UTPe wrote:Sorry, this is off-topic but you really need a simple and basic reply.
I respect everyone worked on UT99 in the past, works today and will work on UT99 in the future.
I always gave credits for maps and other packages built by mappers/developers (this is a must for me and I hope this is the same for others) but my personal respect stops here: if I need to share a single map in a map pack (or, for example, I need to install a single map on a server or even I want to mod a map), I zip it and share it with friends or team mates without problems. Why ? because there are no copyrights over maps and you don't have any copyrights even though you think you have: only Epic has some copyrights because we all use a software by Epic (Unreal Editor) in order to build maps so only Epic can say if something is "forbidden" or not, surely not you.
Probably you have been playing UT99 by many years but you never understood this basic rule. I don't think it's ridiculous, I think it's only sad.
If you don't want to share your "free" work, it's ok, don't do it, you can simply remove brushes from your maps or obfuscate your code, I don't care about it at all.
You can do what you want, it's the same for me.
regards,
Pietro
Without being too lenghty as others have already responded, you are confusing yourself with trademarks. As Quillion says we all have copyright on our works. So you can not take any user created content and modify and rerelease it unless either the copyright or the author himself gives you that permission.
As Revelation said there's nothing wrong with doing little changes for your own use, but the modified versions shouldn't be made publicly available anywhere.
You may find it sad, but I agree with Rev that when you start spending hundreds of hours in Ued you'll see how forgiving you are when someone takes your map, does very minor changes to it, and publishes it as his own content (I saw a mapper in UT 3 release new "versions" of others' maps with slightly altered post processing... and I lost the count of how many "XXX clan" versions I saw over the years, with just a few logos scattered around).
Just because it's free it doesn't mean that you can do what you want with it (even open source software has different kind of limitations in most cases). No one is going to send lawyers at your door for an UT map (the files will get pulled down from file hosting services, though), but it's just really a matter of respect towards the people that spent several hours to provide you some entertainment. You might feel entitled to do whatever you want with the content that was created by others, but putting altered versions online you're specifically going against the wish of its authors. That doesn't sound like respect to me.
Feel free to PM me if you want to continue this discussion further
The copyright claim is relative only to the original content of the Unreal games (Unreal Engine, default models, textures, sounds, etc.), not any user created content.Hort wrote:Generally true but not 100% - EPIC technically retained all copyright. From the EULA
18.(c) We just LOVE the idea of you using and distributing content or script from any prior Unreal branded game developed by Epic in your Mod. Therefore we grant you a license to use content from any prior Epic Games Unreal� game in your Mods. For the sake of clarity Epic retains all copyrights and you will not gain any ownership whatsoever in any Epic content or script nor can you use any Epic content or script outside the scope of the rights granted here. Any attempt to do so will bring about the wrath of our attorneys.
combined with a little bit of BT to get to the powerups perhaps.