I think that many people in the FS community should take a legal course in a university on copyright law. Must of what I hear in these forums is drivel.

 

I hope you sign up to that course as well, because your post contains just as much drivel as anybody else's. If you live long enough you get to hear it all...

 

To quote the website you linked to:

Copyright infringement occurs when a copyrighted work is reproduced, distributed, performed, publicly displayed, or made into a derivative work without the permission of the copyright owner.

 

Copyright has nothing to do with money, it is about control of intellectual propety. Even so called "fair use" of copyrighted material is a slippery slope. Also, copyright is just one piece of the puzzle. What about terms of use? You can most certainly add terms of use and EULAs independently from copyright.

Hey, different tangent. I'm pretty happy using payware traffic. Have wondered if i'd want to add woai models in the future. Useful for ut2? Useful for my trafic x?

 

If so, people like me need to do the download before closing time.

 

Actually, there is another aspect to copyright which should have flightsimmers really upset. The designs of various aircraft are owned by the aircraft manufacturers. This is something which has received a lot of attention from scale modelers. see, eg. http://www.modelairplanenews.com/blog/2012/06/20/the-end-of-scale-modeling/ One of the consequences is that many of the aircraft models one sees here and elsewhere are actually illegal copies which infringe on the IP rights of the aircraft manufacturer. Lockheed, in particular, is particularly stinky about this. Apparently one manufacturer of digital aircraft had to withdraw a model of an F104 because of these concerns. Similarly, if you see a model of a P-38 or any other Lockheed aircraft, it probably violates Lockheed's intellectual property.

 

The same holds true of liveries. Someone cannot offer a repaint of the livery of an airline without getting permission or paying a license to that airline for copying their livery. A toy train company, MTH, discovered this when they were sued by the Union Pacific for using UP logos on their models. All model companies, like Athern and Lionel pay royalties to the Union Pacific to use the UP liveries on their models.

 

The bottom line here is that if developers like PMDG want to make models of the B737 or 777, or like Aerosoft making models of the Airbus A320, or like Level D making a model of the B767, they had better get a license to do so, which means paying a royalty for every model sold. By the same token, if these developers want to include 100 liveries, they had better permission and pay royalties to 100 airlines, including the defunct airlines. Someone somewhere still holds the rights for PanAm and TWA.

 

This may be the real problem with World of AI. If you think about it, they were engaged in massive copyright infringement. Maybe one of these copyright holders sent them a cease and desist letter.

 

By the same token, it is pretty clear that Avsim is also engaged in massive copyright infringement. Every aircraft, every livery, every airport which is hosted here infringes on someone's intellectual property. Of course, there are safe harbor provisions which protect sites like Avsim, but they really cannot afford to ignore any takedown notices.

 

Viewed in this light, all of this discussion about copyrights reeks of massive hypocricy. Anyone who downloads a file from this site is violating someone's intellectual property. After all, the act of downloading is making a copy. So, some people really need to get off of their high horse.

Thanks for going way off topic and truly not understanding what any of this is about.

Viewed in this light, all of this discussion about copyrights reeks of massive hypocricy. Anyone who downloads a file from this site is violating someone's intellectual property. After all, the act of downloading is making a copy. So, some people really need to get off of their high horse.

 

You might want to do a search in both AVSIM's News Archives and Forum for the words; PAPA TANGO, PETER TISHMA, AMERICAN AIRLINES, ad naseum... We have been here and done this a couple of dozen times folks.

 

Thanks for going way off topic and truly not understanding what any of this is about.

Exactly.

Hey, different tangent. I'm pretty happy using payware traffic. Have wondered if i'd want to add woai models in the future. Useful for ut2? Useful for my trafic x?

I think you can add models and plans to e.g. UT2 via that power pack tool. If you would run clients for online flying, you can also add the models there. So there is some use (from my understanding) even for the folks already running payware.

 

Another good model source is that free Orbx traffic. FSInn made use of it for example.

Orbx traffic .. this is for FSX only.. not FS9, correct?

