I'm surprised you got off so easily without being sweated for more information. Was this law enforcement, or just your ISP shutting you off for uploading too much crap?
I completely support ya, man. I took a look at Planeshift about a year ago in order to find another coding project to work on. Their concept seems good, although their execution upon close examination is downright shoddy. Their licensing arrangements and justifications for such are simply bullshit.
There is no reason why ownership rights of the artwork should be assigned to the project management - especially since this is supposed to be a free project. If they're so worried about artists leaving and screwing them, they should just do a contract for nonexclusive distribution rights.
'Ell, it wouldn't be terribly difficult to simply document the license of each piece of contributed art. Public Domain and Creative Commons work could be used by anyone, exclusive content could be licensed specifically for the project, etc. This approach would not only be fork-friendly, it would also help to prevent any legal fuckups.
Although securing ownership rights allows for the added benefit of (unlikely) legal defense of the artwork, it has the more nefarious use as leverage to prevent forks. Even though the code is GPL, any forks are forced to use completely new artwork. Lacking ownership rights, even the original artists cannot permit their own works to be used in a fork. Not cool.
As you noted, there is an air of pretension that comes off this project. Although I chose to have no interaction with the group, I reached the same conclusion when I evaluated their stuff. At the time, they did not even wish to release the server source, saying that non-official servers would dilute the quality of their work. WTF?
All things considered, their actions do not technically violate the GPL - but their attitude towards forks and their licensing schemes simply fly in the face of the spirit of open source.
Yo. Original AC here.
I completely support ya, man. I took a look at Planeshift about a year ago in order to find another coding project to work on. Their concept seems good, although their execution upon close examination is downright shoddy.
Their licensing arrangements and justifications for such are simply bullshit. There is no reason why ownership rights of the artwork should be assigned to the project management - especially since this is supposed to be a free project. If they're so worried about artists leaving and screwing them, they should just do a contract for nonexclusive distribution rights.
'Ell, it wouldn't be terribly difficult to simply document the license of each piece of contributed art. Public Domain and Creative Commons work could be used by anyone, exclusive content could be licensed specifically for the project, etc. This approach would not only be fork-friendly, it would also help to prevent any legal fuckups.
Although securing ownership rights allows for the added benefit of (unlikely) legal defense of the artwork, it has the more nefarious use as leverage to prevent forks. Even though the code is GPL, any forks are forced to use completely new artwork. Lacking ownership rights, even the original artists cannot permit their own works to be used in a fork. Not cool.
As you noted, there is an air of pretension that comes off this project. Although I chose to have no interaction with the group, I reached the same conclusion when I evaluated their stuff. At the time, they did not even wish to release the server source, saying that non-official servers would dilute the quality of their work. WTF?
All things considered, their actions do not technically violate the GPL - but their attitude towards forks and their licensing schemes simply fly in the face of the spirit of open source.
I've actually seen one of these things in use during after-Christmas returns season. We were standing in the excessively long line, an' this guy comes up to one of the clothing racks. He opens up his shopping bag lined with foil and duct tape, stuffs a sweater inside, and walks off through the security gate without setting it off. Clerk was busy, it was done at an oblique angle from the security cameras, and 5 minutes later he looks just like some regular bloke walkin' the mall.
All he'd have to do after that is pull the tags and trash them, and he could pick off any store he wanted.
This wouldn't be terribly hard to do on an automatic basis, as long as you had access to a good directory of torrents.
Just connect to each of the trackers in question, note which IPs have completed downloads of the shows you're interested in, and correlate this with your records of other trackers*.
Big Brother is here, but is this any worse than what we already have? We all may abhor a centralized depository of data run by the government, but can private sector databases truly do better?
Take the credit agencies for instances. Three of them, each only communicating a minor amount of information. Got a problem with your credit? Some possible fraud on your record? Just try getting a, non phone-tree, human representative to speak to you - without having to pony up the $10-$25 they want in order to send you a normal report, even though you're entitled to one in the case of fraud. I found it almost impossible.
Compare this to agencies like the SSA or FTC, which can put you in contact with an actual human to discuss the situation almost immediately. Sure, they may have some bloat and haven't cut costs to the bone, but at least they're responsive.
