Every now and then I see a comment in an X-Plane forum somewhere to the extent of:
"Joe Author made this great scenery pack for FS2K4, I tried to contact him about a port. I got no response, and the pack is free anyway, so I've posted my conversion."
Simply put, you can't do that, at least not in the United States. Copyright law is very clear on this subject: if you don't hear back from the author, the default is that you do not have permission to create a derived work.
(The fact that the original package was "free", meaning cost zero dollars, is not at all relevant. The author retains his rights to his own work even if he doesn't charge money.)
A simple thought experiment reveals why it has to be this way: if I was giving away my new program as a promotional period and went on vacation, and you decided to post a derived work because (1) it was free and (2) you hadn't heard from me, I would have no way to stop an illegal use of my work that I did not ever want (nor ever indicated that I wanted). "Free" plus "no one is home" is simply not a high enough bar to protect authors.
Monday, 4 February 2008
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