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Licence Agreement

You are here: Home > Forum > General > General questions, comments, and issues > Licence Agreement

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Licence Agreement 10/02/2010 at 12:28 #689
wain77
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81 posts
Hi,

I have a query about the licence agreement that you have to agree to every time you download a file from the site. Is there anyway of making this a one-time only agreement? While I understand Geoff has to cover himself from a legal point of view, would it not be sufficient to ask you to agree to the licence once and then have a cookie which tells the site you have agreed to the licence before?

I understand that you can't put the licence agreement in the files as they aren't always executables which could take you past a licence agreement step, timetables being a good example, but it seems a little tedious to have to say "Yes, I agree to the licence" every single time you download a file.

Thanks,

Sam

Sam Wainwright
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Licence Agreement 10/02/2010 at 12:28 #6577
wain77
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81 posts
Hi,

I have a query about the licence agreement that you have to agree to every time you download a file from the site. Is there anyway of making this a one-time only agreement? While I understand Geoff has to cover himself from a legal point of view, would it not be sufficient to ask you to agree to the licence once and then have a cookie which tells the site you have agreed to the licence before?

I understand that you can't put the licence agreement in the files as they aren't always executables which could take you past a licence agreement step, timetables being a good example, but it seems a little tedious to have to say "Yes, I agree to the licence" every single time you download a file.

Thanks,

Sam

Sam Wainwright
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Licence Agreement 10/02/2010 at 12:49 #6578
Peter Bennet
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5402 posts
I don't see that having to click to agree is a particularly onerous task- though if you are downloading a lot of stuff at one sitting it could see it might become irritating after a while. But how often do you download a lot of stuff in one go?

I must admit to being unsure what clause 2 actually means in respect of 23 April 2024 and have meant to query it.

Peter

I identify as half man half biscuit - crumbs!
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Licence Agreement 10/02/2010 at 13:59 #6581
wain77
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81 posts
It's more the having to scroll to the bottom of the page, click the check box, click the appropriate button and then you go to the download that's annoying. It just seems a bit long-winded. And if, like me, you are downloading sims for the first time, and tt's to go with them, you get rather bored of it rather quickly.

If it's not possible for technical and/or legal reasons, then I will just have to get a hold on my impatience and excitement over downloading new stuff for one of the best things I have ever come across!

Sam

Sam Wainwright
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Licence Agreement 10/02/2010 at 17:43 #6584
GeoffM
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6377 posts
Each file can have its own license agreement, or, in the case here, the generic one is shown when no specific license file is specified on the download. It is a requirement of the license between SimSig and TRE that the user has to acknowledge the license but perhaps there could be a better way of doing so. Remository (the module that does the up/downloads) doesn't appear have an option to present the agreement before seeing the downloads (ie once per visit to the sitr), nor - as you suggest - a cookie to remember it that the license has already been viewed.
SimSig Boss
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Licence Agreement 10/02/2010 at 19:05 #6590
UKTrainMan
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1803 posts
There may be certain complications in the use of a cookie in that it may end up being cleared by the user accidentally and then they have to re-agree to the license again. Also if there was a change to the agreement that really had an effect on the user and they missed it because of the cookie then I'd be concerned that users wouldn't know about it then end up having a negative opinion of SimSig if they perhaps learnt about it at a later date - especially if it's affects them.

If you're really getting miffed at the License Agreement then next time it loads have your finger hovering over the "End" key on your keyboard and it should take you straight to the bottom of the page that the agreement is located on.

Not saying that I condone or support it, but it will work for you. Personally, I usually skim through the agreement to see if it's changed at all since last time I saw it.

Personally, [not that I'm saying that you're not] I'm grateful to GeoffM for all the work he has put into such an excellent game and also the fact that there is no enforced fee to download content from this website for this fantastic game - the license agreement is only a formality.

Regards.

Any views and / or opinions expressed by myself are from me personally and do not represent those of any company I either work for or am a consultant for.
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Licence Agreement 11/02/2010 at 10:28 #6604
wain77
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81 posts
Thanks for your comments everyone. I think I'll just stop being lazy and live with the licence agreement. It is a small price to pay for such an excellent game, especially as it means that the game is freely available to everyone.

Sam

Sam Wainwright
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Licence Agreement 12/02/2010 at 14:08 #6626
cpw
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14 posts
Geoff,
I think that the click through license needs a little more finesse than you are giving it at the minute. For example: the linuxstarter.zip file I provided appears to be "protected" by your license, even though I requested (and will continue to request) absolutely and completely free as the licence I would like.

I don't recall having signed my rights away to you (the click-through hadn't been implemented when I provided this file) and I certainly don't wish to allow you exclusive right of distribution. Now, this is a tiny file, trivially reproduced (or even incorporated into the product somehow), and it is useless outside of the context of the game, so I can accept the click through for this one file and I am not going to demand removal of the file.

However, I could envision a situation where if I were to write e.g. a timetable, investing many hours of effort, I would be actually discouraged by the implicit waver of all my rights in uploading such to your site.

I understand your situation, you need to protect the software you freely distribute, and I am not advocating removing click-through (even though it is probably legally unenforcible- there is definite case law saying as much here in Canada) for the software itself.

However, I think the "default click-through" for user contributed items is discouraging and could potentially be an issue for me as someone who would like to contribute to the SimSig world where and if I am capable. I generally do not release my work in anything other than an open and free way, partly because I work in IT and to contribute to closed and/or otherwise restricted software (that my company does not own) could be construed as violating my corporate non-compete clause (we have a special waiver allowing contribution to free and open software), but mostly because I have a philosophical desire to contribute software for the good benefit of others, and the default click-through definitely violates the spirit of this.

I hope you understand that I am trying to voice what is a minor concern in the big picture. I think the click through licence is fine for your software, however, you should investigate allowing user contributions to opt out (or in to) the click through, because otherwise it could be construed that the click through license supercedes other (freer) licenses on the user's contributions, discouraging said contributions if the author wishes them to be free (open source style).

Thanks for reading
Christian

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Licence Agreement 15/02/2010 at 09:06 #6708
GeoffM
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6377 posts
cpw - when you submit a file there is a text box called "License" and a check (tick) box "must agree to license". Typing and ticking will override the default license agreement. If you want no license at all then just write N/A.

I don't know whether you can edit your own files that have already been submitted. If not, let me know which file(s) and I will change accordingly.

SimSig Boss
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Licence Agreement 15/02/2010 at 16:08 #6724
afro09
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167 posts
CPW,

Having your file protected by the SimSig licence is acctually a benefit to you as no other site can use it unless they contact Geoff for authourisation, who in turn can not give that authourisation as you are the files authour so Geoff would have to direct any interested parties to you, therefore you get the credit you deserve as being the file authour.

Also with regards to agreeing to licence once, this can only be done on a Shareware site IE. LimeWire. As the downloadable material is not under licence only the software used to download is. Where on SimSig each individual sim or TT is licenced and therefore must be individually agreed.

Alan.

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Licence Agreement 18/01/2014 at 10:35 #53997
Simdmuk
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155 posts
" said:


I must admit to being unsure what clause 2 actually means in respect of 23 April 2024 and have meant to query it.

Peter
Did you find out what this means (or will mean) Peter ?

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