Dead End?
It's been more than a week since I put online my rant towards the Brein Foundation so I thought it was time for an update. Here it is...
Although I received many sympathetic emails from some of you, of which some where actually helpfull, I find myself on a dead end. That's why hereby I would like to ask you to help me get DHTML Lemmings™ back online in a legal way. How? just read on...
First of all let me explain what I have been trying so far. Brein doesn't answer my questions regarding their claim that the sourcecode I published (and still publish although without music or graphics) was actually infringing copyrights, but I did receive an answer from their mother organisation, the NVPI. Basically they didn't answer my questions regarding Brein's accusations nor my complaint about the way Brein is working; they just stated to fully support Brein in this, and that was it...
Secondly I resent my email to Take 2 Games, who I still believe is the copyrightholder of Lemmings™, and this time I actually received an email back that they have their legal department looking into it. That however is more than a week ago already. They responded quite annoyed when I asked about the status, telling me they just need more time.
Then I went into legislation. Now I'm just a programmer and had no education whatsoever concerning the law and stuff, but this is what I've got: my work is not a copy, it's a derivate that is made to look like the original but on a complete different platform technically. This requires a complete different approach, therefor it can be considered a standalone work, that may look like the original but simply isn't.
I used material available in the public domain to make it, but used my knowledge from the original game to make it look and act the same. This means that without the original I could not have made this game, and that is actually where the copyright infringement would be in effect.