Genesis is and has always been completely non-profit, and is created and run by its players. It is and will always be free for anyone to play, and also free for anyone to apply to become a developer. However all this freedom also comes with responsibility. The follow text contains information about what to expect in regards to the code you write if you decide to become a developer for Genesis.
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 if you take someone else's code without
permission and put it up somewhere else you can be thrown out from 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 that 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 player's 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 effect 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 organization, 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
another 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 judgment 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 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.