Spring domain guidelines

[Tim Blokdijk]

There are some agreements between me and Tobi about how the Spring domains can be used. These might not have been communicated that well to the relevant people so I'm going to write down a few guidelines to prevent problems in the future.

The most important is that springrts.com, .org & net can only host stuff that's legally sound. This is because I don't like to implement a "cease and desist" order. Also as the domains are registered under my name I'm personally responsible for legality of the content distributed.

The other agreement is that the domains are to be used primarily for open source game development. That's not excluding other things but the focus should be around that topic.

And it's our intention to have the source and data available for each service we host under the domains. This is important so that we can maintain a service when the developer quits. Nothing should have a "bus factor" of one.

At this moment I'm not that happy with the files sub-domain as not everything is clearly legal. Can somebody (preferably the one that set it up) look into this?

[koshi]

Nothing should have a "bus factor" of one.

The registered domain has, yes?

[Satirik]

but you're just the owner of the domain not the host right ?

[Regret]

There are some agreements between me and Tobi about how the Spring domains can be used. These might not have been communicated that well to the relevant people so I'm going to write down a few guidelines to prevent problems in the future.

The most important is that springrts.com, .org & net can only host stuff that's legally sound. This is because I don't like to implement a "cease and desist" order. Also as the domains are registered under my name I'm personally responsible for legality of the content distributed.

The other agreement is that the domains are to be used primarily for open source game development. That's not excluding other things but the focus should be around that topic.

And it's our intention to have the source and data available for each service we host under the domains. This is important so that we can maintain a service when the developer quits. Nothing should have a "bus factor" of one.

At this moment I'm not that happy with the files sub-domain as not everything is clearly legal. Can somebody (preferably the one that set it up) look into this?

Domain owner is not liable for server content when he doesn't own said server. Next.

[lurker]

It's not exactly a hassle to put the files site on a different domain like planet-wars.eu, but it's kind of odd.

[Neddie]

There are some agreements between me and Tobi about how the Spring domains can be used. These might not have been communicated that well to the relevant people so I'm going to write down a few guidelines to prevent problems in the future.

The most important is that springrts.com, .org & net can only host stuff that's legally sound. This is because I don't like to implement a "cease and desist" order. Also as the domains are registered under my name I'm personally responsible for legality of the content distributed.

The other agreement is that the domains are to be used primarily for open source game development. That's not excluding other things but the focus should be around that topic.

And it's our intention to have the source and data available for each service we host under the domains. This is important so that we can maintain a service when the developer quits. Nothing should have a "bus factor" of one.

At this moment I'm not that happy with the files sub-domain as not everything is clearly legal. Can somebody (preferably the one that set it up) look into this?

Domain owner is not liable for server content when he doesn't own said server. Next.

Check local laws, they vary.

And we should not be hosting illegal content anyway.

[Tim Blokdijk]

Nothing should have a "bus factor" of one.

The registered domain has, yes?

I have an agreement with Tobi to transfer the domains to a spring foundation if we set one up at some point. Or transfer the domains to Tobi with the "gentleman agreement" to use the domains primarily for open source game development.
I'm still looking for a way to allow others to edit the dns records without also giving them the ability to make new domain purchases in my name. This probably requires me to request a new customer account with my hosting provider and transfer the domains to this new account.

I know, I'm an ass-hole to drop "guidelines" like this in the community without first discussing this with all people involved. (just Tobi) But hey, no need to be friends. My time is limited and if there are resalable reasons to deviate from these guidelines then do so.
The thing with copyrights is that it's the law. So just keep people happy and put one or two hops between the ta content and the spring project.

And about the domain owner being liable, inal but they do use the (correct in my case) address info from the whois database to send "cease and desist" letters.

[Auswaschbar]

I know, I'm an ass-hole to drop "guidelines" like this in the community without first discussing this with all people involved.

Actually, those "guidelines" are obvious, it shouldn't even be necessary to drop them in".

[AF]

If people had followed what I said, we would have a TA community on a seperate site twice the size of the current Spring *A community.

