Copyright questions for reworked mods (solved)

[ShallowDweller]

So, I'm reworking the orewood mod and I have a few questions regarding copyright (I don't want to steal anyone's work, I just want to keep it alive). The autor seems to have been away from the forums for a while (I checked their forum profile), so I'm not sure if I can ask them any questions... By the way, sorry if this is the wrong place to ask.

TO THE QUESTIONS:
The textures are under Creative Commons, and I don't know how to proceed here:
1) Should I replace all of the mod's textures with WTFPL textures? And if so, can I have my new textures named the same as the old ones?

2) What text should I put in the license.txt/mod.conf in case I decide to keep the textures that are already there? (see the attachment)

3) What should I do to the README.md? Should I leave it there? Should I remove it? Should I replace it with a README.txt? (I don't know how to create/edit .md files)

4) Should I rename the nodes and items? (ie, change "orewod:ironwood" to "orewoodremake:ironwood", etc?)

5) Should I have posted a reply in the post linked above to inform about the remake I'm working on?

6) Or am I overthinking and I should just post it in the WIP mods forum and state that this is a rework of another mod?

Ps: can I post this attachment in this topic? If not, I would like to apologize in advace...

[Krock]

1) The author states "Creative Commons", but doesn't specify which one. It might be CC-BY. You may use the textures in your mod, but you must give the author credits (see link). If you modify the textures then add "Derived from TEXTURE by AUTHOR". And finally, if you want to replace the files with entirely new textures which you created from scratch, then you may give them any license.

2) Take minetest_game as example: default/README.txt. Adding a license file is AFAIK for the CC licenses not required.

3) Use DuckDuckGo/Google "WINDOWS/MACOS/LINUX markdown editor". You can remove any file from the mod that you don't like. You may also replace it with a new README.txt without any markdown formatting.

4) You can release a mod that uses the same node, item and entity names to keep the compatibility. However, you should chose a unique mod name like "orewood_redo" or "myorewood". When orewood does not work with the latest release anymore, then you might request moving that mod to "Old Mods" and use the mod name "orewood", because it's meant to be a continuation of the abandoned project.

5) The players will surely like to be informed about a newer version.

6) Legal questions aren't easy, so it's fine to ask and start modding properly instead of causing trouble, such as mod naming issues or incorrect licensing.

The attachment function exists to upload stuff, of course!

[ShallowDweller]

Thanks for the reply! I guess I'll replace the README.md with a README.txt then.

Just a few more questions (just for confirmation):

1) The author states "Creative Commons", but doesn't specify which one. It might be CC-BY. You may use the textures in your mod, but you must give the author credits (see link). If you modify the textures then add "Derived from TEXTURE by AUTHOR". And finally, if you want to replace the files with entirely new textures which you created from scratch, then you may give them any license.

desvox did not specify authors, should I assume the textures in the (original) mod are theirs? just confirming.

4) You can release a mod that uses the same node, item and entity names to keep the compatibility. However, you should chose a unique mod name like "orewood_redo" or "myorewood". When orewood does not work with the latest release anymore, then you might request moving that mod to "Old Mods" and use the mod name "orewood", because it's meant to be a continuation of the abandoned project.

You mean like this?
minetest-install-directory/mods/orewood_redo
With mod.conf like this:

Code: Select all

name = orewood_redo
title = Orewood Redo

And then remove the ":" prefix if/when the original mod is moved to old mods?

5) The players will surely like to be informed about a newer version.

I'll be sure to let them know :)
Thanks for the help!

[Krock]

desvox did not specify authors, should I assume the textures in the (original) mod are theirs? just confirming.

Good question. Next question. I don't know how much they changed; but the textures are surely derivations from the minetest_game textures (CC BY-SA 3.0, "default_mineral_*").

And then remove the ":" prefix if/when the original mod is moved to old mods?

That override prefix is needed when you want to have compatibility with the old mod, but with a different mod name. If the other mod is moved, then you could simply rename your mod and drop the override prefix if that's wanted.

Thanks for the help!

Cheers! Glad that I could help.

[ShallowDweller]

desvox did not specify authors, should I assume the textures in the (original) mod are theirs? just confirming.

Good question. Next question. I don't know how much they changed; but the textures are surely derivations from the minetest_game textures (CC BY-SA 3.0, "default_mineral_*").

So, the readme should say something along these lines:

Code: Select all

Textures: CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)
Altered textures list:
"claywood.png" Derived from "default_clay_lump.png" by "Gambit"
"claypapy.png"  Derived from "default_clay_lump.png" by "Gambit" and "default_papyrus.png" by "Calinou"

Etc.?

[Krock]

Looks right, yes. I doubt that you could document them more detailed that that :)

[ShallowDweller]

Thanks for all the help! :)

EDIT: a small advice for people who may want to rework mods and may be reading this: replace "modname:nodename" with ":modname:nodename" manualy and/or carefuly.
Clicking on "replace all" is faster, but it will break the mod. You only need the prefix when registering the node. I leant that one the hard way... good thing it is easy to fix.