Argentum MODS legal stuff

[Dan East]

I received this response from DataFab technical support regarding installing a CF Card Reader under Windows 2000 Beta3:<br><br>Dear Sir<br>Onder win2000,Card Reader is Pulg & Play<br>Frist,connect card reader into computer LPT port<br>Boot in the win2000 operation system<br>system will found a new hardware and will asking where are the driver<br>You just direct to the driver<br>Simon<br>

[Jaybot]

heh, insightful

[RICoder]

Hate to say the obvious, but it wasn't signed<br><br>All your card reader are belong to us!<br><br>was it?

[esw]

hah, good one RICoder

[Luciano U. Werner]

So thats what "all your base are belong to us" means. Cool.<br>:)

[RICoder]

If you can't read this you are an incompetant ass...<br>Read what?  hehe....

[jongjungbu]

You answered your own comment with a question. How am I to make a smartass remark now, you've wasted it.

[Luciano U. Werner]

Well RICoder, if you read it, you're not.<br>;)

[RICoder]

Except that I thought it said 'potentes' instead of 'potes' and so I got it a bit wrong.  So now I think I will change my signature....

[Luciano U. Werner]

lol

[Luciano U. Werner]

This deserves a signature change!<br>;)

[RICoder]

hehe...AND NOW WE TAKE REVENGE for all the other languages being used on this board.<br><br>Oh, and Luciano...I don't know that word...so help me out...is what you are saying synonymous with this: <br><br>"Quando omni desumus, moritatus"<br><br>?

[Luciano U. Werner]

To be honest, I wasn't really sure about flunkus eather, but it should mean "fails".<br>When every else fails, fake dead<br>I couldn't find desumus. Are you using a dictionary?

[RICoder]

Yeah, I don't think I know anyone who can read/write latin without using a dictionary at least a little.<br><br>Desumus, or desum is "to fail", so I guess it fits.  I saw flunkus and it seemed like a fake word, kinda like bigus dickus or something.  HA!<br><br>And, not to make this a latin lesson or anything but I couldn't find moritatus anywhere, so I just assumed it was based on morior-to die. So, I thought you where saying If all fails, die.  Close, but not quite...been so long since I studied latin ya know?

[Digby]

I just came across this thread (been out of town) and wanted to spew a few thoughts...<br><br>Good luck in trying to prevent someone from reverse-engineering your file format.  As long as the effort was used for creating new content for the game and not to break the law (i.e. circumvent copy protection) then you have little to no case for legal action.  There was a case years ago where Accolade reverse-engineered the Sega Genesis and was able to develop games for the console that were not licensed by Sega.  The U.S. Federal Court determined that reverse-engineering is not illegal - it's what you do with the information.  Producing a new game or mod wouldn't be illegal unless it infringed on some patented process in the data file format.  Of course all this is moot if the mod designer resides outside the United States - all bets are off in that case.<br><br>If you want to remove the incentive to produce  higher-quality content for your game, then go ahead and charge mod-makers a percentage.  Realize that there might be some very competent mod designers out there that won't bother to develop an add-on for your game if they think they are getting screwed.  If they never release the mod then how is that going to help your game sales?  It won't.  A top-notch mod will only drive more demand for your game, so I don't see how you lose here.<br><br>The comparison to "iron-fist types like M$" is amusing.  Microsoft gives away the SDK and full development tools for the Pocket PC and doesn't require me to give them one cent from the sales of any software I write for the platform using their tools.  That doesn't sound too iron-fisted to me.  Try working with some Japanse game console companies and then you'll see what iron-fisted means.<br><br><br><br>