[MUD-Dev] Copyright Question for the Hobbyists

[Patrick Dughi]

On Wed, 30 Aug 2000, Kristen L. Koster wrote:

> How do you handle the issue of copyright ownership on contributions made to
> your hobbyist game? I'm thinking specifically area files and code as well as
> web and other documentation content here by unpaid staff.
> 
> 3) Contributors are volunteer employees of the game, as such the game
> "entity" maintains the copyright on the work done.
> 
> This seems to make the most sense to me. It provides for the least
> disruption of and the most stability in the continuity and structure of the
> game in the case of someone throwing a tantrum and wanting to take their
> toys and go home. 

	In my experience as a player, admin, builder and coder for several
muds, this is the only system I've seen.  In many cases, builders are
allowed to have a copy of the files that make up their zone.  In some
cases, I've made pseduo-zone files since the system they were generated
under was too unique to be usable in it's natural form.  As for code, it's
a bit more hairy.  Some admins don't even allow people to do anything but
submit code patches to them for integration.  Of course, these are
generally regarded as asses, but they do have a point - it's easy to rip
off a hobby mud, and it's done alot.  Most new mud owners start out by
trying to make their mud exactly like the mud they played, and then making
it better from there.  Though, that isn't what they tell themselves.
Really, they're 100% unique and original.  Right. *eye wink*.

	My favorite technique is to write some simple "Am I on the machine
I am supposed to be on" function, put it in many of the more important,
and large and rarely changed functions, and take all those and write them
into a dynamic library.  Then I crypt the source away and try not to
change it too often.  Considering that I've actually been with muds which
were stolen by the actual machine administrator, and it's difficult to
protect your source code from root.

	Sadly enough, you actually have to do that.
> 
> Are there any precedents out there? How do you handle these issues? Are they
> real issues?

	Legal? Not that I know of.  There have been some bitter flame
wars, and people quitting and taking a percent of the mud playerbase with
them.  Sometimes, this can get downright nasty.  We've had to deal with
ex-admin come back and scream when they find out that their old character
had been made into a killable monster or some other game fixture (I bet
the greeks never had to deal with gods 'quitting' heh.).  They claimed
that the name, etc was theirs and that they wanted it removed.  

	Of course, the game had a vested interest in this character and
his derived works.  Literally, the game would be fundamentally changed (if
only in some small sense) if it was removed.  So we nixed the suggestion.
Said something about aquiring a staff position had an official
agreement where you agreed to produce for the mud on a volunteer basis,
and anything done in that context was property of the mud owner, by way of
the mud.

	In the end though, the players sign no contracts, and neither do
the admin.  Any percieved rights are simply that - percieved.  The admin
allows players to have specific rights, and the players, for the most part
never question the rights they're given.  In truth, the admin could close
the mud and leave - players don't even have the god-given right to _play_.
I've seen this stated before in a phrase like "No guarentees, express or
implied are assured for this merchandise."

	Perhaps this is different for games which require a contract (like
pay-for-play games).

							PjD




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