COPYRIGHT ISSUES, RICHARD/ALL READ PLEASE!!

[Taqwus]

That's the problem with creating a derivative work. If it's not authorized in advance and it's not covered by the fair use exemptions (which, for this sort of mod, don't apply methinks -- they mostly allow for research or review, and there's some legislation specifically aimed at libraries -- but I'm not a lawyer), then distributing it is a bad idea... And putting it in a public Online forum is explicitly labelled a public performance for purposes of copyright law according to the US Code, IIRC.

For reference, you might want to look into, say, the various _Doom_ mods. ISTR that Fox went after the makers of the Alien "total conVersion" for Doom because it used their IP, for instance. It didn't matter that it was free -- it was still a violation of their IP protections. It also wouldn't have mattered if credit had been given.

So I would highly recommend that people looking to create derivative works ask in advance -- possibly in writing, to get a response you can file, if particularly paranoid.


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-- The thing that goes bump in the night