Re: GEOHEX Terrain

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On Tue, Feb 28, 2012 at 4:46 PM, Mike Stanczyk <stanczyk@pcisys.net>
wrote
>
> Can I buy a license?	Nope.  Nearly broke and unemployed again.  I'd
like
> to see the knowledge open sourced or at least creative common licensed
so
> everyone can benifit and build their own.  I don't want to start a
terrain
> selling business.
>
> If someone shows up saying, "Hey I own the license back off", I will.
> If someone says the terrain is dead legally, and it has to stay that
way,
> I'll respect that, with proof.  (You say you own the copyright, prove
it.
> No bogus DMCA kinda stuff.)
>
> If K.R. is lurking around let me know.  If someone on the list knows
him,
> let him know about this.  His knowledge and/or blessing is desired,
even if
> he tells me to STFU.

Not sure if it helps, but while not a lawyer, I know a reasonable amount
about IP.

First, the issue is unlikely to be copyright, I don't believe anyone has
ever claimed copyright over the terrain design, and I'm not sure they
could.

Second, a couple of years ago I was curious and looked up the patent. I
would want to double check, my memory is far from perfect, but I recall
the
patent was defunct, and only obtained for the US in the first place.

So legally it is unlikely you need to worry about licenses or the such,
however a) check this, and b) you might still care even if there is no
legal obligation to do so.

Of course if you were to do this for anything but your own personal use,
or
if you wanted to setup an open-source design project, I encourage you to
have a chat to any friendly lawyer about the details before you get too
far
along.

Andrae