Meanwhile this site and the engine are free of the shackles of Atari IP and the thread of legal action, resulting in the project suddenly becoming an attractive showcase of opensource talent rather than a white elephant to be ignored and avoided. Numerous places have refused to review games built under spring, or advertise or talk about this engine because of the shadow of Atari.

Move TA talk and hosting off to a side site, don't kill it off, but don't put it on the official site, and dont lend official weight or support to it.

[Licho]

Hosting is registered on me I recommend you just transfer domain too if you are worried.

I dont mind hosting files like BA on springrts.com but if you are worried it will be on another domain on same server (planet-wars.eu for example)

Transferring domain or at least setting nameservers to something we can control would be handy anyway.

For example atm i cannot move modelbase to springrts.com domain, because i cannot create separate entry modelbase.springrts.com in DNS.

[Tim Blokdijk]

Anyone with a root account on the server can add sub-domains. Currently the domains are configured like this:

Code: Select all

Name             Type   Content        Ttl
*.springrts.com  CNAME  springrts.com  86400
springrts.com    A      94.23.170.70   14400
*.springrts.org  CNAME  springrts.org  86400
springrts.org    A      94.23.170.70   14400

I intend to set up springrts.net in the same way.

Well let me be clear, I know nothing about some planet wars domain, if they distribute ta content then they must have worked out something with Atari. That's quite possible. But we "the spring project" have no such agreement with Atari. Still I hope those planet wars people have a blast working with the ta franchise, I played ta for many years and really love that game. Who knowns maybe some hobbyist will port that content over to our engine, would love to see that!

[AF]

Anyone with a root account on the server can add sub-domains. Currently the domains are configured like this:

Code: Select all

Name             Type   Content        Ttl
*.springrts.com  CNAME  springrts.com  86400
springrts.com    A      94.23.170.70   14400
*.springrts.org  CNAME  springrts.org  86400
springrts.org    A      94.23.170.70   14400

I intend to set up springrts.net in the same way.

Well let me be clear, I know nothing about some planet wars domain, if they distribute ta content then they must have worked out something with Atari. That's quite possible. But we "the spring project" have no such agreement with Atari. Still I hope those planet wars people have a blast working with the ta franchise, I played ta for many years and really love that game. Who knowns maybe some hobbyist will port that content over to our engine, would love to see that!

Nobody has an agreement with Atari, in fact it is a task in of itself to get Atari to even reply, let alone admit they have the IP.

[aegis]

annnd af completely misses the point

[AF]

annnd af completely misses the point

clarifyingly clarifying clarification is clarifying

[Licho]

No Tim, we cannot add subdomains TO ANOTHER IP!

Thats why I want control over domain to be transferred to someone more close to current admins or nameservers to be set to current springrts.com machine so that we can add subdomains leading to new IP.

[Tobi]

Can't we just do 'e-mail Tim with requests for subdomains'? (If Tim agrees with it.)

Seems easiest and it's not like he's slow with reacting anyway.

Also we need to put down a policy to use for when handing out subdomains. Will it be purely first come first serve, or something more fancy?

[Tim Blokdijk]

The policy I'm following now is that if someone needs me to alter the dns records I include you (that's Tobi) in the loop. If Tobi agree's I alter the records. But I'm also fine with following a more fancy policy if we define one.

If this is a really pressing issue I can look into giving Tobi direct access to the dns edit system. But as I written before, that means I have to request a new account and transfer the domains to this new account. Takes a day to communicate this with my registrar and to make sure nothing gets fucked up in the process. (as dns records getting reset or something stupid like that)

[Licho]

Why dont you just edit NS records to point to springrts then? We can just run bind there.

[Tobi]

Why?

Is it really necessary to be able to create/delete/modify domains without anyone knowing for everyone with root on server?

Is it really necessary to be able to create/delete/modify domains faster then with a few days delay? It's not like you are planning to create 100s of new domains every day, right?


Anyway drop me an e-mail if you want a subdomain. It's first come first serve; it must be sufficiently Spring focused; working site must be live before subdomain is assigned.

[Licho]

Well I do plan like 5 of them.

And think about it the other way around.. is it good idea to have single person responsible for whole springrts.com domain? Person who is not active (havent seen in around) and is not in general contact with server admins/moderators.

He can die at any moment.