Joefish wrote: ↑Mon Dec 18, 2017 12:41 pmI don't think it needs even that. Just an extra field listing distribution rights - for all games, not just free ones.
There's already an entire table in ZXDB called "permissions", that stores all details about distribution rights. This is the table that all ZXDB-based sites check to decide if they should distribute a certain file or not. For instance:
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... el_id=6929
Notice that Martijn's WoS worked exactly the same way:
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseek ... J.+Railton$
Except ZXDB is more complete since it stores this information for multiple sites.
Joefish wrote: ↑Mon Dec 18, 2017 12:41 pm- Author / publisher has specifically denied redistribution.
In this case, the author/publisher page will show permission denied.
Joefish wrote: ↑Mon Dec 18, 2017 12:41 pm- This site has not obtained permission to distribute.
In this case, the author/publisher page won't show permissions.
Joefish wrote: ↑Mon Dec 18, 2017 12:41 pm- This site has specific permission to distribute. Re-distribution without permission is not permitted.
In this case, the author/publisher page will show permission for this site only.
Joefish wrote: ↑Mon Dec 18, 2017 12:41 pm- Author / publisher has given permission for any public re-distribution.
In this case, the author/publisher page will show permission for all free sites.
Joefish wrote: ↑Mon Dec 18, 2017 12:41 pm- Author / publisher relinquishes all copyright (public domain).
In this case, the game itself will say "Original price: Free (Public Domain)".
Joefish wrote: ↑Mon Dec 18, 2017 12:41 pmBut using crude undefined terms like 'freeware' is avoiding the responsibility of preserving the author's copyright.
Again, I cannot see how indicating a game is "free but copyrighted" could be avoiding the responsibility of preserving the author's copyright!
Joefish wrote: ↑Mon Dec 18, 2017 12:41 pmWhat I am asking for is the license you have to distribute the game to be presented to the user alongside the download link for the game, so that they are made aware of their rights. They should not have to download it first to find out if they have permission to download it or not.
This situation you described would be impossible. If a file is denied, then SC won't have a link to download it. Therefore users would never be able to download it first, then find out they cannot download it...