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Old 05-30-2003, 08:22 PM   #19
the_logos
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Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Mill Valley, California
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"Paying homage" doesn't fall under fair use. There's no line between "homage" and "theft". They're the same thing. Here's the law:



Notice that the owner of copyrighted property has the -exclusive- right to produce derivative works, to perform the copyrighted material publically, etc. I don't know if muds are considered performance, but they are certainly considered derivatives. I brought up the public performance bit mainly because earlier you had asked if a private gaming group would violate the law (it wouldn't).

The law is straightforward: Unless your work falls under a fair use exemption (Satire, non-profit -educational- purposes, preservation of decaying works, etc), you're likely infringing. And actually, I don't even know if a non-profit mud set up expressly for educational purposes would work, as I don't think you can create a derivative work for that purpose.

Anyway, you're free to have your opinion, but your opinion doesn't count for much when the law says differently.

Really, the reason I started this thread was that I find it ironic that so many people moan about mud codebase violators and then happily embrace other types of IP theft. I think it's all bad form myself, though I have a bigger problem with, say, Tolkien IP theft, as it's possible to actually hurt Tolkien Enterprises financially by abusing their IP, whereas it's not possible to hurt the DIKU creators financially by abusing their IP. (Though I'd be just as happy to see Medievia shut down as most of you.)

And no, I don't need a crusade. I would just like to see some consistency from the mud crowd on these boards. You even mention Medievia and people throw fits and spend lots of time posting links copyright law, but you mention all the other violators out there and all you hear are the crickets.

--matt
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