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Old 12-31-2006, 05:26 PM   #6
cratylus
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Join Date: Feb 2006
Posts: 153
cratylus is an unknown quantity at this point
My comment is really about the meaning of "from scratch" for
me. Again, I'm not suggesting you have evil intent.

I think that as long as your *method* is "from scratch" in
the sense I describe, meaning you are writing stuff from your
head rather than copying from other people's documents,
your are likely ok.

However, this is not a legal opinion. If I were going to opine
on the legal status of your new mud (which, as a non-lawyer,
I am not qualified to do, so this is mere hypothetical), I'd say
that in a strict sense, you'd have a hard time proving that
the resulting work is not a derivative work. If you've been
eating and breathing diku code for years, the chances are that
your new mud will have striking similarities in some spots
(especially where there are limited ways to do a thing). An uber
tight reading of copyright law probably would make an excellent
case of your new mud being derivative and subject to Diku
licensing.

IP law can be quite disturbingly complex and anti-intuitive.
For example, a whiles ago I came across a startling
concept. One interpretation of 17 U.S.C. ยง 106(2) suggested
that just imagining Arnold Schwartzenegger in the role of
Superman in the Warner Brothers film is copyright infringement.

Just that thought experiment could be a violation of copyright.
(cite: Digital Copyright, Jessica Litman, 2001 p22).

Copyright law is a horrendous morass due to years of
manipulation through the efforts of various industries to
influence it for specific situations and negotiating
alliances among themselves to achieve their goals. Someone
sufficiently determined can, no doubt, find reason to
give you a horrendous hassle over your innocent effort to
create and share your vision, and find justification
*somewhere* in copyright law.

Strictly speaking, what you'd need to do to avoid this is what
for-profit companies do when faced with similar situations.
Erect a Chinese wall, whereby the people who've seen the
original code develop general design documents, and those
who write what is to be the final, new code, are *unable*
to generate a "derivative work" because they have not
seen the original code.

As you can see, avoiding bogeys coming in from the sun is
basically impossible. If you **** off the wrong pedant,
he'll come at you, and be amply justified by some aspect of
intellectual property law or another.

So, my post isn't so much about avoiding the flame...as much
as about getting your head straight about your intent. If
you meet the common-sense criteria of having written something
from scratch, then you can just carry on knowing that the
majority of people who care about such things find it
sufficient, in this hobbyist context. And those few
intent on advancing their reputations as copyright martinets
will do what they will do, regardless. Let them empty their spleen,
and do your best to do "right".

-Crat
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