Ok, lets set some ground rules...

[Forboding Angel]

This whole little bullshit about gpl'ing stuff in spring has me quite pissed off, so lets get a few things straight.


ANYTHING you include in a map is FAIR GAME for other mappers. Credit needs to be given to the original creator. Heightmaps should not be copied (and I doubt we'll ever have a problem with this).

Look, I have now over 50 maps for spring. Any thing I have included in them may be used by other mappers, however, please give credit to the original authors (Like for example, features made by LathanStanley and Smoth).

This goes for skyboxes as well. But give credit. I WILL NOT have this bullshit flying around among mapper about "STEALING" other peoples work. No, noone stole it, they USED it because is was obviously suitable for their needs. Credit should be given however, so simply mention it and the offending mapper will make the necessary alterations. No need to turn it into a huge deal.

I have spent GOBS of time producing shit FOR FREE, and I will NOT have someone in our mapping community accusing other mappers of stealing. Yes, credit should be given, BUT IF CREDIT WAS NOT GIVEN, THEN SIMPLY FUCKING ASK FOR IT TO BE GIVEN AND IT WILL HAPPEN! DO NOT ACCUSE FELLOW MAPPERS OF STEALING! That is weak and full of fail. All you have to do is simply ask for credit to be given, it will happen, or the rest of us mappers will gangrape the offender if he chooses not to give credit after being notified.

If you're mapping simply to increase your E-Penis size, then get the hell out. I fucking hate attention whores, and attention whoring has no place in spring mapping. Well, it won't as long as I'm around anyway.

Look, if people don't care for one of your maps, don't get mad about it, come out with something better next time! Just keep improving! With all my maps do you honestly think everyone likes all of them? Heh, very doubtful. I simply try to please as large of an audience as possible (which ends up backfiring a lot lol).

Thank you for taking the time to read this. I realize I posted it with some sort of vehemance(sp?), but I want us to get along, and I really do not want bullshit flying around for no good reason.

[LathanStanley]

+1

Use em and abuse em

hell, you can change my stuff too, you don't have to just "copy" it, modifiy it too! I encourage it

alas, just don't claim it, or I'll eat your babies!

[smoth]

people use my stuff like africa has aids and I don't mind them spaming my features.

[mufdvr222]

I only saw that other topic today,, FA is dead right, anything in the .smd is fair game, shit I copy colour "numbers" all the time and am not about to stop now I also see this business of trying to ascert copyright over content one creates as appauling and not in the spirit of any gaming community, in short, share with others or piss off. :idea:

[SwiftSpear]

I agree in principle, but strictly speaking since you're creating content without license the content is falling under general copy rights, which means the author can keep claim to ANY part of the content they generated, be it height maps, texture maps, skyboxes, SMD settings, anything, and be within their legal rights to refuse other mappers the right to use this content in any way.

Copy rights are the default for a reason. If you want to licence under something more open, for instance the licensing model forb is describing here, include the licensing information in a readme accessible in the map source. Hell, just have a link that points to this thread and that's good enough, but if you do not the content is under copyright and using another mappers content you run the ever so unlikely risk that they may actually want to take legal action against you.

As for actual SMD figures, you can't copy right them because they are public domain content belonging to the spring code system, but an actual given SMD document is fair game for copy right.

[NOiZE]

well i didn't read it very much


But so far as i care, any1 may use anything i made for free, as long you don't make money with it

[Quanto042]

well i didn't read it very much


But so far as i care, any1 may use anything i made for free, as long you don't make money with it

the whole "use freely, so long as u don't profit from my work" is basically what GPL is founded on, technically giving credit isn't even a requirement, though a lot of use choose to give credit as a simple "professional courtesy" so to speak.

At least thats how i go about things. tbh, i don't even care if ppl give me credit for stuff or not (not that i've done much recently, but meh) so long as they don't profit from it i'm not bothered.

[aGorm]

Just a thought... whilest everyting is "Fair Game" can we stress on the "fair" part? Like... It would be unfair to release a map 1 day after someone else does using the features they say just spent a month making, unless you asked them. Not saying you HAVE to, just can we agree that this is teh sort of commen curtasy that we'd like to see? Cause otherwise it would be pretty suxy for the person who put in the time.

aGorm

[Forboding Angel]

Just a thought... whilest everyting is "Fair Game" can we stress on the "fair" part? Like... It would be unfair to release a map 1 day after someone else does using the features they say just spent a month making, unless you asked them. Not saying you HAVE to, just can we agree that this is teh sort of commen curtasy that we'd like to see? Cause otherwise it would be pretty suxy for the person who put in the time.

aGorm

Depends on the feature maker. Lathan for example always wants me to make a map when he's doing features to release simultaneously. For example, Severnaya and Industrial mountain. They were released at the Exact same time. Course, on the other hand, I would tend to agree with you in principle. I myself would wait a week (sometimes good maps need time to take off). But on the other hand not only do I have a close working relationship with smoth and lathan, I'm generally the one that asked them to make those features for me in the first place.

Lathan originally wanted me to release a swamp map along with black lake swamp, which I was going to do, but after seeing screenshots of what he was doing, I decided that it would be best to let it be all about him. After all, he was the one making the features in the first place, and he has an eye for detail that even I have trouble competing with.

IMO it all comes down to respect. If someone releases a map with new features, generally it's a good idea to wait X period of time before using them (On the other hand this is coming from a guy that does not use features unless they were made by Smoth or Lathan).

Anything else is going to be fair game, with the exception of heightmaps. Honestly I think we can all agree that no one here is going to use another's heightmaps. That's pretty much and unspoken rule and would basically net excommunication from the mapping community as a whole, due to the fact that that is extremely bad behavior, and lame to boot.

Skyboxes (a note to the unlearned, SMD skies are NOT skyboxes), imo are fine to use if two of these conditions are met (if possible. If the original author can no longer be contacted then use your own discretion):

A: Map has been around for a long time

or

B: Express permission has been given

or

C: Complete and total credit for skybox is given to the original creator.

For example, in my maps Full moon and Battle for Moon XO, I used IceXuick's skybox from Moon Q20. I don't think anyone here will have any trouble agreeing with the fact that Ice is an uncannily talented artist, and these maps met both conditions A and C.

I think that lays it out quite nicely.

[SwiftSpear]

You got express permission IIRC... perhaps it was after the map release, but he definitely indicated that he was fine with the sky boxes being used.

[aGorm]

Well, I was more worried that my features that I'm making for my current map will be nicked within 5 mins of me uploading and then teh next day find everyones playing this other version of my map with my features just because it being made afterwards means it apears higher in lists, thus displaceing hours of work... If taht makes sense

Of course I dont mind them being used After I've used them and purswaeded atleast say 5 people to download my map... then its fine. And that doesn't stop peopel Working with the features and getting there maps right, just... you know... be nice and dont ruin my map with your own basicly. Hope tahts coming over in teh corect light...

(PS all thsi moddeling is harder than it looks, I mean its taken 5 hours to do 1 feature... and I need about 30 of the dam things.)

aGorm

[hrmph]

Personally I don't care if anyone re-uses anything from any of my maps. The only thing that annoys me is when someone uses something and gives zero recognition (even with A or B they should still give credit IMO). Aside from that, its all good.