Policy regarding removal of modules          v1.3          written by Coma
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This policy document is intended to draw the guidelines for cases where
a composer wants one or more of his modules to be deleted from the server.
This does not happen very often but should still be regulated by a
consistent policy. This document is a work in progress and may be expanded
with other reasons for or against removal.

Modland aims to be a complete archive of sequenced computer music, both
historic and contemporary, with the purpose of documenting and preserving
what would otherwise risk being lost and forgotten. Its focus lies on
the Amiga but no platform is excluded. Because of this, requests for
material to be removed from the archive are always met with great
hesitation, and such removal is never done lightly. If you are considering
requesting your modules to be removed, you are urged to reconsider and let
your work continue to contribute to what hopefully will remain the most
complete module archive in the world.

Modules will not be deleted if:

  - their composer has released them in the past but now changes his mind
    about them, for whatever reason. It is impossible to "unspread"
    what has been placed into the public domain. It is also a very bad idea
    to try and revise history. I will not go into a discussion about this.
    Requesting removal from the archive if all you have is this reason
    will only be a waste of your time.

Modules will be deleted if:

  - they have not yet been released by their composer and have been leaked
    by someone without authorization to release them. This is under the
    assumption that the leak is attended to within a reasonable amount
    of time. If the module has been circulating for years already, it is
    considered to be released no matter if it was unauthorized from the
    beginning.

  - they have been released by their composer with an agreement of
    distribution exclusivity with a certain site. Such an agreement should
    be reflected within the module itself or at least on the site holding
    the agreement, and it must have been in force when the module was
    added to Modland, not created afterwards. It is also assumed that
    the module is not available to the public in any other way than from
    the site with the distribution agreement. I will not accept having
    Modland singled out among other sites in breach of such an agreement.

  - they are, or were, part of commercially distributed software which is
    still under copyright, and I am contacted by the copyright holder or
    his legal representative with a formal request for removing the modules.

Further to the above, the requester will naturally have to convince me
in some reasonable way that he really is the creator of the modules in
question, and not just some random person trying to cause damage to
the archive. After that, the modules will be deleted from the main server
as soon as possible, and from the mirrors within the next 48 hours
(since there are now secondary mirrors, it could take at most 48 hours
before all mirrors are synchronized).