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by MarkMoxon 541 days ago
Honestly, for me personally and on this specific project with its specific history of copyright issues (look it up!), that would be crossing the line into disrespecting the copyright situation.

Websites are ethereal, in a sense, as they are easy to switch off and hard to copy and distribute. PDFs and books are the opposite. Sure, websites get archived and repos get forked, but I think PDFs and books fall into a different area.

I run these projects very cautiously and very carefully. I don't think publishing a book or PDF containing copyright material is a good idea in this instance, to be honest!
3 comments
hathawsh 541 days ago
You don't need to be the copyright owner. All you need is a license from the copyright owner. It can't hurt to contact Ian Bell and see what you can negotiate. http://www.iancgbell.clara.net/

Edit: never mind, it sounds like Ian sold his copyright and now there's a mess. Hmm. https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/03/elite-dangerous-crowd...

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MarkMoxon 541 days ago
Well, exactly. This project is a hobby, and I’d like to try to keep it as my happy place!

Besides, I’ve published PDFs of my travel writing sites, and the thought of trying to keep a code repository, a website and a PDF in sync fills me with dread…

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hathawsh 541 days ago
Good for you! Keep it simple.
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jlarcombe 540 days ago
Interesting that, Chris Jordan was part of Acornsoft when the original game was being developed and is also well known for his Hybrid Music System for the BBC Micro, way ahead of its time.
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kstrauser 541 days ago
I understand and respect your opinion there. In the spectrum of copyright violation, I might be willing to let my kid install a copy of a game I bought on their own computer, but I would definitely not sell copies of it.

But it’s a massive bummer to me that copyright is preventing someone from publishing their research on a 40 year old game that hasn’t been available for sale in decades. I don’t know exactly where that lands on my moral spectrum, but I put it far closer to the left than to the right, legalities aside.

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WillAdams 541 days ago
Cogent points.

If you are able to get permission for a game code and then do this sort of analysis as a Literate Program and publish that as a book, you'd be in rather rarified company, and I'd certainly buy a copy.

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