Spring is the engine, and it just so happens that OTA units plug into the Spring engine?
I propose an "official" naming system below. Of course, that wouldnt stop people from actually referring to it as OTA spring or XTA-Spring or UT2k4 Spring or whatever.
For example, the first version of the Spring engine released by the SYs would be
SY.Spring1.0
Second version of the engine:
SY.Spring2.0
First version of the engine with OTA + 3.1 + CC + BT units:
[OTAFULL]SY.Spring1.0
First version of the engine with Final Frontier v7.0:
[FF7.0]SY.Spring1.0
First version of a modified engine made by a seperate (fictional) group called GameHackers with OTA units plugged in:
[OTAFULL]GH.Spring1.0
etc etc
IMHO, the guideline should be established now, so people can make the distinction between any number of things that Spring could potentially become. It sounds inane, but could turn out to be very important.
Spring is an engine, right?
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[K.B.] Napalm Cobra
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sparkyhodgo
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If Spring is released I fully believe it has the potential to become as popular a fan-made project as Counterstrike. I can definitely see it spreading like wildfire among OTA fans, internet geeks, and then the general public.
And of course as it gains popularity, it will also garner corporate attention-- From Atari, who ownes Infogrames/Humongous/Cavedog. I imagine Atari will have some questions about the use of OTA music and units in Spring. How do we avoid these issues short of renaming/remodeling every unit and composing our own music?
And of course as it gains popularity, it will also garner corporate attention-- From Atari, who ownes Infogrames/Humongous/Cavedog. I imagine Atari will have some questions about the use of OTA music and units in Spring. How do we avoid these issues short of renaming/remodeling every unit and composing our own music?
Very simply... you don't.
So far as I am aware, the SY's have always intended to release Spring sans all of TA's content. That means (in theory, at least) that you'd have to own a legally-purchased copy of OTA, or download a 3rd-party unitpack... to get any use out've Spring.
Barring Atari granting the SY's the legal rights to distribute Atari's intellectual property (i.e., to include TA's units, etc.)... Spring would get shut down very, very quickly if the SY's passed out OTA units, music... or anything else that doesn't belong to them.
If you're here because you think you're going to get a free game... well, the good news is that you can. There are 3rd-party TCs out there that make no use of TA's original code, units, sounds, graphics or other IP. I think.
Atari has been very relaxed, overall, with the way that TA's modding groups have... ah... bent and broken the rules over the last few years. For example, it's totally illegal to distribute the contents of the Core Continuum- but many TA websites mirror those files.
This doesn't mean that Atari doesn't care... and nobody here should ever forget that. While Atari wasn't Cavedog's original publisher... that's not really relevant. That Atari isn't making much money off of TA isn't relevant, either. That it'd be "unfair" if Spring got shut down if it engaged in piracy... is not relevant either. IP law (at least here in the US, where Atari is registered) is pretty black-and-white: if a company doesn't defend its trademarked goods... its entire trademark is questionable. And that, folks, is why US companies are so determined about stopping piracy, or at least the most visible and blatant piracy. They know that they can't stop it all... but blatant and open piracy is a direct threat to their existence, because of the quirky way that the law works here.
I have a feeling that so long as the SY's neither host any content they don't own, and are nice about crediting Cavedog's original game designers for inspiring them to make Spring, and aren't selling it... they'll probably get left alone. I doubt if Atari sells all that many copies of TA a year at this point, even though they do keep it in print. And if Spring requires TA's core files (which it almost certainly will, for everything but the most complete TC mods), it may actually increase sales of this relatively ancient game.
So far as I am aware, the SY's have always intended to release Spring sans all of TA's content. That means (in theory, at least) that you'd have to own a legally-purchased copy of OTA, or download a 3rd-party unitpack... to get any use out've Spring.
Barring Atari granting the SY's the legal rights to distribute Atari's intellectual property (i.e., to include TA's units, etc.)... Spring would get shut down very, very quickly if the SY's passed out OTA units, music... or anything else that doesn't belong to them.
If you're here because you think you're going to get a free game... well, the good news is that you can. There are 3rd-party TCs out there that make no use of TA's original code, units, sounds, graphics or other IP. I think.
Atari has been very relaxed, overall, with the way that TA's modding groups have... ah... bent and broken the rules over the last few years. For example, it's totally illegal to distribute the contents of the Core Continuum- but many TA websites mirror those files.
This doesn't mean that Atari doesn't care... and nobody here should ever forget that. While Atari wasn't Cavedog's original publisher... that's not really relevant. That Atari isn't making much money off of TA isn't relevant, either. That it'd be "unfair" if Spring got shut down if it engaged in piracy... is not relevant either. IP law (at least here in the US, where Atari is registered) is pretty black-and-white: if a company doesn't defend its trademarked goods... its entire trademark is questionable. And that, folks, is why US companies are so determined about stopping piracy, or at least the most visible and blatant piracy. They know that they can't stop it all... but blatant and open piracy is a direct threat to their existence, because of the quirky way that the law works here.
I have a feeling that so long as the SY's neither host any content they don't own, and are nice about crediting Cavedog's original game designers for inspiring them to make Spring, and aren't selling it... they'll probably get left alone. I doubt if Atari sells all that many copies of TA a year at this point, even though they do keep it in print. And if Spring requires TA's core files (which it almost certainly will, for everything but the most complete TC mods), it may actually increase sales of this relatively ancient game.
What about other games beign ported to spring and their original game makers? Some sort of notice or addition to Springs liscence should be made to make clear this sort of thing maybe then fi anyone does try to file action the SY's can just say, it says here we're not responsible for mods and content in the EULA
