Originally posted by Twoflower
However there are the forum terms that everybody agrees to by posting in the forum. It is possible everywhere and perfectly legal to voluntarily give away your property and the right to it and by posting on the forum and accepting the copyright agreement you are actually doing that.
And while this may be the case in Sweden, it is complete and utter bullshit in America, where I'm from. This essentially amounts to an illegal, and entirely unenforceable EULA. Anything I post here, including my comments, remain *mine* - all mine, every single bit mine, and nothing belonging to Paradox. Copyright assignment can only happen expressly, not implicitly.
What I've done, by posting on this forum, is give Paradox the rights to rebroadcast my posts - ON THIS FORUM. They can claim anything they like - they can even demand I hand over my first-born if I post here - but their demands in this regard amount to a hill of beans.
If Paradox doesn't like this little fact, they have the *right* to ban me from the forum, forever. And to continue rebroadcasting my posts WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF THIS FORUM.
But they could not, for instance, take events I post here and incorporate them into EU3 without my express consent. Under American law, and American court rulings, I could sue their sorry asses off if they did so.
Not that I would. But too many people assume that just because a company posts some sort of bullshit EULA then that EULA actually has the force of law, a binding legal contract. And in this case, the demand to hand over intellectual property rights for the 'privilege' of posting would never stand up to a legal challenge, at least not in the USA.
If Crook wants his stuff pulled, the smart thing to do is to pull it - and then replace anything you pull with your own copies of those events, that you write from scratch. His reasons, childish or not, are irrelevant to his wishes. That's *his* intellectual property, and if he's an American then under the DMCA he could bitch-slap you into next year if you don't comply.
But really, stealing his stuff is just plain rude in any event. It doesn't matter whether or not you like his reasons, it's still *his* property and he can do whatever he wants with it. Just pull it, and then replace anything that's critical with your own work.
If you want to avoid problems like this in the future, just GPL the EEP and include the GPL in every release. Then the author *can't* pull his work if he has a hissy fit later on. If you work under the GPL then you're covered.
Of course, that means that other folks can also post the EEP on their own sites, but the more places people can get it from the merrier, right?
Max
None of this is helpful in the least, in any way shape or form. This forum is about discussing modifications to EU2 and not whether we approve and individual's actions or requests, especially when that leads to defamation of the said individual's character (whether deserved or not).
