Stars! serial number generator

[Copochioff]

I think that trying to get money from something that is freely
available on the internet is not right.
I'm not talking about the "rightness" of using an hacked serial number,
or "the eternal struggle between the good and the evil".
I strongly believe in shared information of any sort, so here is the
link for the serial generator, in a public russian site.
I haven't used it (as I don't need it) but you can try for yourselves
:))

J.

www.stars.stc.ru/filez/starskey.zip

If you want to donate money, send it to a peace association.

[Oo Tiib]

Post by Copochioff
I think that trying to get money from something that is freely
available on the internet is not right.
I'm not talking about the "rightness" of using an hacked serial number,
or "the eternal struggle between the good and the evil".

I understand it bit differently than you put it here:
1) Ron gives the serials away for free to anybody who asks. He does not
sell these.
2) He got the right to do so from Jeff McBride, so the serials acquired
that way are legal.
3) Jeff hopes to write a freeware stars! version that needs no serials
if he finds the source code of stars! and time.
4) Ron has always accepted donations.

Öö Tiib

PS: All sorts of "peace associations", "soviet unions", "united
nations", "united states" etc... name a good thing these have ever done
to you or mankind ... or let them to rot. ;-)

[d***@gmail.com]

Such thing is only 'freely available' illegally... Ron has obtained
permission to distribute serials from author. He is also not trying to
get money, but merely reminding us that Autohost is not a commerical
venture and loses him money.

So I say, if you want to donate money, consider donating to Stars
Autohost, for providing a vital serivce to the community. ;)

Charity is certainly good too though. Africa certainly needs a lot of
cash right now. I think the type of person that would voluntarily
donate when obtaining a serial number is the sort of person that
donates to charity anyway...

If Ron ever actually made money off Autohost that just cover his costs
(lol, no seriously,) then he'd probably donate it away anyway.

Post by Copochioff
I think that trying to get money from something that is freely
available on the internet is not right.
I'm not talking about the "rightness" of using an hacked serial number,
or "the eternal struggle between the good and the evil".

[PricklyPea]

This situation has me quite confused. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Jeff
sold all rights to Stars to Empire and therefore Jeff cannot give the
right to produce additional serials to anybody nor could he produce a
serial free version without infringing on Empire's rights.

Of course it may be that Jeff retained some rights, but this would be
unusual.

Two days ago, I spoke to the general manager of Empire who told me that
he considered Stars! a working title and that it would be re-released
in the upcoming months.

[Stathol]

Post by PricklyPea
This situation has me quite confused. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Jeff
sold all rights to Stars to Empire and therefore Jeff cannot give the
right to produce additional serials to anybody nor could he produce a
serial free version without infringing on Empire's rights.
Of course it may be that Jeff retained some rights, but this would be
unusual.

As far as the original Stars! game goes, they apparently retained
rights and ownership of everything except the Stars! name itself.
Remember that the Jeffs developed the game on their own money, and were
distributing a completed version as registerable shareware long before
they met Empire. Empire didn't foot the bill for anything except the
actual retail distribution, so they probably didn't have enough weight
at the negotiations table to get anything more than publishing rights
and the Stars! trademark.

Since they own the code and artwork, the Jeffs can distribute free
serials or a free version of the game without violating copyright. The
trademark is unrelated to copyright - they're free to distribute the
game for free, provided that they change its name. Even if they're
aren't copyright or trademark issues, they could still run afoul of
contract law. It would depend on their publishing agreement with
Empire, but most such contracts prohibit the "programming house" from
denying potential profit to the publisher (witness the whole fiasco re:
Valve's Steam). That may not be the case with Stars! I've got to assume
that the Jeffs are aware of their legal standing with the game, and
wouldn't go through with this if it were going to get their asses sued.

Of course, no company is going to file a lawsuit for *any* reason if
it's going to make them lose money. I love the game, but I can't
imagine that Stars! sales are doing much for Empire. Even if this isn't
quite legally kosher, the Jeffs can probably thumb their noses at
Empire as long as the cost of litigation would exceed the theoretical
deprivation of profit.

Incidentally, the U.S. joined the Berne Convention for copyrights back
in 1989 (I think). Despite common belief, profit is *not* a factor in
determining whether or not an action is a violation of copyright. If
you violate someone's copyright without intent to profit, it's still a
violation. It may affect how much the plaintiff can seek in damages,
but it isn't a defense.

[PricklyPea]

I think you're right that nothing probably matters, because nobody
cares anymore. In fact, when I contacted Empire, I thought that Stars
would be abandonware and that some deal could be made to allow the
community to buyback any rights.

Clearly it it still makes them some money. However, I would agree that
it is unlikely that anybody is going to get sued over this although I
would say equally that nobody really wants to run that risk :)

[Strannik]

Post by Copochioff
I think that trying to get money from something that is freely
available on the internet is not right.
I'm not talking about the "rightness" of using an hacked serial number,
or "the eternal struggle between the good and the evil".
I strongly believe in shared information of any sort, so here is the
link for the serial generator, in a public russian site.
I haven't used it (as I don't need it) but you can try for yourselves

imho it was never a question of _getting_money_ off this. it was merely
a question of _keeping_track_ of distributed serials. since it's way
too easy to cheat if u got the keygen urself... and that kind of
cheating was already done before... ruining games. i would certainly be
pissed off if some smartass too proud to lose would try to get his way
thru with that kind of cheating.

just my 2c.

Post by Copochioff
If you want to donate money, send it to a peace association.

u really think that money sent to peace association will ever end up
doing something for peace??? imho it still ends up in someone's
pocket... (just my opinion, no need to start a long discussion/flame
because of this sentence)

regards,
strannik.