furtherance of our mission is retained as financial reserves. Many non-profits apply for tax exempt status.  Being tax exempt means that an organization doesn’t pay taxes on its profits.  There are a variety of laws governing who can be tax exempt in the United States.  There are many professional associations that are tax exempt however PASS isn’t tax exempt.  Because our mission revolves around the software of a single company we aren’t eligible for tax exempt status. PASS was founded in the late 1990’s by Microsoft and Platinum Technologies.  Platinum was later purchased by Computer Associates. As the founding partners Microsoft and CA each have two seats on the Board of Directors.  The other six directors and three officers are elected as specified in our bylaws. As a non-profit, our bylaws layout our governing practices.  They must conform to Illinois and United States law.  These bylaws specify that PASS is governed by a Board of Directors elected by the membership with two members each from Microsoft and CA.  You can find our bylaws as well as a proposed update to them on the governance page of the PASS web site. The last point that I’d like to make is that PASS is completely self-funded.  All of our $4 million in revenue comes from conference registrations, sponsorships and advertising.  We don’t receive any money from anyone outside those channels.  While we work closely with Microsoft we are independent of them and only derive a very small percentage of our revenue from them.

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• Signing redistributed files

  - by Garan

  In order to submit a desktop application for the Windows 8 app store, you need to digitally sign any driver or .exe associated with the application. However, the application I was trying to submit contains several files that are redistributions of other companies' software, and some of these are not signed. My application was rejected on these grounds. Is it legal (or ethical) to sign other companies' work so that we can submit our application? I think it might be considered some form of false representation but I'm not sure.

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• Is it really free to deploy SharpDevelop apps?

  - by Gabriel

  I'm trying SharpDevelop to develop c# applications. Regardless of the language and the IDE, is it free to deploy applications that use WinForms? I've been developing with MonoDevelop just because it has a designer for Gtk# (client doesn't want to pay more for licences as to use VS...), but it's too buggy and it's making us lose lots of time. SharpDevelop looks great at first sight, but I wouldn't like the user or us to have problems with legal software. Thank you for the data! Warm regards.

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• Is it illegal to rewrite every line of an open source project in a slightly different way, and use it in a closed source project?

  - by optician

  There is some code which is GPL or LGPL that I am considering using for an iPhone project. If I took that code (javascript) and rewrote it in a different language for use on the iPhone would that be a legal issue? In theory the process that has happened is that I have gone through each line of the project, learnt what it is doing, and then re implemented the ideas in a new language. To me it seems this is like learning how to implement something, but then re-implementing it separate from the original licence. Therefore you have only copied the algorithm, which arguably you could have learnt from somewhere else other than the original project. Does the licence cover the specific implementation or the algorithm as well?

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• copyright of some arcade classics [closed]

  - by kamziro

  Possible Duplicate: How closely can a game resemble another game without legal problems So suppose I'm currently developing a variant of a snakes game for the iPhone, and you decided to call it "snakes". First, in general, how would you find out if a name's been copyrighted or not? It's probably safe with "snakes" because it's such a common word, and that there's been so many games around (please correct me if I'm wrong), but with some people copyrighting the name "edge", it would be best to be a bit careful. Second, suppose I decided to go with some name that is guaranteed to be different (e.g EL SERPENTES DE LOS REYES), would gameplay be a point of contention on copyright issues? For example, the tetris game is sort of "copyrighted" at the apple app store, and there was a crackdown on anyone using the word "tris" or anything related to it. However, if there was a game with the gameplay of tetris (or loosely very similar), with the name "BLOXODEREX", can it be liable to copyright/DMCA issues?

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• What do I do if a user uploads child pornography?

  - by Tom Marthenal

  If my website allows uploading images (which are not moderated), what action do I take if a user uploads child pornography? I already make it easy to report images, and have never had this problem before, but am wondering what the appropriate response is. My initial thought is to: Immediately delete (not just make inaccessible) the image File a report with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children with all information I have on the user (IP, URL, user-agent, etc.), identifying myself as the website operator and providing contact information Check any other images uploaded by that IP user and prevent them from uploading in the future (this is impossible, but I can at least block their account). This seems like a good way to be responsible in reporting, but does this satisfy all of my legal and moral responsibilities? Would it be better not to delete the image and to just make it inaccessible, so that it can be sent to the National Center for Missing & Exploted Children, the police, FBI, etc?

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• Who owns the intellectual property to Fragile Allegiance?

  - by analytik

  Fragile Allegiance was developed by Gremlin Interactive, which was later acquired by Infogrames (Atari). I couldn't find any details of the acquisition though. The only interesting thing I have found online is that the owner of the registered trademark Fragile Allegiance is Interplay, who published Fragile Allegiance. However, the only copyright note I've found was in one installation .ini file, claiming it for Gremlin. What are the common business practices when it comes to old, unused IPs? What do publishers/developers actually need to legally claim an intellectual property? Does anyone have an experience with contacting big publishers with copyright/IP inquiries? Related legal question.