If we could get the same kinda service out of this centralized database, rather than the shadowy 'No Fly' lists being passed around...
...then I for one welcome our Airline Industry Overlords.
Big Brother is here, but is this any worse than what we already have? We all may abhor a centralized depository of data run by the government, but can private sector databases truly do better?
Take the credit agencies for instances. Three of them, each only communicating a minor amount of information. Got a problem with your credit? Some possible fraud on your record? Just try getting a, non phone-tree, human representative to speak to you - without having to pony up the $10-$25 they want in order to send you a normal report, even though you're entitled to one in the case of fraud. I found it almost impossible.
Compare this to agencies like the SSA or FTC, which can put you in contact with an actual human to discuss the situation almost immediately. Sure, they may have some bloat and haven't cut costs to the bone, but at least they're responsive.
If we could get the same kinda service out of this centralized database, rather than the shadowy 'No Fly' lists being passed around......then I for one welcome our Airline Industry Overlords.
Is it interesting how many times you shot 1337h4x0rg4m3r in the head, or is winning all that counts?
Headshots, nah. Crotch-shot counter? Oh yeah!
Nuttin' better than basking in the glory of the number of virtual 'men' you've removed from the gene pool courtesy of well-aimed sniper rounds to the balls.
The fact that the community does nothing to filter such poor examples and bring more promising examples to the forefront, is indicative of poor direction. There may be rotten apples in every barrel, but you certainly don't leave them lying around in plain sight on the top.
For dying genres such as this one, it is important to put your best efforts in front, to invite others to enjoy the rare fruits of near-forgotten arts. The Interactive Fiction community does this quite well, even if one doesn't care for their particular genre's style.
I'm sorry, but first impressions count. The first game I clicked through on this site was Harvest, in which the author has posted a very poorly designed page, on AOL for chrissake, asking for $15 for his game. WTF? I can get good games like Homeworld out of EB's bins for $5-10 now, and this pretentious wank wants $15 for his drivel when he can't even build a proper webpage?
So no, I don't feel obligated to pander to this particular dying game genre. These games may indeed have stunning little stories, but they reek of fan-fictionism. Some fan-fiction might be good, but in all honesty the majority of it is trash. So allowing an inferred connection between these games and fan-fiction is not helpful.
I understand that they might not be able to pull professional graphics out their hat, but without an objective standard that literally says 'This is crap', this little community is likely to drive away folks, like myself, who'd take one look at the poorest offerings and move on. The adventure game market is on its last legs, and without honest evaluations of its games, it might as well put a gun to its head.
Digging through the games listed on the site, I'm reminded of digging through the tras^H^H^H^H bargain/clearance been of CompUSA, of all the old games too old or too crappy to put on the shelves.
Now now, don't get me wrong here. I'm not tryin' to smear these guys - there's sometimes some good stuff in those bins. Some of these games look fairly decent, like the KQ2 remake. But sadly, others just look like the video game form of fan-fiction. Where's the 'sort by highest rating' option on this site, eh?
And here we were, expecting Google to deliver us the latest in free pr0n images and thumbnails, and it's been shafting us with old crap the entire time!
...MMORPGs like this just plain out scare me. Speaking as someone who's MUDded and MMOed for entirely too long of a time, I'd never let a kid in my care (not that there are any, but still) anywhere near an online multiplayer game. I've seen far too many chatroom flamewars, seen little 'girls' scream A/S/L, and done my share of trashtalk on games like Counterstrike.
To actively setup a game that's specifically targetting the young and impressionable demographic is just.. not right. Even to market it in Asia, home of the schoolgirl fetish. I'm fairly open-minded in my values, but this sorta thing just disturbs me.
Their TOS specifically prohibits harming minors, but it also has the standard corporate CYA legalese thrown in, probably 'just in case'. I wonder what degree of policing will these folks do on their servers? Or how much involvement will Asian parents have in their kids' use of the service?
It's ultimately the parent's responsibility for their children, of course, but services like these should be held to some sort of standard, should they not?
Slashdot Mirror
Who caught you, anyway?
I'm surprised you got off so easily without being sweated for more information. Was this law enforcement, or just your ISP shutting you off for uploading too much crap?
No kiddin'. Their art licensing terms are, excuse my American, bullshit.
Yo. Original AC here.
