Copyright notice

[gguruusa]

There always seem to be a few people that feel the need to screw things up for everyone else by trying to turn a dime off of someone else's labor.


Much of the software items in the kitchen are free for personal use. Many are NOT free for commercial use. DO NOT SELL THE KITCHEN, THE TOOLS DISTRIBUTED WITH THE KITCHEN, OR ROMs MADE FROM IT. You WILL be in violation of numerous copyrights.

I can't speak for all the copyright holders, but I know Microsoft and I pursue copyright infringement aggressively.

[iggy]

Sorry to hear about the very stupid people charging for the very hard work you amazing folks at PPC Geeks have put into the WM6 release.

We all benefit so much from all your hard work and we really appreciate it, I hope this does not discourage you guys from all the great work you do.

[Wizzard]

I am an attorney so if the moderators feel the need to send a letter to one of these Bozos to tell them to cease and decist, I will be happy to send one on my letterhead.

Hopefully, this will keep this greed to a minimum!

[Raging Idiot]

Why not just post their contact info as there is no limit to what kind of damage the Raging Idiots of the world can do to them.

Then again, there would then be copycats from the publicity that this can be done....then again,
that's what we're advertising now...

[daveedem]

People are ridiculous. BUT if the people that are buying this stuff, would take the time to read the readme's etc. and weren't so damn lazy --- they could do the kitchens themselves and the upgrades.

Plain and simple -- we as a global nation are becoming fat and lazy.

Sorry.. I'm off my soapbox.

[chirulz]

I am in aww of the greatness that is performed here at this site, but i was honestly wondering the difference between someone charging for this stuff and those who creating it asking for donations. don't get me wrong they deserve it, but i mean aren't they then infringing on microsoft and others? just an honest question. Again I'm against those who didnt help trying to profit, but just wondering the legal diferences?

[gguruusa]

Originally Posted by chirulz

I am in aww of the greatness that is performed here at this site, but i was honestly wondering the difference between someone charging for this stuff and those who creating it asking for donations. don't get me wrong they deserve it, but i mean aren't they then infringing on microsoft and others? just an honest question. Again I'm against those who didnt help trying to profit, but just wondering the legal diferences?

Obviously, if you created it in it's entirety, you can do whatever you want. The question is whether you are depriving a license owner of revenue which their license entitles them to and they haven't actively undermined. Nobody here is representing they made WM6, so you're not "stealing credit" (a form of compensation). Nobody here is representing that they are providing a WM6 license (obviously a direct violation). Nobody here is distributing copyrighted works in a form different than the same work is readily available to the general public (and that's the key for WM5/WM6 - it's freely available to end users as a PPC ROM from your carrier exactly as it's distributed here).

Nobody is requesting donations for providing another's copyrighted work in it's freely available form. When donations are requested, it's because there was some product seperately identifiable from any licensed work of another.

What we commonly see on e-bay and other sites, however, is people charging for someone else's product (obviously an infringement for non-freeware products)(sometimes people even represent the work as their own!). Because they are using another's work as a revenue generating enterprise (either through selling it unaltered or through it's integral nature to the product they are selling or integral nature to production of the produt they are selling) their usage is a "non personal use" and different licensing terms apply. Many of the products in the kitchen have specific licensing terms related to such commercial usage. WM5/WM6 and BuildOS are two such examples.

[Raging Idiot]

As the admin Peter Poelman said after being forced to take off the roms from the XDA-Developers site: "The vendor giveth, and the vendor taketh away."

Obviously the vendors can (and do) force their products off websites.
Regardless of popular opinion or good judgment, they have the right.
The biggest problem with being a mobster is other mobsters.
Pots calling kettles black...lawyers calling others greedy... everyone is right, and everyone is wrong. Amidst the complexity is the simplicity.

[jjlwork]

[QUOTE=Raging Idiot;142938]As the admin Peter Poelman said after being forced to take off the roms from the XDA-Developers site: "The vendor giveth, and the vendor taketh away."

I definately think anyone not involved in the great work done here recieving funds is wrong and ing, however to be totally legit and legal the end user would have to supply their lisenced rom, MS could come here at anytime and shut down the rom production.

That being said they could not stop someone from creating a program that modifies original roms into the base roms used in the kitchens as long as the original roms are supplied by the end user. You could even go as far as to call it "Base Rom Creator for Windows Mobile", as long as the initial rom is provided elsewhere it is legal as far as the authors program would be concerned. Legality on the end users part though could come into question if they are using the program to modify roms that they don't own or have license to use.

Not to steal the thread or take away from the importance of what gguruusa is saying just adding my understanding of how this all works as I used to work for MS as a supervisor for multiple consumer departments that dealt extensively with licensing and copyrights over the past 6 years.

[gguruusa]

yes and no. As long as the rom used is freely available and is distributed in its freely available form, no rights have been infringed upon. Doesn't mean you have the right to use or modify the rom, just that the distribution of it didn't infringe on anyone.

That's why MS frowns on custom ROM hosting - they aren't the freely available form.