Authorship questions

[Fragorl]

A philosophical question:

Supposing I wanted to remake another person's addon, doing away with everthing but the model. In the case I'm thinking of, it's a weapon. They have a really nice model, but I don't like their scripting and other aspects, so I want to redo them. At some point in the future, I may want to re-release the addon (if it is of good enough quality).

Obviously, I'm allowed to de-pbo the addon on my own computer, play around with it, and generally do what ever i like with it, as long as I do not distribute, to anyone, the new version. If I want to do that, it becomes tricky. My question is this: Do I

a.) release it anyway :-X

b.) release it, but give credit to the author for the model

c.) release it, with the author's original files, and my own file, saying exactly what I've changed, and what's his that I've used

d.) do c.), but only once I've obtained the author's permission to do so?

Also, at what point does it become intellectual theft, and at what point is it acceptible to do? Any thoughts welcome, I don't mind a discussion

[UNN]

Also, at what point does it become intellectual theft

For me, I'd say A,B & C. But you missed out a fifth option, that would fall between C & D.

Release it, but inherit from, rather than changing and distributing the authors original files.

This way whoever wants to use your version will have to download the original themselves. So no way, can you be accused of passing it off as your own work. To my mind this fits in with BIS's whole approach to OFP's game design. It's polite to ask permission. Other than some personel arguments. I've yet to see anyone object to thier addons, being used in such a way.

But if you want to distribute someone elses addon. I think you should obtain permission, if the author is active and can be contacted in a reasonable amout of time.

Well thats my theory anyway

[Fragorl]

Well that seems reasonable to me -

if the author is active and can be contacted in a reasonable amout of time.

yes, this is important!

Deriving my addon of his addon is an idea though... :thoughtful:

[Dubieman]

I encountered something like this. I was and still am setting up a big WWII mission. And I was using Vibes light Panzer. However it took more bazooka rockets to destroy it then the tiger in the I44 demo.

So I originally went in to modify the config and rerelease the addon saying it was Vibes work, but Vibes was gone from the community. So after talking to the guys over at WWIIEC they helped me make a config that inherits like UNN said from the original addon. That way the orginial addon isn't touched, I'm not copying anything, I have permission to do what I did/doing, I get the armor and name values I want, and people can enjoy the orig. addon and the modded version.

So my suggestion is get permission then put out another config/other stuff you want to change that inherits the model. And I think everyone will be fine with that.