Re: [tuxracer-main] New features

[Steve B. <sjb...@ai...>]

Jasmin Patry wrote:
> 
> On Sat, Oct 07, 2000 at 09:29:51AM -0600, Bil Simser wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > New to this list and I think tux racer is just great and has some great
> > possibilties. I'm not sure what features are planned but a few ideas hit me
> > initially when I played it:
> >
> > -display n/n herrings at end instead of just how many you picked up
> > -display max speed achieved
> > -display avg speed achieved
> > -recording feature for demo modes and exchanging tux movies
> 
> Those all sound like good ideas.  The first three are pretty easy; the
> last less so, but still quite doable.
> 
> > Not sure if some of this can be achived in the configuration. I'm running
> > under Windows and there doesn't seem to be a config file created.
> 
> This is a FAQ (see especially the "Update"):
> 
>     http://tuxracer.sourceforge.net/faq.html#options
> 
> > I would consider doing some of these features (and making them
> > configurable) but not sure if anyone can just make changes to the code
> > and submit it. How does that process work? Thanks.
> 
> The Tux Racer source code is distribued under the GNU GPL
> (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html), which gives you certain rights
> to make changes.  We'll incorporate any changes that we like back into
> the main distribution.  For various legal reasons we require that
> authors outside of Sunspire Studios sign over the copyright for their
> changes over to Sunspire Studios, in order for us to incorporate the
> changes into the product.

That needs to be clarified:

Sunspire can require that you sign over your copyrights in order for them
to incorporate your changes back into their 'official' distribution. But
under GPL, people can make whatever changes they like, AND KEEP THE COPYRIGHTS
TO THE CHANGES so long as they redistribute their modified version under GPL.
The GPL does not (in itself) require you to give up your copyright to
Sunspire....although Sunspire obviously has the right to reject contributions
to their "official" distribution for any reason - and refusing to sign over
your copyrights could certainly be one reason for such a rejection.

In practice...who cares?

-- 
Steve Baker   HomeEmail: <sjb...@ai...>
              WorkEmail: <sj...@li...>
              HomePage : http://web2.airmail.net/sjbaker1
              Projects : http://plib.sourceforge.net
                         http://tuxaqfh.sourceforge.net
                         http://tuxkart.sourceforge.net
                         http://prettypoly.sourceforge.net