The Ur-Quan Masters Home Page Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
Did you miss your activation email?
October 07, 2024, 06:47:01 pm
Home Help Search Login Register
News: Celebrating 30 years of Star Control 2 - The Ur-Quan Masters

+  The Ur-Quan Masters Discussion Forum
|-+  The Ur-Quan Masters Re-Release
| |-+  Technical Issues (Moderator: Death 999)
| | |-+  Original SCII Source		 « previous next »
Pages: [1] Print
Author Topic: Original SCII Source  (Read 3069 times)
Bonus Mop
Zebranky food
*
Offline Offline

Posts: 2



View Profile
Original SCII Source
« on: June 09, 2008, 06:38:06 am »
Is the original SCII source/media still available (if I sync to the first submitted change perhaps) in the public domain?  I'd like to take a look and possibly attempt a port to .NET.  While I would prefer to start with the latest UQM code, I'm not able to play with anything under GPL according to my employment contract.  Public domain should be safe.
Logged
meep-eep
Forum Admin
Enlightened
*****
Offline Offline

Posts: 2847



View Profile
Re: Original SCII Source
« Reply #1 on: June 09, 2008, 08:28:12 am »
The code has been released by TFB under the GPL. There is no version which is in the public domain.
Logged
“When Juffo-Wup is complete
when at last there is no Void, no Non
when the Creators return
then we can finally rest.”
Bonus Mop
Zebranky food
*
Offline Offline

Posts: 2



View Profile
Re: Original SCII Source
« Reply #2 on: June 10, 2008, 07:13:04 am »
Crazy, I could have sworn I'd read that on the sourceforge page for years now.  Google probably explains my confusion: "These terms only appear in links pointing to this page: public domain."  And a quick search shows that many of these sites are confusing "open source" with "public domain".

Oh well, thanks for the quick answer!
Logged
countchocula86
*Smell* controller
****
Offline Offline

Gender: Male
Posts: 345


Culture 20!


View Profile
Re: Original SCII Source
« Reply #3 on: June 15, 2008, 08:29:45 pm »
Out of curiousity, may I ask why your contract prevents you from playing with GPL? I mean, Im assuming you want to tinker around for your own private fun?
Logged
I like to think you killed a man. It's the romantic in me.
Novus
Enlightened
*****
Offline Offline

Gender: Male
Posts: 1938


Fot or not?


View Profile
Re: Original SCII Source
« Reply #4 on: June 15, 2008, 08:48:08 pm »
Quote from: countchocula86 on June 15, 2008, 08:29:45 pm
Out of curiousity, may I ask why your contract prevents you from playing with GPL? I mean, Im assuming you want to tinker around for your own private fun?
He probably has an "all your code are belong to us" clause somewhere in there that would require him to turn over all the rights for what he's working on to his employer. This doesn't work very well in a situation where he's bound by GPL and has to give his employer rights he doesn't have. The contract may even explicitly forbid GPL code for this reason (I've seen Microsoft do this, for example). Whether the employer or employee owns the code the employee does in his spare time depends on the contract and local law, though.

In any case, asking your employer for permission to work on UQM is a good idea; that way they can either allow you to keep what you write for UQM or license what you do under GPL and retain copyright.
Logged
RTFM = Read the fine manual.
RTTFAQ = Read the Ur-Quan Masters Technical FAQ.
Death 999
Global Moderator
Enlightened
*****
Offline Offline

Gender: Male
Posts: 3874


We did. You did. Yes we can. No.


View Profile
Re: Original SCII Source
« Reply #5 on: June 16, 2008, 07:09:25 pm »
A contract can demand rights on code you work on your own time?

That's ridiculous.
Logged
Novus
Enlightened
*****
Offline Offline

Gender: Male
Posts: 1938


Fot or not?


View Profile
Re: Original SCII Source
« Reply #6 on: June 16, 2008, 07:34:49 pm »
Quote from: Death 999 on June 16, 2008, 07:09:25 pm
A contract can demand rights on code you work on your own time?

That's ridiculous.
Ridiculous, but apparently a real problem in some places. The GPL actually states (in its "How to Apply These Terms to Your New Programs" section):
Quote from: FSF: GPL
You should also get your employer (if you work as a programmer) or your
school, if any, to sign a "copyright disclaimer" for the program, if
necessary.  Here is a sample; alter the names:

  Yoyodyne, Inc., hereby disclaims all copyright interest in the program
  `Gnomovision' (which makes passes at compilers) written by James Hacker.

  <signature of Ty Coon>, 1 April 1989
  Ty Coon, President of Vice
Logged
RTFM = Read the fine manual.
RTTFAQ = Read the Ur-Quan Masters Technical FAQ.
Pages: [1] Print 
« previous next »
Jump to:  


Login with username, password and session length

Powered by MySQL Powered by PHP Powered by SMF 1.1.21 | SMF © 2015, Simple Machines Valid XHTML 1.0! Valid CSS!