If a coder has seemingly abandoned their plugin, and I've fixed it for 4.0

[Smiler2009]

Originally Posted by BlackJacket

The last i checked, you cannot copyright a language. HTML/PHP is a coding language. You also cannot copyright the format of of the mod. IE the end result, etc.


From the U.S. Copyright law -

"(b) In no case does copyright protection for an original work of authorship extend to any idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery, regardless of the form in which it is described, explained, illustrated, or embodied in such work"
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You shoot down your own argument right there. the Mod IS the original work of authorship which the copyright covers. System and method of operation don't apply, that's like trying to say you are copyrighting the syphon principal for a cistern, you can copyright the drawings of the cistern but not the syphon principal.

The copyright covers the actual mod itself, the intellectual property, the code written to make the whole. If you want to write a mod that does an identical job but written in a markedly different way then you'll have no copyright worries. If you copy the code verbatim you are breaking the law even if you write it all out by hand yourself.

Ask Microsoft if it minds you distributing DOS or Windows3.11, both obsolete, they surely wouldn't mind....

Edit: You wanted cites....

Have a look at this US software copyright attorney website which puts in laymans terms how software is protected internationally

http://www.softwareprotection.com/copyright.htm

Jeff.