I have Ween's A Tear For Eddie from back in the Smithy Anvil days (my all-time favorite song to play in the game!).  I have two questions:

 

- The original author did not break it into sections.  I want to practice just the more difficult parts at the end.  Is it possible to "unpack" it in some way, modify it to add sections, and package it up again?

- If I do that, since the original author seems to be long gone, is it kosher if I upload it?  Or is that infringing upon the rights of the original charter? (said with as straight a face as I can muster!)

I'm in a similar situation -- the original charter seems to have disappeared, and he'd never finished the CDLC anyway. At this point, after all the work I've put into the song, I consider it just as much mine as anyone's. Because let's face, none of "own" any of this.

 

I'd say it's bad form to claim something as being entirely one's own without crediting the person who started the project. But I have no problem with people uploaded improved versions of customs that have been left unfinished.

 

Maybe try to contact the charter to let him know what you're doing.

 

Otherwise, yes, use the Toolkit to unpack the file --  use the *_fixed.ogg to start a new project in EOF and import the .xml files for the different tracks you want to work on. Adding sections is very easy.

 

As for uploading it... that's a hard call. If the file is otherwise complete and was just lacking sections, then, sure, why not? If the original charter isn't doing it, someone should.

I think if you made improvements on a project that doesn't seem to get updated anymore it should be fair game. I mean it's a free learning resource in the first place, nothing anyone gains anything from except maybe fame and thanks from the community. Which would be covered with giving credit.

 

If the author is still active I say ask them first. If they seem to have vanished, improve away and give credit and it will benefit the community again.

I'd suggest you try to contact the original chart author to ask permission to modify it. If he allows it or if you get no response for a week or two, it should be fine to modify it. But if you post it here you should credit the original author and indicate what you changed. If create the entire project from scratch, no credit needs to be given to other people.

The commitment to defending intellectual property rights in this community is quite laudable!

The commitment to defending intellectual property rights in this community is quite laudable!

 

Well, none of us can claim IP rights on any of this. We didn't write or perform the songs, and most customs are coming from pre-made Gpro tabs, so people can't even claim that.

 

But it does take time and effort to chart a custom -- people deserve bragging rights for that, at least.

 

Personally, I view this as a vast open source project. What we're doing here is just an extension of the tab universe that's been developing online since... well, since online began.

@not_sleeping

+1

To add on to this, I was wondering if I could upload a currently existing song on SmithyAnvil if I completely re-made it. I would ask permission to the original song maker on Smithy, but the person who made it (Mike, the one with the email username) is no longer a member on Smithy and I highly doubt he'll ever be coming here.

If you make the chart from scratch (ie. don't import the other user's XML files or EOF project file), you don't need their permission.

If you make the chart from scratch (ie. don't import the other user's XML files or EOF project file), you don't need their permission.

 

Good to know. Thanks :)

OK, honest question here.  I do appreciate the efforts of our custom content creators, and I don't mean to belittle that.

 

But why exactly do we want to leave CDLC behind?  In the scenario above, where the original author is long gone, both from this site and from SA, why wouldn't we want someone to just post it here so people can make use of it?  And further, why wouldn't we want to embrace more of an open source model where anybody and everybody is free to add improvements to existing CDLC?

Well, we really can't allow everybody to update a song, I can easily see a Wikipedia-like scenario where everyone who updates it is updating it with their own translation of the song.  Pretty soon we'd all be downloading something quite different from the original "approved" version.

 

I do agree that if the original creator is gone from SA and isn't here, someone should be able to do it in their stead.

+1 to that.. There are songs out there without sections that I'd love to have a crack at adding..

Maybe even trying to add DD.

 

If anything, it would be great as a learning tool for first steps into editing..