I completely support ya, man. I took a look at Planeshift about a year ago in order to find another coding project to work on. Their concept seems good, although their execution upon close examination is downright shoddy. Their licensing arrangements and justifications for such are simply bullshit.
There is no reason why ownership rights of the artwork should be assigned to the project management - especially since this is supposed to be a free project. If they're so worried about artists leaving and screwing them, they should just do a contract for nonexclusive distribution rights.
'Ell, it wouldn't be terribly difficult to simply document the license of each piece of contributed art. Public Domain and Creative Commons work could be used by anyone, exclusive content could be licensed specifically for the project, etc. This approach would not only be fork-friendly, it would also help to prevent any legal fuckups.
Although securing ownership rights allows for the added benefit of (unlikely) legal defense of the artwork, it has the more nefarious use as leverage to prevent forks. Even though the code is GPL, any forks are forced to use completely new artwork. Lacking ownership rights, even the original artists cannot permit their own works to be used in a fork. Not cool.
As you noted, there is an air of pretension that comes off this project. Although I chose to have no interaction with the group, I reached the same conclusion when I evaluated their stuff. At the time, they did not even wish to release the server source, saying that non-official servers would dilute the quality of their work. WTF?
All things considered, their actions do not technically violate the GPL - but their attitude towards forks and their licensing schemes simply fly in the face of the spirit of open source.
Yo. Original AC here. I completely support ya, man. I took a look at Planeshift about a year ago in order to find another coding project to work on. Their concept seems good, although their execution upon close examination is downright shoddy. Their licensing arrangements and justifications for such are simply bullshit. There is no reason why ownership rights of the artwork should be assigned to the project management - especially since this is supposed to be a free project. If they're so worried about artists leaving and screwing them, they should just do a contract for nonexclusive distribution rights. 'Ell, it wouldn't be terribly difficult to simply document the license of each piece of contributed art. Public Domain and Creative Commons work could be used by anyone, exclusive content could be licensed specifically for the project, etc. This approach would not only be fork-friendly, it would also help to prevent any legal fuckups. Although securing ownership rights allows for the added benefit of (unlikely) legal defense of the artwork, it has the more nefarious use as leverage to prevent forks. Even though the code is GPL, any forks are forced to use completely new artwork. Lacking ownership rights, even the original artists cannot permit their own works to be used in a fork. Not cool. As you noted, there is an air of pretension that comes off this project. Although I chose to have no interaction with the group, I reached the same conclusion when I evaluated their stuff. At the time, they did not even wish to release the server source, saying that non-official servers would dilute the quality of their work. WTF? All things considered, their actions do not technically violate the GPL - but their attitude towards forks and their licensing schemes simply fly in the face of the spirit of open source.
I've actually seen one of these things in use during after-Christmas returns season. We were standing in the excessively long line, an' this guy comes up to one of the clothing racks. He opens up his shopping bag lined with foil and duct tape, stuffs a sweater inside, and walks off through the security gate without setting it off. Clerk was busy, it was done at an oblique angle from the security cameras, and 5 minutes later he looks just like some regular bloke walkin' the mall.
All he'd have to do after that is pull the tags and trash them, and he could pick off any store he wanted.
This wouldn't be terribly hard to do on an automatic basis, as long as you had access to a good directory of torrents.
Just connect to each of the trackers in question, note which IPs have completed downloads of the shows you're interested in, and correlate this with your records of other trackers*.
* Mass lawsuit against your fans optional.
Oops! Fuck!
Good thing it's just paper...
I can just lie about my pr0^H^H^H Trek watching.
Or maybe just fuckup. The other post will get M2'd down to Redundant eventually.
They allow you to have toys in prison? (SFW)
Gah, HTML formatting. Repost.
...then I for one welcome our Airline Industry Overlords.
Big Brother is here, but is this any worse than what we already have? We all may abhor a centralized depository of data run by the government, but can private sector databases truly do better?
Take the credit agencies for instances. Three of them, each only communicating a minor amount of information. Got a problem with your credit? Some possible fraud on your record? Just try getting a, non phone-tree, human representative to speak to you - without having to pony up the $10-$25 they want in order to send you a normal report, even though you're entitled to one in the case of fraud. I found it almost impossible.
