Legal Question in Technology Law in Virginia

Open Source Altering
I use an open source code from a certain website, for an online text based game.

It is free to the public and can be altered in any way. I believe it's outside of the united states in another country and does not have copyright on it. I have changed over 50% of the coding and added a bunch of things to it. So now it's no longer the same. I changed the copyright (from his name on it) to my own since it's no longer the orginal or close to it. He told him he will be contacting a lawyer and suing me for taking that off of it. I thought anything over 40% of the orginal is not considered the orginal any longer, is this true? Can he sue me for removing that even though he says that?

Asked on 4/25/06, 2:40 pm

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Michael Stone Law Offices of Michael B. Stone Toll Free 1-855-USE-MIKE

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Re: Open Source Altering

How do you know the original code is "free to the public"? Does it say it is in the public domain? Or are you just assuming it is in the public domain because the source code is available (Bzzt! Incorrect.) Is there a license that applies, for example the Gnu Public License (GPL)? If so, what does the license say about creating "derivative works" (what you did)? Obviously you have POd the original author who may (or may not) be serious about taking legal action. Whether or not you need to take him seriously depends on your answers to the above, and other factors.

Answered on 4/25/06, 6:36 pm

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