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Unread 05-07-2014, 12:04 PM
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magill magill is offline
The Undying
 
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Philadelphia PA
Posts: 85
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hyoss
The problem is that plugin authors do not mention a license when uploading their plugin, and there are many different ones (MIT, GNU, Creative Commons etc). For example if the plugin would be published under "MIT/Expat" license we could publish a modified version, provided we publish the modified version under the MIT license too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIT_License
http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT
This is the base issue -- there is no DEFINED structure here, only an assumed one, and one which is not generally agreed upon (witness the different forms of license).

What I was getting at with the reference to publication and remuneration -- ZAM is not paying for "the right" to publish the plugin on their site; simply providing anyone with the ability to do so. They do not do any kind of "validity checking" of the Plugin (as does say Apple with the iTunes Store) nor of "authorship" beyond the fact that a "registered" user is posting the plugin.

All of which is to say, unlike in book publishing, ZAM has no "interest" in the content, where "interest" equates to "control." Plugins are clearly not "works for hire," so their "interest" and related liability is non-existent.

The only reason ZAM pulled the plugin in the first place is that ZAM was being "good guys" -- One can even argue that they violated the Author's copyright by doing so!

The simple fact is, there are no "rules" involved (to be violated), and only very nebulous guidelines. In fact, I can not find ANY guidelines on the site except for the standard vBulletin FAQ boilerplate.

Needless to say, that begs the question -- Should there be? Which is a whole separate topic.

Again, all of this only effects those who do NOT already have the plugin downloaded and installed.
Those of us who do have it downloaded and installed can simply continue to use it as we have in the past.
We even can fix the Easter Egg if we want. Nobody will know or care.
As best I can tell, version 4.2.3 was last updated in January of 2013 and that represents the last time the plugin was touched. (Last modification dates.)

So, in the end, what we wind up with is "yet another reason" that a certain group of players will have to NOT play LOTRO.
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