If you BUY a aircraft and it does not have a GPS or one that you are use to, is it legal to add one for your own personal use? Can you make it available for others to use if it ( the amended panel) is offered FREE and no cost involved? jerry

my opinion (and yes it seems because of other discussions the copyright 'cat is out of the bag'):* personal use - yes (but, some EULAs state you cannot modify the product in any way ... and another but, who would know you did this change unless you share the edit or explain how it can be done?)* unless you get permission from the copyright holder you cannot share the mod. (and sharing the mod without personal gain is not protection.)--

>If you BUY a aircraft and it does not have a GPS or one that>you are use to, is it legal to add one for your own personal>use? Can you make it available for others to use if it ( the>amended panel) is offered FREE and no cost involved? jerryYou certainly can, as long as you're not including some part of the copyrighted panel as part of your distribution. So if you've modded a bitmap, for example, you can't include that bitmap in your distribution. What you can do, though, is get a program like PatchMaker and create a patch executable that takes the original bitmap and modifies it. Since you're not actually including the copyrighted bitmap, and the mod can only be done if the user already has the copyrighted bitmap, then no foul.The other option is a simple set of instructions, i.e. change these lines in the panel.cfg to...CheersBob ScottATP IMEL Gulfstream II-III-IV-VSantiago de Chile

I think adding GPS and sharing panel config files the way you described is perfectly legal . RealityXP users do that all the time, for example.However, something thing to remember is that developers normally don't like their guages to be pulled out and put into another plane. Those who really care make it so you can't do it. If i'm wrong please don't quote me. See how wild these "legal or not" threads go around here.Jason

well, legally, this is a grey area - the whole area of 3rd party addons is. BUT:If you create an addon for a 3rd party addon, can the creators of the 3rd party addon turn on you, when their product is also just an addon? As long as you abide to common sense and copyrights (ie don't distribute original content), there is no reason why you shouldn't be able to distribute a 3rd party addon for a 3rd party addon (ie a 2nd generation 3rd party addon so to speak).Distributing modified bitmaps is another grey area. Lots of people distribute modified original FS content (although stricly speaking this may not be permitted, but is common practice anyway). Again I would call on common sense. Dou you need to modify an orginal bitmap to fit your GPS in, but the main work is really your GPS which is fully original? In that sort of case it should be fine to distribute your modified bitmap. It really depends on how heavily modified the content is and how central it is to your work (is the main work original).In case of doubt I'd just get permission of the original author in writing. In any case this is just additional advertising so most developers won't knock you back.Cheers,Christian

I am pretty sure you can distribute the panel.cfg file but no actual modified artwork or model

>I am pretty sure you can distribute the panel.cfg file but no>actual modified artwork or modelIn theory, the panel.cfg is no less copyrighted than any other creation in the product. Most developers just tolerate "mods", some even authorize and offer them for download on their own page. Despite this, I would not assume an implicit "ok" to distribute a modified panel.cfg of a payware product without asking for permission first.There is, however, one problem with user mods and it is support related: When people report bugs or problems, they often fail to state that they are using a modified panel/aircraft/whatever .cfg. This may create difficulties in locating the problem, or the problem may even be fully triggered by the modification.