Re: [Enigma-devel] RE:Level packs

[Daniel Heck]

> I do not think there is much difference between cloning them by hand
> or by machine. So distributing handmade clones may as well lead to
> copyright conflicts.

"May", yes, but there's a crucial difference: Handmade clones are rarely
perfect clones.  The Oxyd levels we have so far may be very very similar
to the originals, but none of them are identical.  The screens are two
rows higher, there are different stones, etc.  The same logic applies to
the graphics, for example.  Our puzzle stones look very similar to the
ones used in Oxyd, but they are "handmade clones".  Simply converting
the Oxyd graphics from Dongleware's proprietary image format to .png
would be a clear violation of copyright, but recreating the images by
hand is hardly illegal.  I don't think it's possible to copyright the
look of something (except for trademarks), the idea behind a puzzle, or
the basic theme of a novel.  

> Surely legal would be to ask Meinolf for a permission. Anybody ever
> had contact to him?

Yes, I tried once, right after Dongleware's demise.  No answer.  

> Another possibility is using oxydlib and telling the people how to
> extract and install the data files.

In what way is this easier than the current solution?  Yes, of course,
shipping the whole load of Oxyd levels with Enigma would be great, and
we will surely reach that goal some day, but until then just sticking to
oxydlib sounds like a very reasonable solution, doesn't it?

Cheers,
Daniel

-- 
Daniel Heck
http://www.rzuser.uni-heidelberg.de/~dheck/