What Changes to UWP would you like to see?

Marc had a Fair Use policy in place, so it was all good provided you followed the rules of the policy.

NOW its a bit more complicated.
 
GypsyComet said:
Marc had a Fair Use policy in place, so it was all good provided you followed the rules of the policy.

NOW its a bit more complicated.
No, Marc put one in place in about '96.

Prior to that, there wasn't a FUP. But there were Traveller pages. :) Heck, there were entire traveller oriented BBSs... dial-up, or rarely, fido or wwiv-net accessible remotely.

Of course, no one really paid much mind to the nascent internet back in 92 when I first started on it. DARPA and Fido backbones supporting archie and gopher, if you happened to be able to connect. And writing scripts to retrieve remote site files and filelists when their respective networks linked up to the mainframe you were using.
 
Rikki Tikki Traveller said:
I'm not sure it was all legal.

Before posting material related to a copyrighted product (Traveller) did you get permission from the owner of that material? If not, then it wasn't legal, it just wasn't prosecuted.

Er, end product has always been covered by Fair Use, well until DCMA, and even that hasn't been tested as if it meets prior law.

Begin Rant/

So I will assume that you are channeling a lot of what has been going back and forth throughout the Gaming industry since the birth of the OGL from WOTC. Which has very little to do with actual law and the definition of Fair Use. Note, the OGL has never seen it's day in court so how it stand has all been in the case of who has the deeper pockets and threat. (Note I may be wrong but my quick search of Nexus/Lexus didn't turn up anything but commentary).

Most of the work was done prior to any of this sort of discussion and under the general understanding of Fair Use that existed at that point. So legal is just a way to start yet another lengthy debate over this topic.

And as just a small point of order Fair Use and OGL are only faintly related, even though many equate them as being one in the same.

Oh and just because a Company has a policy it cannot supersede public law... though some have tried....

As final note I am not a lawyer, but I have read at law and have a reasonable understanding of it, so my opinions are just that.

/End Rant
 
AKAramis said:
GypsyComet said:
Marc had a Fair Use policy in place, so it was all good provided you followed the rules of the policy.

NOW its a bit more complicated.

No, Marc put one in place in about '96.

The WWW isn't much older than 1995, and Marc or Loren were participants in the more significant online communities back into the late 80s. The TML was the one notable exception, but it also stopped being particularly relevant in 91...
 
AKAramis said:
GypsyComet said:
Marc had a Fair Use policy in place, so it was all good provided you followed the rules of the policy.

NOW its a bit more complicated.
No, Marc put one in place in about '96.

And then promptly forgot to have a open page indicating what is was for much of the following decade. Nor a working public Email address for much of the period.

Note I really am not advocating anyone to disregard the wishes of the Copyright owner or Licensees, a reasonable effort needs to be made by all parties for this common fiction to work. Please note the word reasonable it applies to all parties and has considerable legal weight.

This is more response to the general nature of the situation over the last decade.

ObThread: Maybe we should add a sub-set to LawLevel indicating how likely a Traveller will be involved in trivial legalistic arguments of badly mangled/rewritten law.
 
Infojunky said:
AKAramis said:
GypsyComet said:
Marc had a Fair Use policy in place, so it was all good provided you followed the rules of the policy.

NOW its a bit more complicated.
No, Marc put one in place in about '96.

And then promptly forgot to have a open page indicating what is was for much of the following decade. Nor a working public Email address for much of the period.

It was on IG's web site, until IG's site died.

When FFE materialized, it was (buried) on FFE's website.
When the reprints became reality, the Cloning Policy was specifically killed. (At one point, and I had no problem emailing MWM at the time to verify, he allowed each person to duplicate OOP GDW materials for others. Couldn't charge, but could make a dup and send it. Limit was one copy per physical copy.)

Marc Miller has been one of the MOST liberal about end user rights of any of the game designers I've had reason to deal with.

The least, for reference, was Kevin Simbieda, who hit me with a cease and decist for hosting a page referencing Palladium in 1995.

BTW, the web really starts in 1993, with the release of Mosaic. Content for traveller was out there in 1994. I know, because I was reading it at the time. Yeah, I'm a tech geek.
 
Infojunky said:
My next bug-a-boo is Tech Level. I generally use it as the gross infrastructure indicator and general availability of technical goods, not as the maximum limit of what can be found on the world.
This interpretation is canonical. There have been rules for finding and buying devices above the local tech level as far back as MT and possibly CT. Consider low-tech worlds as akin to less developed regions of 21st-century Earth - advanced technology isn't produced locally or used by a large proportion of the population but can be found. The gap between what's available and what can be produced is a major part of the TNE setting: if you can get your hands on enough equipment that's of a much higher TL than the locals can make then you can set yourself up as a dictator, at least until the Star Vikings come knocking.

This also opens the door to technology higher than TL-16 (Imperial maximum is TL-15, but there are TL-16 worlds - there just aren't enough of them for standard Imperial designs at TL-16 to exist) to be found in the OTU. There are no factories that make it (= no worlds higher than TL-16) but prototypes exist, whether in the form of evolutions of Imperial technology or reverse-engineered Ancient relics or both. Guarding or stealing such an object can be a subject for an adventure.

Edit: or how about this: a PC or NPC scientist or engineer thinks he can build a TL-17 gadget but needs an unobtainium crystal that can only be found on a hostile or interdicted world. Then once it's built, do you keep it or sell it to the Imperium or another interested party? Don't forget that every pirate, trader and researcher in the sector is going to want to get their hands on it once they realise what you have...
 
darktalon said:
Infojunky said:
My next bug-a-boo is Tech Level. I generally use it as the gross infrastructure indicator and general availability of technical goods, not as the maximum limit of what can be found on the world.
This interpretation is canonical.

That's ok, my question wasn't about Canon, in fact both interpretations have shown up within "Canon" and the resultant flame war has been fought at least twice an edition since...... Hence the question, does TL need an extension?

My questions are about development not retreading what has gone before.

Or a more direct question should the economic extensions suggested in T4s Pocket Empires be brought in?

How about the world trade numbers from GurpsTraveller?

Or something out of whole new cloth?
 
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