"Yes, wiki" (Snarkhunter's Dragon wiki thread)

[snarkhunter]

Chapter 10 - Miscellaneous Questions & Issues, general discussion, etc.

I have created a draft for "Shock Trooper". I even managed to include a screenshot of the titles screen. But I (already) cannot remember which "license" I used in order to have it accepted and stored, and I'm wondering about the proper one for such pictures. But, according to the following page, including any such picture would be considered "illegal", thus resulting in the picture potentially being deleted by an administrator at any time.



So my question is: which license type should one use when it comes to screenshots from computer games (or systems) that are no longer being produced/marketed?
I just can't image anyone would ever decide to sue us now for creating and using those in wiki pages, but I still would be happy to comply with legal rules...

[Alastair]

Chapter 10 - Miscellaneous Questions & Issues, general discussion, etc.

I have created a draft for "Shock Trooper". I even managed to include a screenshot of the titles screen. But I (already) cannot remember which "license" I used in order to have it accepted and stored, and I'm wondering about the proper one for such pictures. But, according to the following page, including any such picture would be considered "illegal", thus resulting in the picture potentially being deleted by an administrator at any time.

So my question is: which license type should one use when it comes to screenshots from computer games (or systems) that are no longer being produced/marketed?
I just can't image anyone would ever decide to sue us now for creating and using those in wiki pages, but I still would be happy to comply with legal rules...

I cannot answer the licence question, but under British (or at least English and Welsh) law I would have thought that using screenshots to illustrate a game falls under fair use so there should be no problem posting screenshots.

Also, though this may need clarification, I don't think that there is any link between this wiki and Wikimedia (apart from both being built on MediaWiki software) so I am not sure how useful the Wikimedia guidelines are for this site.

[snarkhunter]

I cannot answer the licence question, but under British (or at least English and Welsh) law I would have thought that using screenshots to illustrate a game falls under fair use so there should be no problem posting screenshots.

Also, though this may need clarification, I don't think that there is any link between this wiki and Wikimedia (apart from both being built on MediaWiki software) so I am not sure how useful the Wikimedia guidelines are for this site.

Then my next question will be: what is the proper link to upload pictures?!
From the "Commons" link I've been using so far (and it's the only one that I do know of at the moment), the uploading of "non-free fair usage" pictures is not allowed. Here's what
they say about "Fair use":

"Fair use" material is not allowed on Commons
"Fair use" files uploaded to Commons may be deleted on sight, without warning.


Wikimedia Commons does not accept fair use content (such as non-free logos, covers, screenshots, or reproductions of other copyrighted works) because fair use laws vary from country to country—thus, content deemed acceptable under, for instance, US fair use concepts (which are very broad) is not usable in the majority of other countries.

Fair use depends on the context the image (or other media) is used in. That is, something that can be used on one page as fair use would be a copyright violation on another page. Also, fair use does not allow for the storage of material on a general media database such as Commons. This means that fair use concepts simply do not apply on Commons.

Both issues are against the Commons policy of attempting to provide media files that can be used by anyone, anywhere, for any purpose. The Licensing resolution of the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) explicitly forbids Commons to host fair use materials.

You may, however, submit such images to your local wiki, if it allows fair use. Note that files uploaded to a local wiki can be used only locally at that wiki.
.../...

So, if posting "Fair use" pictures is considered acceptable on a local wiki, this means I should use this page to upload pictures, right?

If so, then I should now be able to upload screenshots from games. That is, as soon as the size issue for the pictures has been sorted out!

One more step already, yet many more to be taken...

[Alastair]

This is something that Simon needs to clarify.

[admin]

We have no relationship with mediawiki other than we share the same Wiki engine/code. All screenshots should be uoloaded to this site and are not subject to any license on the same level of understanding as the software available - if any genuine copyright holder contacts me and asks for removal, then it will be done.

[snarkhunter]

Thanks for clarifying things, Simon.
As stated in the other thread, I've now updated the page for "Shock Trooper". But I'm still having an issue with the size of screenshots, which seems to leap from picture to picture, though I suspect this might be an issue with the accuracy of the "XRoar" emulation window (i.e. size-wise).

But that is another story...

[admin]

I have used MESS in the past to do screenshots - it has the ability to save the current screen out as a .PNG and seems to be very accurate, needing no cropping...

[snarkhunter]

I have used MESS in the past to do screenshots - it has the ability to save the current screen out as a .PNG and seems to be very accurate, needing no cropping...

... Would have done so, but I came across a most unexpected problem on the way: for some reason I cannot figure out, the PMODE4 display for the game "artifacts" the colours, so the black/white (i.e. colour option 1) turns to colour, just like it would on an NTSC "Co-Co" display!

And that's really not what I wanted...

[Edit]
Well, it seems to be a feature of the "MESS" release I'm using (0.139b), because I've just checked another PMODE4 game ("Screaming Abdabs"), and it worked just the same way, i.e. displaying artifacted colours, which is not good enough - definitely!

[sixxie]

Looks like you can turn artifacting off under "Driver Configuration" in the MESS UI.

[snarkhunter]

Looks like you can turn artifacting off under "Driver Configuration" in the MESS UI.

Where did you see this?! I've just re-checked all configuration tabs, but couldn't find any such option anywhere...

[Edit]
Ok... just found it in the menu bar (Options/Configuration).
Now, the only issues I still have are:
1/ Toggling on the menu bar again after switching it off (from the menu bar)
Yet I have found an alternative: after activating "ScrLk" first (Fn + NumLk) and selecting the "Partial emulation/Enabled" mode for the UI, the TAB key does switch on/off an overlayed menu, from which the "File Manager" option allows one to select a ".vdk" file.

2/ Switching the "artifacted" mode off (-> done)

3/ Keyboard emulation of the joystick(s) (-> still searching)

4/ Getting proper 256x192 screenshots from MESS (-> failed so far)