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Re: 32x John Smith Texture Pack - 0.4.17

Posted: Mon May 28, 2018 00:24
by Semmett9
dharkael wrote:We have a problem.
I've been looking for the license and I've found this: http://www.minecraftforum.net/forums/ma ... -32x-1-4-2

the author says:
If you want to use my textures in your pack:
You can use, edit and share my textures as long as I'm credited
You are not allowed to make money with my work
And you are not allowed to use my textures in a customizer or in any other games else than Minecraft.
We have to contact the original artist and ask if he agrees with using his textures in minetest.
Also note that in addition to the original pack, there are additions of the community ( http://js-legacy.net/jstr-vanilla/ ).

Someone should open an issue in their github and ask information about the aditional content and its licenses:
https://github.com/John-Smith-Modded
Hi

It seems that the original artist abandoned the texture pack in 2011 Found Here, and was recently abandoned again by a second person Found Here

I have tried to contact the author back in 2013 when I made the texture pack for myself and never got a reply.

Also from now the original author was last online at Oct 2015, and the second author was last online at Aug 2017 so I assume there now abandoned.

EDIT: the domain for second author for the John Smith TP has Domain expired.

I have credited the original author on my first post so thats that best I can do to meet the requirements.

The only really version of this texturepack which is still active is this

https://www.johnsmithlegacy.co.uk/

This seems to be a fan made version of the texturepack and not the original author.

I hope this answers your question.

Re: Re:

Posted: Mon May 28, 2018 00:36
by Semmett9
kosmonautik wrote:
Semmett9 wrote:texture pack update
i have updated the texture pack for 0.4.6.

Also the links are fixed now.

enjoy
Menche wrote:

The mediafire link on this page works, but not the one on his google page.

I strongly prefer UbuntuOne to Mediafire, as it has direct links and no ads (you don't need Ubuntu to use it)."
The UbuntuOne looks good i may use it in the future.
You can also use github.
Hi

Sorry about that, one of the links used my old domain name.

Sometimes the server which the downloads are hosted on can be down for a few days, or hours. If this happens just try to visit the site on a different day.

Also for the next update for the texturepack I will use a different cloud hosts since mediafire has become awful with all the adverts on the download page.

Hope this answers your question.

Re: 32x John Smith Texture Pack - 0.4.16

Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2018 21:26
by Semmett9
texture pack update

whats new

> Improved Textures
> Fixed Sun & Moon Texture
> Fixed Wooden Fence

I now moved the texture pack mirror to Google drive since its a lot better than Media Fire
Spoiler
Image

Re: 32x John Smith Texture Pack - 0.4.17

Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2018 15:14
by azekill_DIABLO
+1 for google drive. +33 for the pack.

Re: 32x John Smith Texture Pack - 0.4.17

Posted: Sat Dec 08, 2018 05:58
by KatzEyez
I'd love to see this TP include xtraores mod textures one day too :D

Re: 32x John Smith Texture Pack - 0.4.17

Posted: Sat Jun 06, 2020 14:20
by Teen_Miner
Where can I download the latest version?

Re: 32x John Smith Texture Pack - 0.4.17

Posted: Sun Jun 07, 2020 19:20
by cuthbertdoublebarrel
Teen_Miner wrote:
Sat Jun 06, 2020 14:20
Where can I download the latest version?
seems all the links above are dead
this is the only version i can find its for 0.5.0
https://minetest.thatrspiserver.co.uk/john_smith.html
not noticed any compatibilty issues with the latest version of minetest.
tell us what you think of the textures as i am really impressed .

Re: 32x John Smith Texture Pack - 0.4.17

Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2020 12:11
by Teen_Miner
cuthbertdoublebarrel wrote:
Sun Jun 07, 2020 19:20
Teen_Miner wrote:
Sat Jun 06, 2020 14:20
Where can I download the latest version?
seems all the links above are dead
this is the only version i can find its for 0.5.0
https://minetest.thatrspiserver.co.uk/john_smith.html
not noticed any compatibilty issues with the latest version of minetest.
tell us what you think of the textures as i am really impressed .
Thank you for the link, It was quite helpful.

