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Patch is on hold..

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blue3c said:
So I missed this. But let me see if I got this right. Patch was out. Then pulled. Then put up here. Then pulled. So bottom line is no patch.... right???
Click to expand...

Yep, no patch yet
 
belgradar said:
so does that mean everyone who posts screen shots of civ 4 game screens that fraxis and take2 are going to press chargs cause they didnt send a letter to every user or included it in the elua that you could post screeenshots

and of course failer to press charges would be hipacritacol and would mean they support piracy
Click to expand...

(Note: I'm taking my knowledge of U.S. copyright from a copyright course I'm currently taking at a top-10 U.S. law school.)

There's a big difference between posting the patch and posting screen shots. I agree that the patch is a grey area. Fixaris and/or Take2 undoubtedly have a valid copyright in it, but by releasing it, even for a short time, they open up the possibility of plausible implied license and fair use arguments that would allow people to post it. I won't try to guess how good those arguments are. Nor will I try to guess what the chances of any actual legal action against anyone are.

HOWEVER - screenshots are whole different ball of wax. Even though Fixaris and/or Take2 most likely has a valid copyright in those screenshots, they would have A LOT of trouble convincing a court that someone couldn't post screen shots on a forum like CivFanatics.

Two arguments:
1. Implied license
They include a screenshot feature in the game, right? If they didn't want people taking screen shots, they wouldn't include that. If you can take screen shots, that implies that they're okay with people doing it, at least for personal, non-commercial use.

2. Fair use
Even if there was no implied license, it's okay to use copyrighted material in some circumstances under the "fair use" doctrine. Whether something is fair use involves a judge considering a whole bunch of factors, weighing them, and deciding if it's fair or not. It's an unpredictable process, but in this case, it's really hard to imagine a court finding this sort of use not fair. Here are some factors:
- The use is non-commercial.
- The use is "transformative" in that you aren't using the screenshots to produce another computer game. You're using them to tell a story about your game. In addition, your choices have determined many aspects of the screenshot.
- You're using only a very small portion of the whole game - the way the screen looked at one second of one of who knows how many possible games.
- Fixaris and Take2 don't make money off screenshots (at least, after the game is released), so by posting your own, you aren't supplanting a market that they have for screenshots.
So no worries about getting in trouble for posting screenshots, at least not in U.S. courts. :)

Note that just because a copyright owner doesn't try to enforce his/her/its copyright, it doesn't mean they support piracy. They often have much more important things to worry about. And when they are enforcing their copyright, they are usually much more concerned about things like pirating a whole game or book so that people can play/read it without buying it. There is no question of implied license or fair use there - it's simply illegal. :nono:
 
I was able to play a full game with the patch last night and didn't have any problems, they made it somewhat longer to finish the spaceship but not a whole lot.

Here are the new costs..

Apollo Program 1600
SS Casing 600
SS Cockpit 1000
SS Docking Bay 1600
SS Engine 1200
SS Life Support 800
SS Stasis Chamber 1200
SS Thrusters 1000

Not sure what the old costs were though.
 
King Flevance said:
I have the 128M All-In-Wonder and it fixed it. ;) (7500)
Click to expand...
I am going to try and load it this afternoon...did you have to put the artpak file back in to load it?
 
How many people do you think we have in here, right now, reloading this thread every few minutes to see if the patch is back yet? ;)

This can't be good for this site's bandwidth...
 
Clown2TheLeft said:
This is a common misconception... however, it's still copyright violation whether there is a price tag on it or not. The only thing profit adds into it is the monetary potential of any lawsuits filed against the violator.
[...]
--The Clown to the Left
Click to expand...

Does that means it is illegal to post patch to other site after company officially release it? I see many big site (gamespy and the like) hosts patchs of many games and I dont think they all made a contract with game company.

Should I get a explicit written approval from game company to post a patch to any site?

I have read the EURA but can not find any word "patch" or similar reference except article about "Customized game"...
And I don't think that the 'Software' it refers extends to the patch materal automatically.

Yes, distributing copyrighted materal is violation of law even when it is done without getting any profit from it.
But distrubuting patch which was got in legimate manner ( by in-game download) should not be illegal.
Because it does not dininish any commercial profit that the game company will get or breachs integrity of game.
Actally, it will help company to cope with bug-ladden products and enhences ganme company's chance of success and profit.
 
King Flevance said:
No, I had done the UNPAK fix and never 'unfixed' it. Art0.FPK is still sitting on my desktop.
Click to expand...
Thanks! That will make life easier.
 
I missed getting the patch by just minutes :sad:

For those who did get it, I'm most interested how much they changed the time techs flies by (especially gunpowder unit techs) in the new patch. Is there at LEAST more than 4 turns in between those techs now?
 
zx1111 said:
Does that means it is illegal to post patch to other site after company officially release it? I see many big site (gamespy and the like) hosts patchs of many games and I dont think they all made a contract with game company.

Should I get a explicit written approval from game company to post a patch to any site?

I have read the EURA but can not find any word "patch" or similar reference except article about "Customized game"...
And I don't think that the 'Software' it refers extends to the patch materal automatically.

Yes, distributing copyrighted materal is violation of law even when it is done without getting any profit from it.
But distrubuting patch which was got in legimate manner ( by in-game download) should not be illegal.
Because it does not dininish any commercial profit that the game company will get or breachs integrity of game.
Actally, it will help company to cope with bug-ladden products and enhences ganme company's chance of success and profit.
Click to expand...


Usually game distributors WANT people to have the patch. So they're happy to have people post it. The only question with this patch is that it's no longer available from Fixaris/Take2, suggesting that they no longer want people to have it. Now if they'd explicitly said, "Please uninstall that patch and don't give it to people," we'd know they didn't want people to have it. But AFAIK, they haven't said anything, so we don't know. That's why Padma said this was a grey area.
 
Could someone, who has the patch, send me a link in PM please ?

I know it is unofficial, but it can not get worse than it is now :/
 
Probably a good reason for yanking it.

Very sloppy by Firaxis and company all things considered. Bet there was a horrid moment there end when they realised that they have FUBAR'ed to such an extent they'd have to yank it.

Going to be such pretty fires as this will be fuel to the flamers :D
 
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