COPYRIGHT ISSUES FOR PAK128 AND SVN

[jamespetts]

There's a Pak128 SVN? Is it public...?



EDIT: Split by Fabio

[DirrrtyDirk]

Yes, there is. And no, it's not (yet).

[wernieman]

Whe have Problem with the (c) of the Grafiks (not of the PAK). VS work on it, but at the moment .....

so only PAK128 developer have access to the SVN

Edit
@VS: you do a great job ;o)

[jamespetts]

I shall look forward to Pak128 being released :-) Is there any chance, in the meantime, of a release of the sources all those parts of Pak128 in respect of which there are no copyright issues on a public Pak128 SVN as an interim measure?

[VS]

That depends. I am going to do (soon) something that should help in that aspect, but for now, assume that the task is: parse a few thousands dat files, weed out the unfree objects, and copy aside the free ones, together with their respective graphics, as referenced, with correct new graphics references (!). Too much to do by hand. If anyone is interested in helping out with that, I already have a nearly complete Python framework for general representation and loading of DAT files. In fact the task would be reduced to writing the graphics copying logic.

[DirrrtyDirk]

I guess that's for VS to decide. Personally I'm not sure if it's worth the extra effort (given the limited time we all already have) - but of course that depends on the progress on the copyright issue. If that's solved within a few weeks, I'd say no, let's just wait - if it takes... half a year or longer, things would again be quite different... the problem is we don't know how long it'll take.  :(

Is there anything special you're interested in?

EDIT: beaten by 34 seconds. 

[jamespetts]

I agree with DirrtyDirk about the timing issue - that seems a sensible balance. Certainly, resolving the copyright issues is the most efficient way forward, if possible.

What I'm interested in is the possibility of using and modifying certain things in Pak128 for PakBritain (and possibly also PakBritain-Experimental), such as certain modern industries (until The Hood gets around to adding modern industries, at least), power lines, centenary, the 3rd/4th rail electrification, and other things. I don't know what the views of the official maintainers of PakBritain are about that re-use, but I'd certainly like to fill in any gaps for a version of PakBritain that I am planning to fork to go with Simutrans-Experimental with standard Pak128 things if Pak128 was opensource.

I know that the official PakBritain maintainers want something that will work as a standalone distribution; they are currently working to produce PakBritain themed versions of all the Pak128 assets so as no longer to have to rely on Pak128 materials, but if Pak128 was open-sourced, it would be possible to have a stand-alone distribution of PakBritain using some Pak128 assets (where they fit into the overall graphical theme of PakBritain). That might then save the time of the PakBritain developers, who could then spend more time working on creating new assets.

[DirrrtyDirk]

I agree with D********k...

Usually I'm not too picky about spelling, but... some errors create other meanings...

EDIT:

powerlines and 3rd rail (there's no 4th rail in official pak128, just an addon somewhere) should be possible, since these authors have agreed (when I read the license state document correctly.) For industries, it really depends on which ones exactly - there were many different authors involved, and not all have agreed (yet).

[VS]

/ falls under table

The Hood asked exactly the same a few hours back. Either ask for individual items which can be dissected manually, or get the scripting done and you can get everything free.

[jamespetts]

DirrrtyDirk - oops! Sorry. "Dick" is a known abbreviation of "Richard", so it's easy to mistake for "Dirk" in a person's name. I have edited the original post to correct the mistake.

And I take the point about the work needed to make the items available manually. I shall ask if it comes to it, in that case. Thank you for your help :-)

[DirrrtyDirk]

"Dick" is a known abbreviation of "Richard"

I know. Just like in "Tricky Dick" Richard Nixon. But we all know that this word has another meaning in the English language as well - but let's not go there.