I am not sure that the vast majority of airlines and aircraft manufacturers would be stupid enough to send "cease and desist" letters to flightsim developers. They are getting free advertising whenever someone sees their name and/or logo on a simulated aircraft. It's only the really petty and picky companies (you know, the ones whose legal departments are larger than the company itself) that worry about "copyright infringement" of this kind.

 

Oh, by the way.....Just Flight will be releasing a Lockheed TriStar shortly....

I'd just like to say a big thank you to WOAI, and all the developers who contributed, for sharing their work with us--for free!

 

There are probably nicer looking, or more up-to-date, AI packages out there, but this has served me really well.

 

I'm also glad they've decided to give us several months' notice, instead of, say, yanking everything down out of nowhere.

Orbx traffic .. this is for FSX only.. not FS9, correct?

I think so, yes.

 

I'm also glad they've decided to give us several months' notice, instead of, say, yanking everything down out of nowhere.

Good point indeed. Talking about fairness.

Another kink in the armor for our hobby in my opinion. This year, flight, cancelled, gamespy shutdown, avsim store, closed, now this. What's next, the weather server shuts down?

 

Regards;

 

Fritz

Another kink in the armor for our hobby in my opinion. This year, flight, cancelled, gamespy shutdown, avsim store, closed, now this. What's next, the weather server shuts down?

 

Regards;

 

Fritz

 

Flight - wasn't what true FSX simmers wanted anyway

 

Gamespy - plenty of ways to connect to others; VATSIM, IVAO, Hamachi, etc.

 

World of AI - it's old, and it was completely free. You can still download packages now, so what's stopping you? Or go a payware route and get Traffic X/Ultimate Traffic/My Traffic....plenty to choose from

 

Weather Server? Wouldn't surprise me if Microsoft pulled the plug on it. They have with everything else so far. Fortunately there are both paid and free methods to replace the default FSX weather (which is horrible anyway).

OpusFSX, REX, AS2012....or go with a few of the freeware weather platforms that have had life injected in them recently

 

In the end nothing lasts forever. FSX has great things going for it. The loss of WorldofAI is such a small footprint compared to what else is available.

Another kink in the armor for our hobby in my opinion. This year, flight, cancelled, gamespy shutdown, avsim store, closed, now this. What's next, the weather server shuts down?

 

Regards;

 

Fritz

 

It's interesting...some very good things, and some bad things, happening.

 

WOAI didn't ever make the jump to fsx, so their relevance has steadily declined. I used to love their work, but that was a long time ago.

 

I just went and read their forums to try and understand whats happened. The loss of a key painter and someone unfortunately using/modding their work without permission combined with decreased relevance ('dead' forum) proved too much.

 

Unfortunately - and I'm sorry to be harsh - their final words mean it's a bit of an undignified end that seems like a

dummy spit.

 

"To be honest, we are a bit tired of FS, most of us haven't fired up FS for a long time."

 

Not the way I would have gone out. But anyway, thanks WOAI for the memories, back in the day.

The loss of WorldofAI is such a small footprint

 

The loss is more significant then many may want to admit I fear

 

"To be honest, we are a bit tired of FS, most of us haven't fired up FS for a long time."

 

the quote is poignant wouldn't you agree

 

Regards;

 

Fritz

 

"To be honest, we are a bit tired of FS, most of us haven't fired up FS for a long time."

 

 

Generalization. What's with the "we". I fire up my FSX every chance I can get. I keep adding new planes, scenery enhancements. I design my own scenery, addons to add to the fun. I teach myself new stuff all the time. This year I am going to learn to program and use an FMS which I have avoided for years.

 

Just because an AI group decides to pack it in doesn't mean the sim is dead, for goodness sake!

 

As I have told my kids (now 30s), "grow old gracefully", "focus on your goals and dreams, your family...and if you find that something isn't working for you, then move on."

 

So if FSX isn't fun, enjoyable then move on. Personally, I am enjoying my new two monitor setup and the "hobby" of simming.

 

Bryan