?


Who/What are they ?

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I dont suffer from Insanity - I enjoy it

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I dunno never heard of them before either

Last edited by fryguy on 08-Aug-2005 at 04:15 PM.

Mediapoint is a package similar to Scala Infochannel. We (as in Computer City) published the sources and executables earlier for free, thinking we would not have a future commercial use for it. As it turns out, we might have been wrong thinking that.

Quote:

published the sources and executables earlier for free, thinking we would not have a future commercial use for it. As it turns out, we might have been wrong thinking that.

Never noticed the sources earlier. Was it at all announced?

Anyway, it's cool that you think there's a commercial intrest for MediaPoint again. Best of luck!


/shoe

What were the license terms for the free release of Mediapoint?

_________________
“It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary
system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.”
~~ Henry Ford

let me guess, its going into one of thoose "media boxes" things ;)

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@shoe
Yes it was, on most of the sites.

@falemagn
None, really. Just non-commercial use etc.

@toaks
You might be guessing right

Quote:

None, really. Just non-commercial use etc.

Well, the thing is, you can't revoke a license at your own will like that, unless there's a clause in the license itself. So if the license allowed to distribute binaries for non commercial use, I can't see how you can forbid it now.

Last edited by falemagn on 08-Aug-2005 at 06:03 PM.
Last edited by falemagn on 08-Aug-2005 at 06:03 PM.

_________________
“It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary
system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.”
~~ Henry Ford

@falemagn
We never issued a license, we published it on a website and said people could download it and use it. They still can, only not without our approval. We will not give anybody a hard time on this, we just don't want anybody to do the same thing with it as we plan to do.

But let's be fair, there were like 7 downloads of the source in total against a few hundred downloads of the executable. It's not like anybody will have a big financial desaster because we stopped giving away the sources to our IP for free. And as stated before, if anybody still wants to use it, we can talk.

Do you want to do something with it?

Quote:

Do you want to do something with it?

I don't even have the sources, I wasn't one of those 7 who downloaded them. My interest on the matter is purely a spectator's one.

You said it didn't have a license... by license I also mean whatever was stated on the download page.

What I'm saying is, if on the download page it was written that the downloaders could do whatever they wanted with the sources and binaries, except distributing them for a profit, then you are legally bound to that and can't revoke those rights you've given to the downloaders.

You can kindly ask them to abide to the new requirements, of course. This is purely from a legal point of view... I have no interest whatsoever on the whole matter.

Last edited by falemagn on 08-Aug-2005 at 06:23 PM.

_________________
“It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary
system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.”
~~ Henry Ford

@falemagn
Ok well let me put it this way; if anybody has downloaded the sources and did something with it, used it or parts of it, whatever, for non-commercial purposes that's fine. I don't think there was anything on the website regarding downloading or usage terms to be honest.

The situation is that we are looking into using Mediapoint for a specific commercial project which may be succesful. If it is, we don't want the sources available freely everywhere.

Of course, no copyright restriction whatsoever has ever stopped Mediapoint being spread before :-/

Quote:

The situation is that we are looking into using Mediapoint for a specific commercial project which may be succesful. If it is, we don't want the sources available freely everywhere.

Don't get me wrong, I understand your motives, but depending on what was written either on the download page or in the archives, or both, the sentence "After september 1st 2005, all non-approved use of Mediapoint sources and executables will be prohibited" may or may not stand valid.

_________________
“It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary
system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.”
~~ Henry Ford

@falemagn
Well if you take it by the letter, all downloads prior to september 1st would be considered approved, since we put it there on the first place.
We are basically only interested in stopping any commercial (mis)use, so the situation for non-commercial usage does not really change, other than to the fact that the sources can no longer be downloaded.

In any case, considering the amount of interest in mediapoint in the recent past plus the fact that the www.mediapoint.biz site has been down for 6 months and nobody even sent us an email or comment asking where it has gone, I think this discussion is more or less wob (waste of bandwidth)

@falemagn
This is not some Linux GPL software, no need to nitpick. Where has honor and a gentleman's agreement gone. The world and software has gone mad with legalistic nonsense.
The code was created by "Computer City" in the first place. They were KIND enough to make it available for a period.

@Palpatine
May you have success with your venture.
Are you providing the H/W and S/W for this project?

Cheers,
Tim

Quote:

This is not some Linux GPL software, no need to nitpick. Where has honor and a gentleman's agreement gone. The world and software has gone mad with legalistic nonsense.

This is not about nitpicking, it's about playing by the rules, which are set before the game begins, not while it lasts.

Now, let's not make this a personal issue against me, please. Try to think objectively.

_________________
“It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary
system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.”
~~ Henry Ford

Quote:

Well if you take it by the letter, all downloads prior to september 1st would be considered approved, since we put it there on the first place.

That's what I'm saying, so even after September 1st, people who downloaded the archives before that date can still use them by the terms of use published either on the site or in the archive or both. I hope I won't need to restate this for the 4th time

Anyway, it's your product, I was merely pointing out something for your convenience, certainly not mine.

_________________
“It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary
system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.”
~~ Henry Ford

Hey Ron !

>The situation is that we are looking into using Mediapoint for a specific commercial project which may be succesful. If it is, we don't want the sources available freely everywhere.

Is it OS4 or A1 related ?

Cheers, and all good luck to you !

Martin

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When its time to meet the maker
Theres a time to live but isnt it strange
That as soon as you're born you're dying

Quote:

The code was created by "Computer City" in the first place. They were KIND enough to make it available for a period.

Yes, but things can always come down to nitty gritty legal details. I never knew about this before, have never seen the old download web page, and don't know what it said. But falemagn has a point.

What if someone downloaded the sources and does something non-commercial with them, but which is similar to Computer City's new project? Something akin to how MythTV competes with Tivo?

Hypothetically, if one of those 7 downloaders did make up something bsaed on these sources and distributed it non-commercially, Computer City may not have a legal complaint on the matter, and may not be able to convince a judge to protect their own commercial product from the free competitor.

Depending on what was said on the download page (I dunno, never seen it), they may be able to protect themselves from commercial things based on these sources. Did the download page forbid sharing these binaries/sources, or any derivative thereof, with other people? If not, then this may not be limited ot the original 7 downloaders. If no license was placed in the archive which was required part of sharing the archive with others, then other people may find themselves in posession of sources without having agreed to anything themselves and not know there was a non-commercial limitation. Such a situation could have very vague legal protections if one of these people wanted to go commercial. Hopefully the download page text disallowed sharing this stuff with others, if not, then it could potentially become quite a mess.

Regardless, we may not see other products offered like this had been, or at least they will have more detailed license agreements than somewhat vague sounding recollections of "non-commercial use only" things.

It sounds like they don't see a need for concern, and they may well be right that nothing will come up about this. Here's hoping that no unpleasantness arises...

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@falemagn
In any case I appreciate the comment and discussion!

@metalheart
no, it is not A1 or OS4 related

@t-power
we are looking into adapting mediapoint to a new use, and we are looking into which platforms would fit. Of course, we have some combinations in mind

@billt
indeed, we don't foresee any problems. Many additions will have to be made to mediapoint as it is before we can use it to the purpose in question.