General OpenTTD • Re: OpenTTD - Steam and GOG

A bootleg copy is just blatantly illegal. If this is the case, I would like to know, and if it's not, I'll defend the project from being called that. Why wouldn't I? So yes.

No. That would be piracy. The thing with bootlegs is their legal status is undefined. They might be illegal on case by case basis. But not necessarily so. For example - if I made a video of a concert ( as people do ) I attended, or a transformative work within an existing IP or sung a cover of a famous song. It all falls into this grey area, where an existing IP is referenced, but not financially challenged.

I am now listening to a bootleg copy of Nightwish' 'Ever Dream' on Youtube - a cover by a few talented young people. Because everybody carries a recording device, and studio grade equipment is cheap, record companies ceased to chase after bootlegs, because it is impossible to win. Which is why many artists now drop new albums on YT for free now.

OTTD might not use any assets of the original game, sure. But good deal of game mechanics, content structure and design language has been copied 1:1. OpenGFX2 had done such a good job at copying mr. Foster's work, that if you sat someone who played the game in 1995, they would not see the difference, apart from the uncanny feel that something is off.

Statistics: Posted by uzurpator — 19 Mar 2026 07:42