How to take over a GPL project?

How to take over a GPL project?

Postby titi » 29 Jan 2010, 00:48

I decided to go my own way with the open source game glest.
The original game contained a readme-file like this ( beside the GPL/ CC txt-files )
What do I have to do with such a file? And what should i do with it?
Extend it with my own needs? Create a new one? Leave it as it is and add my own readme_megaglest.txt file?
Where should i mention me and other programmers who modify the code from now?



{l Code}: {l Select All Code}
Glest source code v3.2.x - Copyright (C) 2002-2009 Martiño Figueroa (http://www.glest.org - contact_game@glest.org).



You can redistribute this code and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.



For compilation instructions or any other info please visit the developer board at http://www.glest.org



The data (including images and 3D models) is provided under the "Attribution-ShareAlike" Creative Commons license. This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work even for commercial reasons, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms. This license is often compared to open source software licenses. All new works based on yours will carry the same license, so any derivatives will also allow commercial use.


Currently i already have a file that looks this way:
{l Code}: {l Select All Code}
###########################
#Glest Community Megapack #
###########################
( from http://www.titusgames.de )

Factions:
=========

Indians:
Copyright 2007-2010 (C) Titus Tscharntke(titi) & Philipp Tscharntke ( http://www.titusgames.de )

The Norsemen:
Copyright 2008-2010 (C) Titus Tscharntke(titi) & Raphael Schröder(weedkiller) & Philipp Tscharntke ( http://www.titusgames.de )

The Persian:
Copyright 2010 (C) Titus Tscharntke(titi) & Philipp Tscharntke ( http://www.titusgames.de )

The Norsemen:
Copyright 2008-2010 (C) Titus Tscharntke(titi) & Raphael Schröder(weedkiller) & Philipp Tscharntke ( http://www.titusgames.de )


Tech and Magic:
The factions tech and magic are from the original game glest ( a bit modified now ). 
( copyrighted by the glest team www.glest.org )

The new factions Indians/Norsemen/Persian use some models from original glest!

Tilesets:
=========
Tileset Jungle:     by Titus Tscharntke(titi) & Philipp Tscharntke
Tileset Evergreen:  by Titus Tscharntke(titi)
Tileset Autumn:     by Titus Tscharntke(titi)
Tileset Desert2:    by Idanwin and Titus Tscharntke(titi)
Tileset Winter:     by Titus Tscharntke(titi)
Tileset Hell:       by Titus Tscharntke(titi)
Tileset Mediterran: by Titus Tscharntke(titi)

Maps:
=====
 conflict          by ttsmj
 domination_isles  by mapmaker(from the glest forum)
 one_on_one        by original glest team ( but no longer in the game yet )
 overgrown_city    by mapmaker and Titus Tscharntke(titi)
 tropical_arena    by mapmaker(from the glest forum)
 tt_goldrush_v2    by Titus Tscharntke(titi)
 waterworld        by Titus Tscharntke(titi)

Scenarios:
==========
m4_amazones          by Titus Tscharntke(titi)
m4_amazones_light    by Titus Tscharntke(titi)
m4_beehive_castle    by Titus Tscharntke(titi)
m4_indian_attack     by Titus Tscharntke(titi)
m4_kill_the_magic    by Titus Tscharntke(titi)
m4_magic_can_do_it   by Titus Tscharntke(titi)
m4_my_island         by Titus Tscharntke(titi)
m4_norsemen_attack   by Titus Tscharntke(titi)
m4_persian_conflict  by Philipp Tscharntke
m4_waterworld_light  by Titus Tscharntke(titi)
m4_waterworld        by Titus Tscharntke(titi)


Credits go to:
==============
The original glest team who made all this possible!!!
Aminos for the indians and persian background music !!
Margaras for the persian background music!!
manolo camp for the background music(norsemen)!!
http://www.burningwell.org who have nice free (public domain) textures!
Gameboy for the norsemen icons
Weedkiller who created the spearman model of the indians, and the princess and swordman model of the persian faction
My family, some friends and neighbors for the unit voices.
ZaggyDad for some help with textures/models (norsemen) and for the persian elephant model.
Baida for the axe_thrower model (norsemen)
erdie (from http://www.freesound.org) for the autumn day sound
patchen (from http://www.freesound.org) for the autumn night sound
royal (from http://www.freesound.org) for the  desert day sound
Cacatoes (from http://forum.freegamedev.net/) for a nice rock texture photo used in autumn tileset.


INFO:
Some source textures distributed with the tilesets(evergreen/autumn) are copyrighted by CGTextures.com. Permission to release these specific textures has been granted to the creator of these tilesets.
!!Textures downloaded from CGTextures.com DO NOT fall under any GPL or Creative Commons License by default.!!

( !!! Texture Hint: Better use textures from www.burningwell.org which are really free to use (public domain)!!!)


All files are released under the Terms of the
Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license ( see data_license.txt )
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titi
 
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Re: How to take over a GPL project?

Postby qubodup » 29 Jan 2010, 17:32

You should keep
{l Code}: {l Select All Code}
Glest source code v3.2.x - Copyright (C) 2002-2009 Martiño Figueroa (http://www.glest.org - contact_game@glest.org).
or at least the "Copyright (C) 2002-2009 Martiño Figueroa" part and add yourself below it "Copyright (C) 2009-2010 Titus Tscharntke"

I think it's common to have the "(C)" after "Copyright". also note that (C) has no legal weight:
Because the © symbol has long been unavailable on typewriters and ASCII-based computer systems, it has been common to approximate this symbol with the characters (c), however this approximation has no standing in law.

source

Best practice in my opinion is to have a license.txt/LICENSE/license/LICENSE.txt/copying/copyright... file that lists all licenses used in the game and explains where (what files and what url) to read the license texts at and what file explains who did what and what is licensed under what license. I think a contributors/authors... file is appropriate for listing who did what and under what license it is released..

Anyways, I say you need to
1. keep the copyright notices of the previous/original developers
2. have a central file listing all licenses and linking to license texts and the file that has detailed author/license information
3. said detailed author/license information in one or two files
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