[thelist] Copyright breach - advice please

[Help Center Live - Mike]

RE: James Hardy

	"As far as I can see there is little or anything you can do, you 
released the code under 	the GPL, in translating the images into 
Portugese they can be said to have created a 	"derivitive work"."

I think you misunderstand what I am getting at. He has not changed any 
of the actual source code, but the copyright notice has been changed, 
therefore it is not a derivative work.

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RE: Marc Seyon

	"I'd say they are not actually coming out and claiming ownership of 
the code."

He is claiming ownership of the code, simply by changing the copyright 
without altering the code in any way apart from translating it (which 
only requires changes to one file and images)

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RE: Keith Gaughan

	"Tell the FSF. After all, you licensed it under the GPL, and this is a
	GPL infringement, so they'll help you deal with the fools."

I will do.

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Thanks for all your comments.

Mike




Message from Help Center Live - Mike (12/22/2004 10:50 AM)
> Hi,
>
> I'm a newbie on the list but I'd really appreciate some advice on a 
> difficult issue.
>
> I wrote a PHP chat application and registered it with SourceForge 
> about a year ago. It is pretty popular (c 3000 downloads a month).
>
> A few days ago one of my users informed me that another website is 
> providing the app for download but it is attributed to someone else. I 
> downloaded this version and all the developer has done is search and 
> replace my copyright lines and make very minor changes to some of the 
> graphics.
>
> The developer is Portuguese and Google translator doesn't really help, 
> but it is obvious that they are claiming it as their own work.
>
> My website is www.helpcenterlive.com
> The offending version is at http://www.weslley.com/scripts.htm (WI PHP 
> Live Help)
>
> As I mentioned, the downloads are identical apart from the copyright 
> search and replace, the name, and the translation of some of the 
> images.
>
> What should I do?