License?

[dustMason]

These are so cool! What's the license? I'd like to use them on my site

[bchar]

Im sorry as of today, Im not sure where I got the given a few to go back in time to research it. Sorry

[bryanbraun]

Honestly, the license/reuse situation is a bit murky.

I'm happy to license the code (HTML & CSS) permissively with MIT or another license. My code is all original and the ChicagoFLF font I used already has an open license (the SIL Open Font License).

Many of the images, while not straight copies of the original After Dark images, are very close to the originals, and would probably retain their original copyright status.

There are a number of reasons this might be ok. The project is a limited set of screensaver approximations, with very limited functionality. It's also a non-commercial, personal project, thus, this could be considered fair-use of the images. Other similar, more visible projects, like Simpsons in CSS, are in similar legal territory without running into issues.

You could also consider it an archival project. Archive.org collects lots of old software, and avoids copyright issues by relying on a DMCA exception that applies to "Computer programs and video games distributed in formats that have become obsolete and which require the original media or hardware as a condition of access." (more details here).

That being said, the flying toasters images specifically have been the subject of lawsuits in the past. Of course, that was back in the day when the screensavers were sold, and copyright infringement had a real financial impact). If I were asked to take down the project, I would immediately comply.

In short, I'm comfortable posting the project under the above circumstances, and I'm comfortable with others embedding them, repurposing them, and making derivative works, but they ought to recognize the possibility that the images could create some degree of legal risk.

[bryanbraun]

I documented the license details in the README as part of 405af9d. Yay for finally closing this 7-year old issue! 😄