FOREWORD

This document describes the legal implications of writing code for use
in Genesis and rules of conduct for handling code. This type of
document is usually not necessary in leisure programming but one day
there may be a problem and then it is better if things have been
settled in a clear manner in advance.

It also describes the ethical rules of conduct for handling the code
that you as well as others have produced. These are very different
from legal rules in the copyright notice. The legal rules say that you
can't sue someone just because your code pops up somewhere else in the
world.  The ethical rules say that you are a bastard if you take
someone elses code without permission and put it up somewhere else.
They also say that if you behave like a bastard you can be thrown off
the game.

The reasons behind formulating things this way are several:

- Copyright issues and legal matters in this environment are extremely
  complicated and largely unexplored. The fact that programmers are
  sitting in a number of different countries, sometimes producing the
  code on their home machine and sometimes inside the game is one such
  complication. An other one is whether Genesis is to be considered as
  one single large program or if each object is a separate program. If
  the first alternative is the case it means that there is a collective
  copyright which belongs to all people who have written any part of the
  code we are using and if anyone wants to distribute any part of it he
  needs the consent of ALL the others. As the copyright notice is
  formulated it is always clear who holds the rights to a certain piece
  of code.

- Most of the code that is written for Genesis is the result of endeavors
  from a lot of people. To give the person actually writing the object
  all the rights would be to deny all the others theirs.

- Mud is a hobby and monetary interests, legal action and hassles about
  code ownership detract from the enjoyment of the hobby.

- A lot of people have an emotional investment in the code they have
  written and in Genesis in general. They deserve some sort of
  influence over the products of their imagination.

- Very drastic changes in the world detract from the players enjoyment
  of the game. The copyright notice allows the admins to keep the code
  running under all circumstances.

- It is very hard to foresee things such as net access and machine
  availability in the future. It should be possible to transfer Genesis
  to other competent hands without having to ask each and every wizard
  in the game if it's ok with him/her.

- Genesis Interest Association is a non profit organization, and as such
  it frowns upon use of the equipment for commercial purposes.

- It could be argued that it is possible to develop code outside
  Genesis and then move it here. However it is not in the interest of
  anyone except the coding person that he/she retains all privileges.

- Please note that the copyright belongs to the producer of the code if
  he/she wishes so. He/she just promises to exercise the right in certain
  ways. The main effects of retaining copyright is that you have RIGHT to
  to be known as the author of the code.


COPYRIGHT LICENSE

1.  Genesis is is the name of the LPMud world run by Genesis Interest
    Association (a non profit organisation, created for the sole
    purpose of maintaining this game), Goteborg, Sweden. The code
    making up the world is termed Genesis and the society is termed GIA
    in the following text.

2.  All code that is produced in Genesis or imported to Genesis is subject 
    to this license. If you have code that you for some reason can't or 
    don't want to place under this license, don't import it.

3.  All code in Genesis may be freely copied and used by anyone
    gaining access to it, with the exception that no code may for any
    reason be used for the purpose of making a monetary profit. This
    means that while you are allowed to run the mud, charging money
    from those who use it to cover the running costs, you may not make
    a profit from it.

4.  All code in working order that is exported outside Genesis should 
    contain this license, or a reference to it.

5.  The copyright to all code that is not accompanied by an explicit
    copyright notice with the word Copyright, the year of creation and
    the name of the author is held by GIA.

6.  Swedish law applies to this license. Among other things this means that
    all code is protected, even if it doesn't contain a copyright notice.

ETHICS

The following paragraphs are recommendations.

1.  Put a comment containing your name, the date of creation and the fact 
    that it was created on Genesis at the top of each file you make.

2.  Put a comment with the date and information on the change every time 
    you make a major change to one of your objects.

These are to be considered as rules of conduct. Breaking them in a major way
may trigger disciplinary actions.

3.  Write code that is in accordance with the rules and in balance with 
    the game.

4.  Don't copy other wizards code without permission from that wizard, the
    lord of that domain, or a keeper.

5.  Don't export other wizards code without permission from that wizard or
    a keeper.

6.  If you change less than half the code of an object, keep the name of 
    the creator and add your own below.

7.  If you change more than half of the code of an object, put yourself in 
    as creator, but keep a credit to the original creator.

8.  Don't place objects that differ little from the original into the game.
    Every creation should be in some way unique.

9.  Don't import/export entire areas. Genesis should be a unique world.

10. If you make code that is not in balance with the game, is against the
    rules or contains bugs, the lord of your domain, an archwizard or a
    keeper may at any time change it. The same applies to code that has 
    to be changed due to changes in the surroundings.

11. Changes made by others should always be documented in the code, and
    normally be reported to the wizard in question.

12. Code that is left unattended for a long time may be turned over to an 
    other wizard by a keeper. Unattended code in a domain becomes common 
    domain property.

13. Keepers will only give permission to copy or distribute the code of a
    wizard if the wizard has been inaccessible for several weeks. The keeper
    will use his/her own judgement to determine if permission is warranted
    or not.

14. GIA owns the machine that Genesis runs on. The society reserves
    the right to do anything (that does not violate the the copyright
    notice) it finds suitable with any information stored in the
    computer, but will under normal circumstances refrain from such
    actions without the consent of the authors.

    The society is a democratic organization with bylaws, a board and
    regular meetings where decisions are made. The Genesis
    administrators, the board and the meetings are the only ones who
    can make decisions affecting Genesis. Individual members do not
    have the power to do so.  Neither do individual members have the
    right to distribute code without permission from the wizard in
    question.

