The Altera Centauri collection has been brought up to date by Darsnan. It comprises every decent scenario he's been able to find anywhere on the web, going back over 20 years.
25 themes/skins/styles are now available to members. Check the select drop-down at the bottom-left of each page.
Call To Power 2 Cradle 3+ mod in progress: https://apolyton.net/forum/other-games/call-to-power-2/ctp2-creation/9437883-making-cradle-3-fully-compatible-with-the-apolyton-edition
Hmmm, I wonder what would happen if I changed the text files so that in diplomacy everyone talked in Pig Latin?
"Alla, ourya saeba elongba ota ema!"
"Ithdrawa ourya oopstra ata oncea!"
I never know their names, But i smile just the same
New faces...Strange places,
Most everything i see, Becomes a blur to me
-Grandaddy, "The Final Push to the Sum"
IG Germany and IG USA are 2 different companies.
I'm sure IG Germany makes more profit on german-translated games they told then on the usual english ones.
Thus if people buy the english game and mod it with the german mod, IG Germany doesn't get money for it (or not as much as when these people would've bought the german one)
thus the comparison with Harry Potter is very valid.
If I buy the book via Amazon and a friend of me translates it for me in dutch, the dutch seller won't earn any money on it and sue my friend.
Formerly known as "CyberShy"
Carpe Diem tamen Memento Mori
If a friend copied the book into dutch and sold/gave it to you, that's piracy.
If however, you bought the book in English, but couldn't read it, and then your friend gave you his Dutch translation of it, *that* would be a valid comparison. Especially if J.K. Rowling had said 'I really want everyone to enjoy this book, so feel free to mess around with it and give your fanfic to friends who have bought the book.'
Originally posted by dr.charm
If however, you bought the book in English, but couldn't read it, and then your friend gave you his Dutch translation of it, *that* would be a valid comparison.
If I may notice: There was a project that translated Harry Potter into german language. All the people who contributed to this project were allowed to download the text but they were not allowed to share it with the rest of the world.
Therefore the comparison of IG seems to be quite an own goal...
(BTW: I read about the HP-project in the german IG-forum)
They are referring to an email I wrote to them on last Saturday in a desperate effort to save what could be saved before the ultimatum of their lawyers expired.
I indeed did warn, that the community would not welcome the consequences of a juridical approach against the fans, and indeed I even offered to help the company to regain reputation if we could settle this affair for good (while making clear I had no further personal ambitions).
The original mail (in German) today I made public here in the original project thread inside the Infogrames forum:
From this personal and humble letter they made a threat to spoil their reputation and an effort to press me into their company. It feels like the hand I offered has been stroke off. This hurts.
Last edited by ColdFever; November 29, 2001, 17:46.
For example no private person has tried to translate the latest Harry Potter novel into German and put it onto the internet, just because the English version comes out first.
*yawn*
Is this really sensible? Comparing Civ III to Harry Potter? Perhaps both games include a wizard or more (medieval Sid in Civ III), but that's still quite far away...
I still don't understand these Infogrames' policies. Are the fans having any rights at all?
"Kids, don't listen to uncle Solver unless you want your parents to spank you." - Solver
If however, you bought the book in English, but couldn't read it, and then your friend gave you his Dutch translation of it, *that* would be a valid comparison. Especially if J.K. Rowling had said 'I really want everyone to enjoy this book, so feel free to mess around with it and give your fanfic to friends who have bought the book.
that's what I mean.
buy the english book and get a translation from a friend.
that's illegal. It won't be mentioned though, but when you start spreading it over the net........... it's illegal.
Even if you require proof that the people bought the book in english. It's simply not allowed to translate a book, and spread that translation under ANY circumstances.
there are different reasons:
1. the local seller doesn't make any profit (he'll sue you, not the international seller)
2. mistakes made by you will be blamed to the seller and the author
3. People will blame the seller / author for not releasing it in their own lanague so that some volunteers needed to translate it.
4. After the official translation will have been released, nobody will be sure which version is which and there will be confusion.
#4 might be very minor, but these are the reasons.
Like it or not, I think it's very common for anything you buy.
And if you start to insult the company, and treat them by spreading dark rumors and bad influences about them.......... well, that's really
Formerly known as "CyberShy"
Carpe Diem tamen Memento Mori
But the analogy breaks down for a few reasons 1) because the developer of the game (and the patent holder incidentally) has said "Mod away!" "Change anything you want!" "Just don't try to get money for it." and 2) because in order to play the German translation mod, you must have the game, it's not like putting a translated book on the net available for everyone.
The only fair comparison would be if J.K. Rowling said, go ahead translate the book, you can only download it from the net if you type in the secret code that is in every English copy of the book and then Scholastic started going after the translator.
I think you're missing the point. Kai was doing something that was explicitly allowed in both the EULA and on the box the game came in! In addition Firaxis has repeatedly said 'Mod away! Go crazy!"
Hey, ColdFever... ich hab die Sache nicht haargenau verfolgt, hab nur ein paar News Items gelesen hier, den Thread werd ich mir jetzt nicht reinziehen...