Re: 32x John Smith Texture Pack - 0.4.17

Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2020 19:00
by staxMine
Muito legal!
Texture Beatifull

new ethereal textures

Posted: Fri Jun 11, 2021 13:47
by TenPlus1
Here are the new ethereal textures for john smith pack:

Re: 32x John Smith Texture Pack - 0.4.17

Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2023 22:28
by runs
These textures are legal or not?

Please clarify.

Re: 32x John Smith Texture Pack - 0.4.17

Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2023 07:00
by Blockhead
runs wrote:
Mon Jan 30, 2023 22:28
These textures are legal or not?

Please clarify.
I have done a bit of research on this because it wasn't so simple to answer. I ended up going through the Internet Archive for a while. I can safely say the statement on the current website, here, is accurate to the original author's intent insofar as John Smith is never allowed to be used for games other than Minecraft.

A short history of John Smith as it concerns the licensing

28 Aug 2010: John Smith posts the first version of his texture pack to the Minecraft Forums with no licence statement.

29 Oct 2011: The first licence statement is given for version 8.3 of the pack:
John Smith wrote: If you want to use my textures in your pack:
You can use, edit and share my textures as long as I'm credited
You are not allowed to make money with my work
And you are not allowed to use my textures in a customizer (might change in the future, but not for now).
2 May 2012: A new licence statement is given:
John Smith wrote: If you want to use my textures in your pack:
You can use, edit and share my textures as long as I'm credited
You are not allowed to make money with my work
And you are not allowed to use my textures in a customizer (might change in the future, but not for now) or in any other games not related to Minecraft.
25 Oct 2012: Addition to the licence text:
John Smith wrote: Also since many people ask me through PM if they can use my pack (or a modified version) in their adventure maps, of course you can! Posted Image (all I ask is credits and ideally a link to this forum thread)
19 Jan 2013: The last we ever hear of John Smith. The John Smith Legacy project is mentioned:
John Smith wrote: IMPORTANT NOTE:
I've paused the development of this pack, for an unsure amount of time.
If you want to get an updated version corresponding to the latest version of Minecraft, you can find a communauty [sic] updated version of this pack here:
Some time after 22 Jan 2019, JohnSmith's account and all his posts were deleted. However I can be sure he never meant his textures to be used in Minetest, even if "other games not related to Minecraft" could be misconstrued, it was corrected in a later revision of the licence.

OP actually links to John Smith Legacy's old website which lasted from 2014 to 2018. That website never gave a clear licence statement, but we can speculate it had implicit permission from John Smith because he mentioned in on the forums. That would put the textures under the same licence as the original pack I think, but with multiple authors involved instead of just John Smith, none of whom really granted an explicit licence. I still think it was copywrong of OP to rehost the pack here.

Lately (since 2014, but since the death of the other website in 2018 especially) development of John Smith has been led by one JimStoneCraft, at www.johnsmithlegacy.co.uk. Development has been occuring on GitHub, and full credits are given. JimStoneCraft's website also introduces additional licence requirements. I won't paste the whole thing here because it's quite long but it does add an interesting clause:
johnsmithlegacy.co.uk wrote: [you may] Use it on a commercial server (free to play with paid extras or a pay to play server), if you're making money from using this resource pack, I would strongly encourage you to join my Patreon to support the John Smith Legacy project.
Which is a big departure from the strictly noncommercial licence grant of John Smith, which in itself is a can of worms if John Smith ever did reappear. It's unlikely even if he wanted to turn up and sue though, that he would even be able to prove he's the original author given he's disappeared off the face of the internet basically. I also hope that means that all of the contributors have agreed to that clause, or again, big can of worms.

What is not up for negotiation is the current phrasing that basically repeats John Smith's words:
johnsmithlegacy.co.uk wrote: You're not allowed to use these textures in a customizer or in any other games other than Minecraft.
To Summarise and Conclude
John Smith legacy is a mess of a fork on a fork of an original author's work, where the original author has disappeared off the internet, and other contributors, though well-credited, impose their own restrictions on a derivative work. In particular no version has ever allowed use outside Minecraft. Therefore I cannot in good faith recommend anyone involved in Minetest, or even people who want to make money while using it on Minecraft, to even touch it with a barge pole. Nothing short of a clean room "in the spirit of" reimplementation should be approached.

