Site Copyright Policy

I've written this page as a description of my copyright policy. I hope it's reasonably friendly and intuitive.

Scope

These rules apply to nearly every file on this site. That's everything whose URL starts with

http://geocities.datacellar.net/Athens/Troy/5799/

http://geocities.datacellar.net/davidbofinger/

(which is actually the same place). All of it should be accessible from my home page, but of course I also have links to pages off my site where these rules don't apply. I think there are only two current exceptions, but that could change faster than I keep this page up to date.

General Rule

The files are distributed in what I perceive to be the spirit of the Free Software Foundation's General Public License.

But...

The letter of this license requires me to do lots of things I haven't bothered to do, such as distribute copies of the licensing document, which is why I talk about its spirit.

So ...

Basically, what I ask is that you acknowledge me as the author, give it to anyone who asks for it, and don't try to make money out of it without my permission. How all this interacts with, say, Avalon Hill's copyright on Empires in Arms is too hard for my limited legal skills, and probably depends on where you live.

Hijacks

By no means is everything on this site finished, or about to be. Some of it is intended to provoke comment and interest. If you want to have a go at finishing something I've started, or extending it into an area I didn't address, then drop me a line.

Relics

Nearly all of these files are either HTML or plain text wrapped in HTML. Some of them had ancestors which were written in LaTeX, which in practice was always seen as postscript since few people really wanted to run LaTeX on the raw code. I've had to abandon the format because too many people said they were having trouble reading it. Which is a pity in a way, because the earlier ones looked more stylish, as only LaTeX does. But these versions are the canonical ones. Their prototypes have become casualties of the internet's explosive growth into non-UNIX platforms.

Please Kill My Ancestors

I would add one request that arguably isn't in the spirit of GNU. I'm trying to purge the world of old copies of these files. It's irritating for prospective players to find that the version they have invested time in reading includes a dozen known bugs. So if you have old copies of this file (for instance, the LaTeX or postscript versions) or even current versions, please don't put them up for distribution. Instead, put up a link to the relevant page, which I'll do my best to keep up to date.

I Can Be Bought

Nothing in this document or on this site should be taken to mean that I am giving up my right to some day use this material (or, more realistically, future developed versions) for commercial purposes. I really can't see it happening, but I guess you never know.

A Few Exceptions

The only current exceptions (I think) are

The reason these are excepted is that they aren't all (or even mostly) my own work.

For these works (and anything else that isn't all my own work) the rules are as follows.

For any part of the work that's all mine, the rules above apply.
For any part of the work that's all someone else's, ask the author.
For any part of the work that's a mix of mine and theirs, use the harsher of the two above.

Some works on this site credit others for ideas and comments, I don't imagine these constitute a claim to copyright by those contributors, but what do I know.

Please send feedback to the author, David Bofinger. Other material can be found on my home page.

This page is hosted by GeoCities, in return for carrying their advertising they will give you a free home page much like mine. Everything on this site varies without notice, especially after I get feedback.