The Unsorted BBS Collection/thegreatunsorted.tar/thegreatunsorted/misc/info.txt

Text File | 1995-07-06 | 5KB | 99 lines

Exclusives on CDs and your rights:

    Many people have asked about the idea behind exclusive rights to
    certain demos and productions. The Exclusive CDROM rights are to
    protect Assembly 95 cdrom from those companies that clearly
    protect copyright violations. It is thus also to protect your
    interests as the person who has copyrights to the product.
    These violating companies publish your works on a cd without any
    permissions and make a lot of money without giving you nothing.
    Now, you might think it is ok, and as long as you think it is ok,
    then you should put text "This is freeware" into your production.

    What does the exclusive then mean? It means that we only get the
    right to publish your product on a CDrom, then we pay you royalties
    from the net income. This is a good way to support the scene and
    give the people little more than just plain prizes. We don't mean
    to restict the spreadability of your products in any ways. Keep
    in mind that the exclusive is only for CDROM distribution, and
    if you feel that you want to make a cd with your own production in it,
    no problem. We only want to protect the products from abuse that
    has been going on for a long time.

    We suggest that you add the following text to your product
    information if you want your product to be legally protected:


    This material is not freeware. You are allowed to copy it without
    restrictions for non-commercial use.
    No payment of any kind may be charged for this product or any
    combination of products or services including this product without
    our authorization and official written license.
    Commercial use, especially the industrial manufacturing on any
    data storage media and their distribution without the expressed
    permission of the producer, is strictly prohibited.
    This program or the data files contained herein may not be altered
    or modified without the permission of the author.
    You take full responsibility for the operation of this software
    and any conssequences thereof. We the creators cannot accept
    liability for damages or failures arising from the use of this
    software.

    (note: this is the text YOU add, and the word "our" means you,
    the author of this product. You might want to modify this file,
    it is ok, but keep the idea alive thou... for example, you have
    to change some stuff if you put this to musics for example).

    In Assembly '95, you don't have to give any exclusives if you feel
    you don't want to do it. We urge you to consider that thou. By
    granting us the exclusives, you get the royalties from the possibly
    income we get from the exclusive.

Some discussion about the rumors

    Discussion? There has been a lot of discussion on the internet about
    the CDroms and about companies that violate your rights as an author.
    We have our goals in protecting the scene from this abuse, as it has
    been pretty obvious and in large quantity also.

    Then there has been a question of monetary gain of Assembly Organizing.
    Assembly '95 is at the moment a +-0 party: ie, all the money has been
    budgeted to organizing the party. For some people, it is hard to
    understand that a fair center costs A LOT (Helsinki Fair Center is
    not located in some distant city that is in middle of nowhere :),
    but it is easy to yell out that we make big profits. For those people
    I would like to give few phone numbers to call around and ask for the
    price of such an event as Assembly '95.. you would be quite surprised.

    Our objective is to organize best parties ever, and the CDrom income
    makes it possible... Without that, Assembly ticket would cost
    around 300 FIM if you calculate all the expenses per party visitor.
    We even hope to lower the price of the ticket next year. And to
    those people who say "if party is this expensive to organize, it is
    badly organized"... well, on the contrary, that shows it has been
    organized with care and heart. We offer a lot for Assembly '95
    visitor.

    Assembly '95 relies heavily on the sponsors. That makes the event
    commercial in a sense that we ofcourse need to give something back
    to a company that wants to sponsor the scene in this way. For some
    people, some of the rules seem to some people with narrow vision
    that they are only for commercial purposes. I would like to say that
    is not the case. Ofcourse, as a byproduct these rules have also
    commercial factors (but keep in mind that these factors work FOR
    the scene, not against it). We intend to go public with demos, the
    culture behind them and the people who make them. We have organized
    interviews to magazines where young computer wizzes can present
    the idea of "scene" and demos to all people. If you look at the rules
    with this idea in mind, we hope you to see the ideas that we have.
    The more compatible the products are, the more people they reach,
    the easier it is to bring the new culture to the public knowledge.
    And who knows if at some state, demomakers are recognized artists
    who make their living by coding demos... interesting option? :)