Dumped in an inconvenient situation

[Dream]

I disagree with the thinking that all mods should be supported by their authors. Coders already make free mods, requiring them to also support them for free is kind of asking too much. Also you gotta take into account that not everyone who contributes here are professional coders, more like forum hackers sharing their own forums modifications, and requiring a level of quality for mods to be posted here would kill this sharing idea. This is all just my opinion.

I agree there should be a modification setting "I allow anyone to modify and repost this modification" for coders.

Also, maybe adding a setting "code quality" where the author tries to provide his overall coding skill applied to the mod could be interesting.

An offtopic rant, but somewhat related, vb.org community is too demanding for free mods.

[MRGTB]

I think Spinball talks a lot of sense. And the whole COPYRIGHT issue where mods released here on this site remain the property of the Authors is causing no end of problems like Spinball has pointed out in well worded posts above.

I agree that maybe vB.org does need to review there site policy of hacks released here by members. And maybe change it so "un-supported" hacks can be taken over by members. And also do away with the ability for hack releaser's to be able to request all there mods be removed as well. I think more power needs to be given to vB.org to be a lot more flexible regarding members mods released here. To much power at the moment is in the Authors hands.

[Dan]

Won't happen all mods released here are property of the author, vBulletin.org CANNOT give permission for anyone to take over the mods.

[Paul M]

JFYI, The next set of updates includes a review of the modification tick boxes. Two new ones are currently planned - one to show that translations are allowed to be released on other authorised sites, and one to allow other coders to take over and/or release modified versions. I stress that they are planned options atm, we still haven't finalised any details (therefore, there is no eta or guarantee on what will finally be included).

[Dream]

That's great news Paul, I hope they get implemented. It will improve the community I think.

What do you mean by "other authorised sites"?

[Paul M]

We will probably define that as other sites using licence verification, currently this is just the German modifications site.

You could define it otherwise in your release post of course.

[Dismounted]

Originally Posted by Spinball

And if the author doesn't give a toss? If they've cleared off, they probably don't give a damn.

That's still no reason top breach the Copyright Act.

Originally Posted by Spinball

At least ask the author if it's ok if someone adopts the hack and post an invite to the community to take up the reigns.

Anyone can ask the author for permission to continue to develop their modifications. We're not stopping you from doing that.

[Marco van Herwaarden]

Let me make a few things clear:

Copyright is not something that we (vB.org) invented or put inplaceto annoy anyone. It is international law. The only difference between us and some other sites is maybe that we try to stay within legal boundaries.

Copyright applies to the physical coding, not to ideas. Anyone is free to write a new modification based of an existing idea, but they can not reuse (significant) coding from another author without permission.

There is no deciding or arguing on this, it is simple international law.

PS If a modification is withdrawn for reasons other then the request of the author (in which case is should be up to the author to motivate such a withdrawal to the users of his work) it is always done because staff looks into a modification after it was reported by members. We usually do not actively go check upon modifications trying to find a reason to withdraw it.

[Spinball]

Originally Posted by Paul M

JFYI, The next set of updates includes a review of the modification tick boxes. Two new ones are currently planned - one to show that translations are allowed to be released on other authorised sites, and one to allow other coders to take over and/or release modified versions. I stress that they are planned options atm, we still haven't finalised any details (therefore, there is no eta or guarantee on what will finally be included).

Well that's good news.

Originally Posted by Dismounted

That's still no reason top breach the Copyright Act.

Anyone can ask the author for permission to continue to develop their modifications. We're not stopping you from doing that.

oh for the love of god. It's like talking to a brick wall.

Originally Posted by Marco van Herwaarden

Let me make a few things clear:

Copyright is not something that we (vB.org) invented or put inplaceto annoy anyone. It is international law.

As a former professional musician and current podcast producer, I am well aware of copyright law, thank you. My point is that I think the vB.org team may be using it as an excuse to be less helpful than they could be when it comes to resurrecting needed mods.

Originally Posted by Dan

Won't happen all mods released here are property of the author, vBulletin.org CANNOT give permission for anyone to take over the mods.

Not for current mods. But you could change your T+Cs to state that any mods submitted here, may be adopted and modified (with credit to the original author) if the original author is unable or unwilling to supply updates when they are needed.
E.g. if a mod is rendered inactive by a new version of vB, and the author is uncontactable, then the community can modify the mod.

It seems like common sense to me.

[Marco van Herwaarden]

Using the law "as an excuse" costs us a lot more energy then simply ignoring such laws, so in my view you don't really have a point here. Also authors are always free to wave their copyright and let their code be reused by others. If an author can not upkeep his modification(s) anymore, he always has the option to allow another coder to take over. This has happened before and if the author wishes so, then we will always try to support such a request as good as we can.

On a personal note: You are barking at the wrong tree. Try to covince the coders to release their work as a community product free of copyright claims, targeting the vB.org staff is useless as we have no say over the coding written by someone.