Re: [copyright issues] "Minoru Climb" is distributed without designer's agreement.

["Jason D. Clinton" <me jasonclinton com>]

On Mon, Apr 21, 2008 at 9:35 AM,  <hito kugutsu org> wrote:
> Dear GNOME Games mainteners,

The proper point of contact is the Games-List. I have CC'd that list.


>  Recently, we received an email from a Japanese puzzle designer, ABE
>  Minoru. It points out a copyright concern in Klotski, which is
>  distributed as a part of Ubuntu(GNOME).
>
>  The issues we have with him can be summarized as follows:
>
>  - "Minoru Climb" in Klotski is designed by him, but it is distributed
>  without his consent.
>
>  - The license of the puzzle permits distribution, mostly in a paper or
>  a wood toy, but requires the individual consent with the author for
>  distribution, including those on websites.

I would be interested to have a copy of this license. Also, the year
of original copyright on the puzzles. Can you get a statement about
the following? Are the puzzles in Klotski puzzle-for-puzzle copies of
Abe's work or are they similar to his work? Is there some place on the
Internet where we can see these puzzles of his?


>  - This license is incompatible with the GPL and thus the distribution
>  within Klotski constitutes copyright infringement.

I agree that as you have described it, it is incompatible.


>  - The emergence of this problem in Klotsky can be tracked back to
>
>  http://svn.gnome.org/viewvc/gnome-games/trunk/gnotski/gnotski.c?r1=4081&r2=4297
>  http://svn.gnome.org/viewvc/gnome-games/trunk/gnotski/gnotski.c?r1=4081&r2=4333

Unfortunately, there's not really any valuable history there. Sadly,
our revision history does not include a record of who checked in the
addition of Minoru Climb. Perhaps Richard Hoelscher or Callum McKenzie
can recall where the puzzles came from and what the license was at the
time. I have CC'd them. In the mean time, I will try to dig up what
the license was when we included it in 2004.


>  to our best knowledge.
>
>  - The author, ABE Minoru, strongly wants his puzzle to be deleted from Klotski.

Once it has been determined that we are in violation, it will be
removed from all subsequent releases including the current stable
branch and any future development.


>  - He also demands appropriate measure, such as an announcement, to be
>  taken for the current situation where his work is wrongly distributed
>  as GPL'd.

Once it has been determined that we are in violation, we will announce
the infringement to Gnome Announce. This mechanism allows us to notify
all distributions that they should update their stable branches to
include the removed puzzles.