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• How is an HTML5 game sold?

  - by Bane

  (I know this site doesn't give legal advice, but what I'm dealing here with isn't anything serious at all. Also, I apologize to JP for being annoying over this.) Someone found a game I made on the Internet, and expressed interest in buying it. We agreed upon a price, and, in the meantime, I removed the game's source from the Internet, just to be sure. Now, I'm wondering what to do next. These are the terms: He gets the game's source code, and only that, without the graphics (which weren't made by me). He gets the right to develop and sell the game. I get to keep the ownership of the original game, meaning that I can use it in my portfolio when applying for jobs, for example. The game gets to stay on its original site. But I am not sure how can I legally realize this. Which license can I use?

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• Using my own code in freelance projects.

  - by Witchunter

  I have been into freelance business for more than 2 years. While doing projects for other people, I've build a compilation of common tasks that I implement in projects and put them into code. It's kind of a library with some functions that I can reuse without having to rewrite the same thing dozen times. I'm talking about accessing Access databases, downloading information from FTP and similar stuff. Is this acceptable from a legal point of view? What's the difference in reusing the old code and rewriting it from the scratch (using you own brain again, therefore the exact same logic)? I do not hold any copyright to it, of course, and provide the source code for these classes to my clients.

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• Is making my own copyright licence safe?

  - by abcd

  I've seen various open source libraries (actually I've seen it for assets as well) having a home-baked license in the following manner : SomeGuy's License:1. You can use this code freely in commercial projects and modify it as you wish, but not sell it2. If you want to sell a modified version, drop me an email first, or give credits to me Edit: The above example is ambiguous, so I am giving another one, I want to know if 3 lines of license will hold some ground: SomeGuy's License:1. You can use this code in a commercial project as a 3rd party library2. You can't sell it as a derivative work I know that such license is not polished at all, for example the Creative Commons set of licenses seem to be short, but actually have some large legal stuff underneath it, but I wonder if at least some level of protection can be gained with a hobby license like that ? My question is, could this hold any ground in the court, or would the corporative lawyers of the company X tear it apart ?

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• template for terms of condition for social media based website?

  - by Rubytastic

  Im looking for a template for a terms of usage text based on social media websites. Im actually a coder and not into the legal blabla in general. Ofcourse you could spend a thousand or 2 on a lawyer but just a 3/4 paper text shoulder;t be to hard to compile yourself with some help. Im not sure if this is the right spot to ask this question but I love stack overflow and none of the sites in stack exchange I could find matched better then this one. My first idea lets look at some social media websites and grab some of there text, rewrite it for own specific usage Are there templates on writing such document Same goes with a privacy policy actually.

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• Fork dead SVN based project on GitHub

  - by Quinn Bailey

  I previously asked this at stack overflow but it was closed, I believe because 'programmers' is a more appropriate venue for this question. I have done some work on the SVN Importer project (Apache license), which appears to be effectively dead (no published changes in 5 years). I have a login to their svn server but do not have commit rights. At any rate, I'd like to convert this project to Git and push my own changes to GitHub. The GitHub site suggests the svn2git tool for converting svn projects to Git, so I was planning to convert the SVN repository to Git, add my changes, and then push this Git repository to GitHub. I'm wondering, what are the legal requirements and common conventions of this process? Is it acceptable to clone the entire history of the project and move it to GitHub? Also, even though this is essentially a dead project, once I've translated the repository to Git should I put all of my commits onto a non master branch or is it acceptable to use master in this case?

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• Is there a difference between "self-plagiarizing" in programming vs doing so as a writer?

  - by makerofthings7

  I read this Gawker article about how a writer reused some of his older material for new assignments for different magazines. Is there any similar ethical (societal?) dilemma when doing the same thing in the realm of Programming? Does reusing a shared library you've accumulated over the years amount to self-plagarizm? What I'm getting at is that it seems that the creative world of software development isn't as stringent regarding self-plagarism as say journalism or blogging. In fact on one of my interviews at GS I was asked what kind of libraries I've developed over the years, implying that me getting the job would entail co-licensing helpful portions of code to that company. Are there any cases where although it's legal to self-plagarize, it would be frowned upon in the software world?

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• Can I use remade sprites in my game?

  - by John Skridles

  Can I use remade sprites in my game? I am making a game and I used some sprites, but I didn't copy them. I remade them completely the character looks nothing like the original. I only did this to get the movement of the character right (moving, running, jumping, punching). I've been working on the game for a long time, so I really need to know is it safe and legal to do this. I do intend making a small profit.

