SynTax - It IS Commercial, Ya Know?
                       by James Judge

Now, normally I'm an easy going chap when it comes to what I write
- if Sue wants to publish it, fine, if she doesn't that's also
fine. If she wants to use it in PC Mart that's great too (twice
the mileage from the same review can't be all that bad, after
all!). If someone 'phones or writes to me and says 'hey, can I use
some of your stuff in such and such?' I'm more than likely to say
yes (unless they are the BNP or some other organisation I disagree
with). Hell, I don't mind even if people give a copy of an article
to a friend if it would help them in a game (as long as I was
notified somewhere along the line...).

What I don't like is people distributing my stuff without my
say-so and not on, say, a five person scale, but uploading pieces
onto BBSs and putting them onto PD compilation disks.

I didn't think this happened. I thought people bought SynTax
because they enjoyed the magazine for its fast-moving features
section, its up-to-date solutions and maps along with in-depth
reviews of recent games. I thought that these people then filed
the disk away for future reference (or put it onto their HDD), and
dipped back into it from time to time. But no, this illusion was
shattered a little while ago.

Some of you will remember that I did a small hint file on the
virtues of kit in Frontier:Elite 2. At the bottom of the file I
asked for fellow Frontier players to get in contact with me so we
could have a chat. No-one did and as I progressed (and got a PC)
Frontier fell into the background and was completely forgotten
about. That was until one Thursday night. I received a 'phone call
from a guy in Reading who had just read my article and wanted to
chat. I explained that I hadn't played the game for a while and he
asked if I'd like to borrow his PC version. Of course I said yes
and while he was making up the package I asked him how long he had
been taking SynTax.

"SynTax?" he said "what's SynTax?"

I was astounded - here was a person who I'd never heard of reading
an article published in issue 30 of SynTax (nearly a year ago),
but having never heard of nor seen SynTax. (Since then he has seen
the PD version and is suitably impressed, but on with the
story...)

At the end of the conflab I asked him where he got the file from
and he said that it was in a bunch of misc. files he had
downloaded from a BBS all on Elite 2. He said that the file had,
at the top, referenced to another BBS.

Putting the 'phone down I booted the computer and trawled through
all the hint sections from SynTax over the past two years and came
across my file - the one this Paul was talking about. My next
course of action was to 'phone dear Ed (that's Sue to you and I).

She said that she'd look into the whole fiasco and had, in fact,
seen a few other hint files that came from SynTax floating around
on a disk (with reference to the same BBS), but she'd thought that

the authors might have given their endorsement for the pieces to
be included.

Over the weekend a few things happened. Sue did a bit of hunting
around and was finally directed to the Sysop of the BBS.  I had
been talking to this Paul again, but nothing to do with the files.
He then asked if I had any Elite 2 hints for beginners and I said
'hold it' and booted the old computer and loaded up SynTax and
found a hint file by Janice Charnley and started to read it out,
to see whether the content would be of any use. Paul stopped me in
mid-word and said 'thanks, but I've got this file - it came with
yours'. I then read out all of the other Frontier helpfiles and
Paul had them all. Pretty good considering that he had never heard
of SynTax before talking to me and all the hint files had been
published over a year's span.

So, this copying of SynTax files isn't just isolated cases - it
must be going on pretty regularly.


Now, Sue sits at home in front of a computer for two months on and
off, collating together pieces of work from different
contributors, reading them and altering them (where suitable),
running the library and the solution service, answering mail
(general letters and queries), getting extra advertising,
producing a PD version of the magazine and distributing that all
over the place, reviewing games herself and compiling solutions
just so that she can put them onto a disk bi-monthly and send them
off to readers, expecting them to then artfully dissect the
magazine, uploading pieces of the mag to BBSs and putting other
pieces onto general PD disks. Is that why she does it?

But I ask you - what is the point of doing all that preparation
just to have some people dissect the magazine at the earliest
possible moment? I know that Sue enjoys doing the magazine and as
soon as that stopped we'd have to look for another editor, but she
also runs the magazine as a commercial business.  That means that
there is a copyright on SynTax itself and ALL the pieces in the
magazine (unless stated otherwise) are copyrighted to the original
author.

That means that if you do copy the magazine or even parts of it
you are breaking the law and not just that, the trust that Sue has
placed in you.

It would be naive of me to sit back and think that no copying will
ever take place.  But I believe that with such a small venture as
SynTax the readers should take partial responsibility of the
magazine themselves. Some readers have a vested interest in the
magazine - ie they enjoy writing and SynTax is the perfect outlet
for their creative talents. Other people (the regular reader who
doesn't contribute) still have an interest in the magazine - if
Sue feels that there is no point in continuing with the magazine
due to excess piracy then she won't continue and there will no
longer be a SynTax to copy.

The increase in comms software and hardware will lead to an
increase in piracy, but from what I've read, seen and experienced
the people who are getting into comms and the people who are
behind it all have a general respect for one another and I feel
that they wouldn't rob one another of a few pennies here and
there.  And it is up to the Sysop (Systems Operator) to check on
the legality of uploaded files.

So, the point of all these pages it to make you, the reader,
understand that SynTax is NOT FOR GENERAL DISTRIBUTION. It causes
a lot of undue stress, anxiety and bad feelings if you do and it
isn't really fair to Sue who does put in a lot of hard work with
the magazine.

If it was just a couple of isolated incidences I don't suppose Sue
would have minded THAT much (after all, it is bound to happen to
some degree). But I've seemed to show that it isn't - copies of
hints files (so far) have been found grabbed from various issues
of SynTax from the past 18 months and if that is happening with
the whole hints and solution sections then that's a hell of a
large chunk of the magazine being illegally distributed.

I leave you with these two thoughts:

If you do still want to copy parts of SynTax at least get the
original author's permission (via Sue, probably) as otherwise you
are infringing THEIR legal rights and not just Sue's. I'm sure
that a lot of them would be pleased to help in any way.

All the copied files found so far have had the same BBS tag on
them. Now, isn't that a weird coincidence that of about 10-15
files ALL have the same tag on them? That means that they probably
all come from the same source who is uploading to the BBS.

And this one plea:

LEAVE SYNTAX AS IT IS - DON'T COPY IT, OR PARTS OF IT, FOR YOUR
OWN GAIN, EVEN IF YOU FEEL THAT YOU'RE BEING HELPFUL. IN THE
LONG RUN YOU'RE NOT.




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