AVI2MVE Legal Stuff

[dude_obj]

When I run AVI2MVE a window pops up, that says, among other things:

Legal stuff:
The MVE format is the property of Interplay.
You may use this utility for education and evaluation only.
You are not allowed to distribute the movies produced by this program.

Any comments on that third item? Is this just author ABel protecting himself by having appropriate disclaimer? Is distribution of MVE made by this util "acceptable" in the same "unofficial" sense as Interplay describes in the Fallout Bible?

When I read the legal statements by Interplay, I was thinking for a moment about SCO (unix). The company basically lost all its market due to free software (linux), and now are trying to sue companies using linux (saying it contains part of their IP). It seems that persuing lawsuits is pretty much the entire business of SCO now. Makes one wonder about Interplay with its 3.5 employees or whatever.

 

[Wild_qwerty]

Long as you arent selling them it *should* be ok. But I'm not a lawer, You could argue that by releasing the mapper they expect people to make mods and with mods come the possiblitie of making movies.

That being said they released the official MVE converter for Klingon academy, which implies that you are allowed to make MVEs.

Though when the source code for Decent freespace 2 was released the code for MVE's was removed, which is why open freespace now uses Div-X format.

Anyway the best I can say is read the txt file for the klingon accedmy MVE converter

 

[red]

There's a difference between this and SCO...

In SCO's case, code was actually found in the linux kernel which is actually copyrighted to SCO and they're saying anyone using this code should pay them (and possibly anyone which used it too).

Though we have no clue what code ABel actually used, we use "his" product. His program is illegal if used commercially or in any way which might hurt interplay (see the millenium copyright act) also, anyone using it to make movies for the general public (rather then for learning purposes) would in effect infringe Interplay's copyright.

There's another thing too about copyrights on file formats, albight I don't actually know if this might effect the MVE format.


Now, if we step back a little and think about it reasonably, unless you publish something that would actually make money, there is pretty much no way Interplay would run after you; specially in their current state

 

[Ashmo]

There's a difference between this and SCO...

In SCO's case, code was actually found in the linux kernel which is actually copyrighted to SCO and they're saying anyone using this code should pay them (and possibly anyone which used it too).

Though we have no clue what code ABel actually used, we use "his" product. His program is illegal if used commercially or in any way which might hurt interplay (see the millenium copyright act) also, anyone using it to make movies for the general public (rather then for learning purposes) would in effect infringe Interplay's copyright.

There's another thing too about copyrights on file formats, albight I don't actually know if this might effect the MVE format.


Now, if we step back a little and think about it reasonably, unless you publish something that would actually make money, there is pretty much no way Interplay would run after you; specially in their current state

Remember, folks. These wacko laws are mostly restricted to the US. The rest of the world tends to be a bit less insane.

 

[Wild_qwerty]

lol I kmnow even in the stats you are allowed to reverse engineer things for the purpose of compatability.

Just go to the downloads section and check the red me for the Klinon academy MVE converter

 

[ABel]

In the avi2mve program, only freely available libraries are used (in fact, I've used only a slightly modified part of GIMP, everything else have been made from a scratch), so it 's almost GNU licensed The only reason why I do not distribute the sources is the program is not finished and not fully tested.

About that "You are not allowed to distribute the movies produced by this program" statement. I had to make it to protect myself. That's all.
I can change this to "You are allowed to use this program for education and evaluation only", or even "Use the program on your own risk" if this will make someone's life easier