Compare this to agencies like the SSA or FTC, which can put you in contact with an actual human to discuss the situation almost immediately. Sure, they may have some bloat and haven't cut costs to the bone, but at least they're responsive.
If we could get the same kinda service out of this centralized database, rather than the shadowy 'No Fly' lists being passed around...
Big Brother is here, but is this any worse than what we already have? We all may abhor a centralized depository of data run by the government, but can private sector databases truly do better? Take the credit agencies for instances. Three of them, each only communicating a minor amount of information. Got a problem with your credit? Some possible fraud on your record? Just try getting a, non phone-tree, human representative to speak to you - without having to pony up the $10-$25 they want in order to send you a normal report, even though you're entitled to one in the case of fraud. I found it almost impossible. Compare this to agencies like the SSA or FTC, which can put you in contact with an actual human to discuss the situation almost immediately. Sure, they may have some bloat and haven't cut costs to the bone, but at least they're responsive. If we could get the same kinda service out of this centralized database, rather than the shadowy 'No Fly' lists being passed around... ...then I for one welcome our Airline Industry Overlords.
Boo fucking hoo.
Naturalist marketing? Or maybe just naturally skank?
Metal Gear Solid 4: The Search for More Money!
Niiiice. Maybe put in a redirect to one of the fed prison sites in the meantime? The BOP perhaps?
No.
The fact that the community does nothing to filter such poor examples and bring more promising examples to the forefront, is indicative of poor direction. There may be rotten apples in every barrel, but you certainly don't leave them lying around in plain sight on the top.
For dying genres such as this one, it is important to put your best efforts in front, to invite others to enjoy the rare fruits of near-forgotten arts. The Interactive Fiction community does this quite well, even if one doesn't care for their particular genre's style.
I'm sorry, but first impressions count. The first game I clicked through on this site was Harvest, in which the author has posted a very poorly designed page, on AOL for chrissake, asking for $15 for his game. WTF? I can get good games like Homeworld out of EB's bins for $5-10 now, and this pretentious wank wants $15 for his drivel when he can't even build a proper webpage?
So no, I don't feel obligated to pander to this particular dying game genre. These games may indeed have stunning little stories, but they reek of fan-fictionism. Some fan-fiction might be good, but in all honesty the majority of it is trash. So allowing an inferred connection between these games and fan-fiction is not helpful.
I understand that they might not be able to pull professional graphics out their hat, but without an objective standard that literally says 'This is crap', this little community is likely to drive away folks, like myself, who'd take one look at the poorest offerings and move on. The adventure game market is on its last legs, and without honest evaluations of its games, it might as well put a gun to its head.
Digging through the games listed on the site, I'm reminded of digging through the tras^H^H^H^H bargain/clearance been of CompUSA, of all the old games too old or too crappy to put on the shelves.
Now now, don't get me wrong here. I'm not tryin' to smear these guys - there's sometimes some good stuff in those bins. Some of these games look fairly decent, like the KQ2 remake. But sadly, others just look like the video game form of fan-fiction. Where's the 'sort by highest rating' option on this site, eh?
And here we were, expecting Google to deliver us the latest in free pr0n images and thumbnails, and it's been shafting us with old crap the entire time!
Yeah. And we all know how No.2 Pencils are secure against that evil terrorist weapon - the Eraser.
Gah, formatting. Hello Preview Button!
...MMORPGs like this just plain out scare me. Speaking as someone who's MUDded and MMOed for entirely too long of a time, I'd never let a kid in my care (not that there are any, but still) anywhere near an online multiplayer game. I've seen far too many chatroom flamewars, seen little 'girls' scream A/S/L, and done my share of trashtalk on games like Counterstrike.
To actively setup a game that's specifically targetting the young and impressionable demographic is just.. not right. Even to market it in Asia, home of the schoolgirl fetish. I'm fairly open-minded in my values, but this sorta thing just disturbs me.
Their TOS specifically prohibits harming minors, but it also has the standard corporate CYA legalese thrown in, probably 'just in case'. I wonder what degree of policing will these folks do on their servers? Or how much involvement will Asian parents have in their kids' use of the service?
It's ultimately the parent's responsibility for their children, of course, but services like these should be held to some sort of standard, should they not?