When i said the above, i ment that from a legal point of view, that is all (i am sure there will be many legal exceptions) what is looked at to decide if something falls under copyright laws or not.

Ofcourse authors are free to transfer or waive their rights.

About your suggestion: We will never have a global TOS that would automatic turn over copyright.

But like i mentioned in post #6 we are looking into a few different copyright schemes that coders could choose to release their work under, but again that would be optional.

How about just having the option to select a type of copyright type a la Creative Commons, at the time of posting a modification?

Instead assuming that all code is at the maximum level of US copyright, giving options would allow someone to pick it up once it is abandoned.

We talked about this several months ago...

I must stress that I hope you meant "optional", because under no circumstance will I ever want anyone taking my code and releasing it under a modified form.

I don't really understand your concern now Dean. I used the word 'optional' twice in that sentence, and if you look in my post #11, you will see it repeated in even stronger words.

I had an old copy of the thread open, my bad.

phpbb.com does this. They have an awesome system for reviewing and testing hacks before they're released to users.

I would just like a setup here where the moderators/staff members have some sort of tracking system and keep up with what modifications here are being updated and whether the coder is in contact.

When several people ask about a mod in the thread for that mod, it would be nice to have someone of some sort of status here at least say they have contacted the author and provide us with one of the following:

A - The author has been contacted and the modification will be updated at some point

B - The author has been contacted and the modification will "not" be updated

C - We have been unable to contact the author and simply "don't know"

The staff could not possibly be expected to keep in contact with the author of every mod.

What if you get hit by a bus?

I don't think it would be that hard to do. You wouldnt need to run around checking them, just have some sort of reporting or ticket system up so people can post the mod in question to be checked. You check it, get your answer, and respond in the beginning post of the mod or something like that.

Anyhow, its just a suggestion for improvement.