Aber du musst wissen, dass auch Landsleute zu dir halten, und zwar alteingesessene Mitglieder dieser Gemeinde. NAtürlich unterstütze auch ich sowas, also kämpf, kämpf, kämpf, kämpf, kämpf... wenn ich dir bei der Übersetzung helfen kann, sag ruhig Bescheid
Im Übrigen, was würdest du davon halten, wenn die Anwaltskosten als Kosten der Gemeinde und nicht des mutigen Vorkämpfers getagen werden? Klar, worauf ich hinaus will?
And if you start to insult the company, and treat them by spreading dark rumors and bad influences about them.......... well, that's really
RMAOTF!!!!
Do you really think Kai Fiebach as to do that so that Infogrames (and Firaxis) image gets ugly?
Actually remenbering a movie title a good one for all this happenings would be: As bad as it gets. No need to spread rumors. Facts are more than enouth to despise IG action.
I agree that translating civ files to german by fans would cause big damage to IG Germany. But acting as they acted is just Unnaceptable.
On the other hand what are they expcting? They release a game in English that will sell well all around the world and take 5 months to translate it to a German when it can be done much quicker even at partial time hobbie? Spitting in the face of a country that as millions of PC gamers and where probably they will sell at least as many copies as in the UK. Unbilievele.
I do not want to achieve immortality threw my work. I want to achieve it threw not dying - Woody Allen
Although I hesitate to get bogged down in this discussion, I must put in my two cents:
Copyright protection for original works is a valuable asset. Violations of a copyright must be acted on or the copyright holder risks losing the exclusive right to profit from their original work. It is as simple as that. Good will towards the Civ or MOD community has nothing to do with this dispute. The business concerns of Infogrames regarding its divisions, sales agreements and profitability are probably true, but not nearly as significant as the protection of copyrighted material. Plus, It is their game, they can market and sell it however they chose. Don’t like it, don’t support them. Remember, they exist to make money, not to make you or anyone else happy. While keeping die hard fans happy may be a good way to reach the goal of making money, it is not the only way—and many times not the best way.
The German translation of the program is not a MOD. I understand the translated files could not be used without actually purchasing the game, but that is not the proper standard for determining a copyright violation. It is also irrelevant that the translator claims he would have distributed the file for free. The difference is in the “originality” of the MOD when compared to the “originality” of the translation.
The creation of a traditional MOD requires a measure of original “artistic” creativity by the author. This is true whether the author has created five minute movies for each wonder, revised every unit animation or simply changed the attributes of a single unit. It entails a marginal amount of independent, artistic effort. I suspect the original part of most MODs are technically protected by copyright law in favor of the author, but once the author freely distributes the MOD any copyright protection it had is lost.
A translation, on the other hand, is not an original artistic creation by the translator. It is a mere change in form of someone else’s original artistic work, not a “new” work. I know translating all the text in the game is a huge task, but the fact that it takes a long time to do it doesn’t make the translation an original work. I also know translations are somewhat subjective (or “artistic”) because literal translations are impossible. Someone could argue the translation is therefore a “new work.” It doesn’t work that way.
Someone above asked about a “derivative work.” Simply put, the copyright owner has the right to control subsequent works based on their original work. The most common examples of this are the movie or TV rights to a book, but it can include really weird things like the right to make and sell Lite-Brite patterns of a painting or the more valuable right to change “tangible” works to “digital” works. The right to control derivative works therefore includes the right to control translations.
This is why the “Harry Potter” analogy is, ignoring the “fair use” exception to copyright law, basically correct. Regardless of whether you or someone else translate a copyrighted work that you purchase, you don’t have the right to make a translation of the copyrighted text and give it away or sell it. I’d argue that it is probably a “fair use” if a parent purchased the book and translated it so his kid could read it (or the dude in Germany translated the program for himself and his family), but that is splitting hairs and getting far off-point.
The hand-wringing about whether this site is going to be shut down or Mark is going to be sued is unwarranted if not just downright silly. What the guy did in Germany was a clear violation of copyright law. The files on this site are obviously MODs, something Firaxis has encouraged. There does appear to be a contradiction in the copyright statement/license agreement distributed with the game and Firaxis’s “pro-change everything” statements (which is not, by the way, “entrapment.”). If I thought long and hard enough, I could probably come up with some way to reconcile the two (like the editor shipped with the game creates a separate rules files when the user modifies anything, so the “original” files are still intact and not altered and thus Firaxis can encourage changes without permitting the alteration of copyrighted files, but I’m not sure that’s really true ….)
I don’t think anyone here needs to worry too much about getting sued. Common sense should be your guide. Firaxis or Infogrames is not going to chase down someone for failing to obtain permission before distributing a file altering the stats of a submarine or even changing every rule in the game. Start distributing original files copied directly from the game but merely changing the font size, color, etc., however, you’re going to get busted.
If this was Slashdot I'd mark that post as Insightful SKev. I also reserve the right to continue to lambast Infogrames.de for abysmally poor way they have handled this mess. I'm trying to think of a way that could have screwed this up more from a PR stand-point, but I'm coming up blank.
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