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• UI Controls Copyright

  - by user3692481

  I'm developing a cross-platform computer software. It will run on Windows and Mac OS X. For user experience reasons, I want it to have the same graphic on both platforms. I really like the Mac OS UI controls and I'd love to see them on the Windows version too. My question is: is it legal to "copy" UI components? I'm not going to copy icons or reproduce an existing Apple software. I would only "copy" some standard UI components such as Buttons, Progressbars, TreeView, ListView etc. You can see them here: http://i.stack.imgur.com/9YzYQ.png http://i.stack.imgur.com/MWR6B.jpg IMHO, they should not be copyrighted for two reasons: They are implicitly used by any Mac OS software There are a lot of Apps (for Windows and even Web-Apps) that are "inspired by" the Mac graphic. Am I right?

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• Hacked by our own hosting company!

  - by dazhall

  OK, so our hosting company decided to clone our site and database onto a new serve. Without our knowledge or permission they then edited our code to point to the new database. The old server was left running, still pointing at the original database. The DNS was changed to reflect the new IP address of the server. Obviously during the propagation customers were hitting both the new and old servers, resulting in orders coming in to both databases, sometimes being split between the two. We're now attempting to reconcile the two databases. The question I have is is it still hacking if it was done by your own hosting company?! I'm fairly sure they shouldn't have edited our code! If they had left it as it was the site would have stayed pointed at the original database and we wouldn't be in this mess! I'm thinking that legal advice is need but just wanted to know if anyone had ever come across this situation before?!

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• Is it safe to have no TOS or PP?

  - by JamerTheProgrammer

  I have coded my own forums from the ground up. I have tried my best to make my code as secure as possible and encrypting everything I can. I want to use this forum for a Minecraft server. I have one concern however.... I would like to setup this forum now but having no TOS or Privacy Policy has put me off. Will having none of either cause me any legal trouble in the unlikely event of a data leakage? Thanks

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• New website, plans to go large. How do you protect yourself?

  - by John Redyns

  I'm planning to create a new site that (in hopes) will make it to a decent state of popularity and use. I have made sites before, but they weren't serious, with any intended purpose other than personal and friend use. I've never been able to find a solid post on good steps to protecting yourself, and your site/idea before you start. This site will always be free, and will not be bringing it any revenue by ads or whatnot, but I plan to in the future and would want to make I'm in the clear legally for one. Do you need to copyright anything? Or anything of the same concept as copyright? Do I make an LLC to operate it under? Apologies for this extremely poorly written question, basically I want to be both legal, and I want to make sure nobody can just rip my idea or name(s). (I'm sure this will be more concise as questions here are asked) Thanks

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• Is it illegal to use content in such a way?

  - by MHZ

  I have a couple of questions about the legality of the content of some websites. I am currently working on two websites and I would like to make sure I am not breaking any laws, by using some content like I am... Do I need to get a license to use images from the Internet (such as google.images.com) in my site, assuming they aren't a company logo belonging to another company? If not, am I allowed to use it after I modify it with a image editing software? If content such as phone numbers, e-mail addresses, website addresses, and text from websites can be found for free online, and I gather this information for a search engine based site that I am working on and offering this information on a paid basis (similar to google, but more specialized), is something that is legal? Note: I am not 'copying' or redirecting business from anywhere, to my site. The exact opposite, the site I am working on actually helps advertise businesses and make it easier for customers to find them.

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• Modules already committed, client doesn't pay, what should I do?

  - by John

  So the story is simple, early stage EU portal hired me to do some extra modules. I got all the source code for local testing, did my job, committed new code. Now I am out of this project but client still haven't paid me yet and he is not even thinking about that. It has been couple of months and no contract was signed so I can't take any legal actions. What should I do with all the source code? Sell it? Run exact copy of that portal? Make all portal publicly available?

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• Can I (reasonably) refuse to sign an NDA for pro bono work? [closed]

  - by kojiro

  A friend of mine (let's call him Joe) is working on a promising project, and has asked me for help. As a matter of friendship I agreed (orally) not to discuss the details, but now he has a potential investor who wants me to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). Since thus far all my work has been pro bono I told Joe I am not comfortable putting myself under documented legal obligation without some kind of compensation for the risk. (It needn't be strictly financial. I would accept a small ownership stake or possibly even just guaranteed credits in the code and documentation.) Is my request reasonable, or am I just introducing unnecessary complexity?

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• Can I use the test suite from an open source project to verify that my own 'compatible library' is compatible?

  - by Mark Booth

  The question Is it illegal to rewrite every line of an open source project in a slightly different way, and use it in a closed source project? makes me wonder what would be considered a clean-room implementation in the era of open source projects. Hypothetically, if I were to develop a library which duplicates the publicly documented interface of an open-source library, without ever looking at the source code for that library, could that code ever be considered a derivative work? Obviously it would need the same class hierarchy and method signatures, so that it could be a drop-in replacement - could that in itself, be enough to provoke a copyright claim? What about if I used the test suite of the open source project to verify whether my clean implementation behaved in the same way as the original library? Would using the test suite be enough to dirty my clean code? As should be expected from a question like this, I am not looking for specific legal advice, but looking to document experiences people may have had with this sort of issue.

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