Change to Third Party part policy

[Orion Pobursky]

In light of Cams Bricks objection to including their products in the library, which took me by surprise, I'm going to implement a change to the Third Party part policy effective immediately.

Since Third Party parts are often produced by Adult Fan of LEGO (AFOL) community members and in order to keep good community relations, the inclusion of a company's parts in the Official  Library is strictly opt in. You must obtain permission from the company prior to submitting LDraw parts of their products to the Parts Tracker. This permission must be communicated to the library admins by a company's official representative. Since this rule was put into effect after the inclusion of some Third Party parts in the Official Library, those official parts will remain unless removal is requested by a company.

I'm willing to tweak the language of this a bit. This policy and the list of companies that have authorized or refused inclusion will be found in the LDraw.org Library Policies document:
https://www.ldraw.org/pt-policies.html

I will be working to contact all the affected companies in the coming weeks.

[Eugen]

This policy and the list of companies that have authorized or refused inclusion will be found in the LDraw.org Library Policies document: https://www.ldraw.org/pt-policies.html

Good decision.

That is what I mean under creating the "List of acceptible Third Party parts manufacturers" in my previous comment.

[Gerald Lasser]

Some companies also provide parts packs on their webpage, with their own specific license, so it is up the the end user to include them on thier installation of the library.

[Eugen]

Some companies also provide parts packs on their webpage, with their own specific license, so it is up the the end user to include them on thier installation of the library.

All the cases discussed in previous thread.

TL;DR: If manufacturers of Third Party parts released own LDraw files under any other license than CC0 (Public Domain), such parts could not be included as Third Party parts into LDraw.org Parts Library.

For all other cases always needs to get permission from Third Party parts manufacturer before authoring their part for Parts Library.

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But I still don't understand why parts provided by manufacturer under "CC BY 4.0" could not be merged into Parts Library directly, and why it requires to get a permission in such special case, as "CC BY 4.0" allows merging such parts into other assets under "CC BY 4.0", and the only requirement is to add manufacturer name into authors list.

In the case of an author releasing CC BY 4.0 parts on their own, they still cannot be added to the library unless that author agrees to our Contributor Agreement. Public domain files can be added under CC0.

TL;DR: If you didn't author the part or you didn't derive the part from an authorized source, you cannot submit it to the library.

If I would modify Third Party parts provided by manufacturer under "CC BY 4.0", derived files are the new work authored by me, and its legal for me to pull it on the Part Tracker if in the files original authors would be attributed too (that is what "CC BY 4.0" about).

So, its really disputable why works already released by authors under "CC BY 4.0" requires additional signing LDraw.org Contributor Agreement, as this agreement adds nothinig more than already is in "CC BY 4.0".

The only limitation is that such works license could not be changed to CC0 on PT.

[Rene Rechthaler]

I only have 2 third party parts submitted:
- Raspberry Pi (including HAT): https://library.ldraw.org/tracker/34978
- Mabuchi Boat motor: https://library.ldraw.org/tracker/31095
the Raspi itself is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (and i only used the physical dimensions)
https://www.raspberrypi.com/licensing/
the Mabuchi motor is very old and discontinued (although it got carried over by Tamiya)
do we need to ask them? (to ask Mabuchi @Takeshi may be the better one)

[Orion Pobursky]

I only have 2 third party parts submitted:
- Raspberry Pi (including HAT): https://library.ldraw.org/tracker/34978
- Mabuchi Boat motor: https://library.ldraw.org/tracker/31095
the Raspi itself is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (and i only used the physical dimensions)
https://www.raspberrypi.com/licensing/
the Mabuchi motor is very old and discontinued (although it got carried over by Tamiya)
do we need to ask them? (to ask Mabuchi @Takeshi may be the better one)

I'm not going back and deleting a bunch of parts. As stated, this will be the policy going forward.

