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License Compliance (more than just us)

Posted: 25 Jul 2018, 08:03
by nosiphus
Nosiphus has a long history of issues with licenses, most of which stemmed from me (Sean) and Wyatt being 12 when we started and not being aware of licensing agreements. I've made all of our recent stuff compliant and have been working on making past assets compliant with all rules. We made a commitment to license compliance here.

However, some of the stuff I've recently noticed as problematic is stuff we did not do. Ever since TheVoxelBox went down, I've held archives of their texture packs, one of which we used, which was TheVoxelBox Modern. While we did modify one version of the pack slightly with BDcraft wool textures for ourselves, and said pack is not publicly accessible, it's come to my attention that the original VoxelBox Modern also has license violations.

I am hosting the 1.5 version of the pack. The 1.6 version is still available from PlanetMinecraft, I backed up the 1.5 version just in case someone wanted it.

I know that TheVoxelBox was a relatively large organization affiliated with the Yogscast back in 2012-13, and so if you guys granted them special permissions, then by all means ignore this, but if you didn't, then I will remove the link to it.

I have the pack accessible here.

Re: License Compliance (more than just us)

Posted: 25 Jul 2018, 09:58
by HanFox
The problem you face is that even if there were "special permissions" for TheVoxelBox they generally don't extend to someone rehosting their work and I'm pretty sure Sphax always wants to be credited properly. I asked him if he did and he doesn't even know what/who VoxelBox are/were.

In fact, if VoxelBox had no license in place that allows you to rehost then you might have problems anyway as without a license rights are always reserved for the creator.

For simplicity, as far as PureBDcraft goes, I'd just remove the textures that may breach the license.

Re: License Compliance (more than just us)

Posted: 25 Jul 2018, 10:33
by nosiphus
I’ll have the 1.5 patch’s link disabled later today. It’s 5:30 AM. I’m not sleepy yet but I don’t want to get on my computer right now. Also, I just recently became aware of the presence of BDcraft textures in the pack, had I known they were there I wouldn’t have linked it.

EDIT: I'll sleep when I'm dead, I went ahead and removed the link.

The problem is that the file server serving the 1.6 version of the patch is the original VoxelBox server, which I have no control over. The main Twitter account for the VoxelBox has been inactive since late 2016, so that complicates things.

The best bet I have is to contact @RidgeAround on Twitter. He was one of the main guys and he might still have access to the server. The directory in question is https://files.thevoxelbox.com/TexturePacks/

Re: License Compliance (more than just us)

Posted: 25 Jul 2018, 11:41
by nosiphus
HanFox wrote:
25 Jul 2018, 09:58
In fact, if VoxelBox had no license in place that allows you to rehost then you might have problems anyway as without a license rights are always reserved for the creator.
I looked through the WayBack Machine archives for information, and this is what I found related to their texture packs:

--Quote--
You must host your own files. If we see traffic leeching coming often from your website, we will take appropriate measures to stop you.
--End Quote--

That was from https://web.archive.org/web/20130704183 ... ver_or_Map

So, judging by that, they didn't take issue with rehosting their files, in fact it seems they wanted it to drive server traffic down. So it's looking like I wasn't doing anything they wouldn't be okay with, but they themselves were in violation of PureBDcraft rules. I'll take the link down.

As a sidenote, I've been working on a high definition version of that texture pack anyway, so I likely won't bother with the low-definition version.