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Old 04-29-2006, 10:04 AM   #25
Valg
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Join Date: Apr 2002
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Valg will become famous soon enough
In addition to the license issue and other ethical issues, there is an even more clear-cut case of plagiarism with Medievia. They are a DIKU derviative, per US law (Copyright Act, at 17 U.S.C. ยง101):

A "derivative work'' is a work based upon one or more pre-existing works, such as a translation, musical arrangement, dramatization, fictionalization, motion picture version, sound recording, art reproduction, abridgment, condensation or any other form in which a work may be recast, transformed or adapted. A work consisting of editorial revisions, annotations, elaborations or other modifications which, as a whole, represent an original work of authorship, is a "derivative work''.

In short, it doesn't matter what Medievia has done to modify the DIKU code. A movie based on Hamlet is a derivative work, even if I'm responsible for all the filming, sound, advertising, and I rewrote all the dialogue to conform to 21st-century grammar.

A derivative work, by itself, does not constitute plagiarism. It is the fact that Medievia steadfastly refuses to credit the original authors for the work they are using to make a living.
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