Area usage rights has been a bone of contention between mud owners and builders for a long time. This issue is further aggravated when the builders and owners part on bad terms. This thread is an attempt for administrators and builders to draft a clear usage statement. All mud owners would benefit from having usage statement that is freely available to builders. Builders who work on a mud without one, would benefit by submitting one before working.
Here are the initial points that I wish to raise:
1. When a builder submits an area to a mud, they are giving the owner permission to use that area for that mud only.
a. Publication rights are given to a mud, not a person. The owner cannot use it on any other mud without seeking additional permission from the builder.
b. The builder may not request removal from the mud that the area was given permission for unless the owner of the mud has violated any of the usage clauses. Violations include:
(list violations as clearly as possible, below is an example based on this post)
i. Removal of area credits from any area without permission from the builder.
ii. Using the area on any other mud without further permission from the builder.
iii. Distributing the area to any another mud without further permission from the builder.
iv. Making the area publicly available for download without further permission from the builder.
(Choose one of the twos, the first one is most common, the second would be for muds that wish to have a unique world)
2. As the copyright holder, the builder retains the right to redistribute the submitted area as they wish.
2. The builder consents that they will not distribute the area to any other muds, persons, or make it publicly available. The mud owner must still abide by the limitations set forth in the rest of this document.
3. The mud owners retain the right to modify the area or make derivitives. All modified or derived areas must retain credit to the original author. The original author must still be contacted if the mud owner wishes to publish the modified/derivative area on another mud or distribute it in any form.
4. All muds using the area must credit the original author. The credit may only be removed at the author's request. If the author requests the credit to be removed, the author may not like changes brought about by modification, credit will be given to Anonymous. The original credit will never be usurped by people who modified the area.
This was just a first pass at publication issues. Feel free to make suggestions and alterations as you like.
Neranz Laverani, Seeker of Knowledge
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