FormCritic wrote:The disk of pdf's seems pretty interesting. Probably best to search a bit more for the authors before you get too much farther.
. wrote:It would seem that these guys have moved on with their lives, and moved out of gaming.
. wrote:This project has been bubbling for a few years now.Have been searching for close on 18 months. Have written and e-mailed many of Simon Forrest's co-authors from his time at Games Workshop, and numerous other luminaries. The Copyright Licensing Agency in the UK, the printers who originally published, Oxford University Alumni, Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, MSN etc. I even did an obituary search just in case. I know that Basil Barrett is/was still alive in 2006, but haven't been able to trace him, and as for Simon Forrest, I haven't been able to track him beyond working for Games Workshop in the 90's.It would seem that these guys have moved on with their lives, and moved out of gaming.
bclarkie wrote:Your inability to contact them despite your best efforts does not entitle you to profit from their work without their okay.
FormCritic wrote:I'm not criticizing you, Ian. I am just advising you.
. wrote:I am going to infringe their copyright.If they contact me and ask me to desist, I will do so; at which point I will ask permission to remaster and include additional materials if they are up for it etc.
bclarkie wrote:And this makes you any better than the litany of people we work hard against to shut down in the "Copyright Infringement" thread, how exactly?
. wrote:Firstly, I am upfront about what I am doing.
. wrote:Secondly, I have spent, and documented, what I believe can be demonstrated as 'all reasonable attempts to contact the copyright holder' as defined by UK copyright law.
. wrote:Thirdly, I have sought and followed the advice of the Copyrigh Licensing Agency in the UK.
. wrote:Forthly, I intend to keep a record of all financial income and outgoing on the project.
. wrote:And finally, should a copyright holder come forth, I will take all reasonable stept to resolve any potential dispute said copyright holder has.
. wrote:No. What I am saying is, I have taken all reasonable steps to ensure that interested parties are informed and permission is sought, and in their absence, I am documenting for future reference.
. wrote:The decision to use copytighted meterials without an absent copyright holder giving express permission is one that occurs practically evry single day to one degree or other by many magazines and newspapers and media publishers the world over. It is the nature of the industry.
. wrote:But the use of copyrighted materials abandoned by, or in the absence of, the owners, is accepted practace in the media at large, and I do not plan on changing the world.
. wrote:I will go with the crowd because it serves my interest to do so, and it gets the materials to a wider audience. The advice of the CLA is that I would be infringing the author's copyright, but that provided I had taken all reasonable steps to contact said author(s), then if I chose to breach said copyright and was subsequently challenged, a civil case would be unlikely to result provided I was willing to cease the publication.
. wrote:I have sought independant legal advice and their reading of the matter concurs.
. wrote:I agree that the bottom line is that without express written permission, then copyright is infringed, but that is an overly simplistic viewpoint in the modern world.
faro wrote:Regardless of whether you're making a cent or not from this enterprise, Ian, you're still opening yourself to a possible further world of hurt when those disks hit the secondary market for a profit.Even if you aren't selling them on eBay you can be darned sure /someone/ will, possibly even ripping off your "copies" in the process, and the (c) holder(s) will know exactly where to come looking should those appear on their radar. (Not that there's not the possibility they might smile positively on these, but it's an inevitable "risk").
faro wrote:@Brian: I'm not sure Scott's too fussed these days since he did imply he was pretty much taking a back seat by-and-large.
bclarkie wrote:They might be okay with this project, but they might not. To me, both are equally plausible. I mean it's not like the technology is still something a lot of people aren't familiar with, it can easily be argued that they've perhaps already considered such a product themselves and decided against it.
nn wrote:Ian: I thought that magazine copyright only lasted 25 years in UK law ?