[Orion Pobursky]

If I would modify Third Party parts provided by manufacturer under "CC BY 4.0", derived files are the new work authored by me, and its legal for me to pull it on the Part Tracker if in the files original authors would be attributed too (that is what "CC BY 4.0" about).

While CC BY 4.0 allows for modifications, per library policy, all attributed authors must agree to the Contributor's Agreement.

[Eugen]

While CC BY 4.0 allows for modifications, per library policy, all attributed authors must agree to the Contributor's Agreement.

No, only submitter: https://www.ldraw.org/article/349.html  

[...] the submitter ("the Author"), agrees to release the Work under the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License ("CC BY 4.0")

As derivated work from CC BY 4.0 work is a new CC BY 4.0 original work, previous authors could not be sumitters, because its no more their work.

The only policy here should be to follow that derivated work should not be idential bit-in-bit — there should be some changes inderivated work to claim it derivated.

[Orion Pobursky]

No, only submitter: https://www.ldraw.org/article/349.html  


As derivated work from CC BY 4.0 work is a new CC BY 4.0 original work, previous authors could not be sumitters, because its no more their work.

The only policy here should be to follow that derivated work should not be idential bit-in-bit — there should be some changes inderivated work to claim it derivated.

"Author" has a very specific meaning in LDraw: the person listed in the Author line. This is the originator of the part. The author who create derivative works adds history line.

[Eugen]

"Author" has a very specific meaning in LDraw: the person listed in the Author line. This is the originator of the part. The author who create derivative works adds history line.

This violates CC BY 4.0, because prevents derivative work to be claimed by derivator as a new original work.

Originator of the part in the case of derivated work is the derivator, and (according to CC BY 4.0) the originator of original work should be just named in the "Author:" line together with the derivator name (there is no extra requirement for get permission from originator of original work, as originator of original work already granted such rights by licensing original work under CC BY 4.0).

Just saying.

[Orion Pobursky]

This violates CC BY 4.0, because prevents derivative work to be claimed by derivator as a new original work.

Originator of the part in the case of derivated work is the derivator, and (according to CC BY 4.0) the originator of original work should be just named in the "Author:" line together with the derivator name (there is no extra requirement for get permission from originator of original work, as originator of original work already granted such rights by licensing original work under CC BY 4.0).

Just saying.

CC BY 4.0 License is not being violated in any way.

The CC BY 4.0 License requires the following:
  1. Name the creator
  2. Provide a URL for the work
  3. Name the license
  4. Provide a URL for the license
  5. Note whether the work has been modified

Since the CC BY 4.0 license is silent on how exactly the above is accomplished, the LDraw.org does the following:
1. is provided by the Author: meta command
2. is provided by the CAreadme.txt with the library and by the library software
3. is provided by the license line
4. is provided by the CAreadme.txt with the library and by the library software
5. is provided by the !HISTORY lines
Note: !HISTORY also documenting 1. for the user(s) who created the derivative work.

This has been our process and policy since at least 2008 when we adopted the CC BY license.

These are our standards and they follow all the license requirements. 

Additionally, meeting all the CC BY license requirements is simply one part of the long list requirements for a part to be included in the library. One of those other requirements is that all authors cited in either the Author: or !HISTORY meta agree to the Contributor Agreement. As the primary Library Admin and a member of the LDraw.org Steering Committee I can safely say that we are not changing these rules anytime soon.

[Eugen]

This policy and the list of companies that have authorized or refused inclusion will be found in the LDraw.org Library Policies document:
https://www.ldraw.org/pt-policies.html

I will be working to contact all the affected companies in the coming weeks.

As there are already some changes in the Third Party list, would be good add a note:

The following companies are not authorized for the Parts Library
(some of them are providing own LDraw files under other terms)

[Orion Pobursky]

There's a little more back story to the Fx Bricks situation that I feel is not my place to share. For now, Fx Bricks have changed not allowed to protect us (LDraw.org) but that may change back once things are resolved.