Epilogue
One could potentially sidestep the issue of redistribution by making a script that takes a downloaded John Smith pack and turns it into a Minetest texture pack. The user of such a pack should not even dare show such a pack being used on a Minetest video or screenshot of course, since that would show they violated the licence terms. But hypothetically if left to personal use, nobody would be any wiser. I could never condone such an act though.

Re: 32x John Smith Texture Pack - 0.4.17

Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2023 14:08
by ROllerozxa
Geez, this reminds me of the Faithful saga... (original author Vattic disappeared, xMrVizzy impersonated Vattic to do a rogue takeover of the project, Vizzy runs it until drama ensues and the community forks. Vattic comes back, declares the community projects to be "official", and wants to take legal action against Vizzy for selling his texture pack on the Bedrock marketplace) Thanks for the deep dive though Blockhead, it was a very interesting read.

JohnSmith's account deletion in ~2019 was probably due to the Minecraft Forum GDPR account nuke following the Curse acquisition, where any inactive account accessed under the European jurisdiction were permanently deleted along with posts, meaning that they're probably gone and the deletion wasn't done by them.

For our purposes, the John Smith texture pack and its derivatives are legal toxic waste unless the original author JohnSmith (or JimStoneCraft if they have full ownership of the pack from the original author) clears it up and licenses it under a proper free license. Another unlicensed project released on the internet and abandoned into the gray area of abandonware. :(

Re: 32x John Smith Texture Pack - 0.4.17

Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2023 15:17
by runs
OK, thankx, very aclaratory.

Re: 32x John Smith Texture Pack - 0.4.17

Posted: Mon Jan 22, 2024 20:51
by Semmett9
Hi All,

Had a long brake away from minutest. I have re-uploaded the mod to my new web server Found Here.

You can also find the latest version of the Texture pack Found Here.

The current build as of this post was last updated 2018 so its due a update.
Blockhead wrote:
Tue Jan 31, 2023 07:00
To Summarise and Conclude
John Smith legacy is a mess of a fork on a fork of an original author's work, where the original author has disappeared off the internet, and other contributors, though well-credited, impose their own restrictions on a derivative work. In particular no version has ever allowed use outside Minecraft. Therefore I cannot in good faith recommend anyone involved in Minetest, or even people who want to make money while using it on Minecraft, to even touch it with a barge pole. Nothing short of a clean room "in the spirit of" reimplementation should be approached.


Back in 2013, i tried to contact the author for the texture pack, and never got a response. Since i don't make any money form this i don't see any harm in it.

Re: 32x John Smith Texture Pack - 0.4.17

Posted: Mon Jan 22, 2024 23:24
by TumeniNodes
Semmett9 wrote:
Mon Jan 22, 2024 20:51
Back in 2013, i tried to contact the author for the texture pack, and never got a response. Since i don't make any money form this i don't see any harm in it.
Just because you tried to contact the author, doesn't give you rights to publish it, because you didn't hear back from them,
nor does the fact that you don't make any money/profit from it.

Re: 32x John Smith Texture Pack - 0.4.17

Posted: Tue Jan 23, 2024 08:18
by Semmett9
TumeniNodes wrote:
Mon Jan 22, 2024 23:24
Semmett9 wrote:
Mon Jan 22, 2024 20:51
Back in 2013, i tried to contact the author for the texture pack, and never got a response. Since i don't make any money form this i don't see any harm in it.
Just because you tried to contact the author, doesn't give you rights to publish it, because you didn't hear back from them,
nor does the fact that you don't make any money/profit from it.
Hi.

What you're saying is true the John Smith texturepack has always been in a grey area (hence, it has no licence or git repo).

The original project was abandoned, so old me thought it was fair game. Now, with a better understanding, I would probably not posted this.

I have been away from the game for 5 years and did not see the link removed notice on the post. So I would like to apologise for reposting the pack again.

I have removed the link.

I might try and make a new pack which has the same feel as John smith, but uses new textures made by myself.