User talk:Three

Hi, I notice that you posted the full rules for Torpedo here on the wiki. I'm wondering if you made sure you had permission to post them here; by default, anything anyone writes is protected under copyright, and copying it can be a violation. I don't see any copyright licenses on the Play Again Games website, which makes me wonder if you are allowed to copy the rules. — Lambda 23:06, 18 Oct 2005 (GMT)

(Feel free to correct me at any time... my friends tell me I sound like a raving lunatic at times ;-)

As far as I know, my contribution is protected under the Fair Use portion of US copyright law. I copied a non-licensed work with the intention to further creativity, without affecting the original author's ability to profit from his work (he released the game rules for free; he doesn't even have ads on his original page that he would claim a lost profit). I made sure to list the original source, and ascribe authorship to Jacob Davenport.

I will double-check with the author to ensure that this is acceptable.

— three

I fully agree with your sentiments, but I want to be cautious about anything that might cause trouble. The problem with trying to apply fair use is that verbatim copying fails several of the criteria. It isn't substantially transformative, it's copying the entire thing, rather than just excerpts, and while he isn't currently making money off of it, it's possible he might in the future, and having the rules available for free here would harm his ability to do that. On the other hand, there are lots of people who have posted games online who have never really specified copyright terms, and probably will never care if their game is copied onto the wiki. I've been debating with myself whether it's better to just avoid copying them over, or whether we should take the "easier to ask forgiveness than permission" policy, but for now, I've been trying to err on the side of caution. — Lambda 07:02, 26 Oct 2005 (GMT)