To the Legal Team at Cyan:
We, the fan community, are grateful that Cyan has begun to distribute
agreements to the
authors of fan-created ages that permit them to distribute their ages
on Until Uru shards. In order to ensure that the fan-created ages
are distributed in a proper fashion, we have drafted the following
proposal for hosting fan-created ages on an Until Uru shard. The
idea is that we will post this proposal on AgeBuilder.org, along with a
list of UU shard owners that have received permission from you to apply
this proposal to their shard in order to host fan-created ages.
Please review the proposal below and provide feedback as to whether the
proposal is acceptable as it stands, or whether modifications to the
proposal are required. We appreciate your time and your
attention, and we look forward to your reply.
PROPOSAL FOR HOSTING FAN-CREATED
CONTENT ON AN UNTIL URU SHARD
[Version 1; Reference number: TBD; approval date: TBD]
1. SHARD OWNER PERMISSION REQUEST. Before
a shard owner decides to host fan-created ages on their UU
shard, they must request permission from Cyan to set up such a shard,
stating that they will adhere to the procedures outlined in this
proposal. The request shall contain the latest version number,
reference number and approval date for this proposal, as listed just
below the title. The response from Cyan should contain a
reference
number and an agreement to permit the UU shard to host fan-created
ages. The UU shard owner will store this information, to provide
only to Cyan if requested (see Audit Support, below).
Additionally, the UU shard owner will be listed on the public posting
of this proposal, along with the date of the approval and the reference
number.
2. SUITABLE AGES. In
addition to the Cyan-produced ages that are part of the default UU
shard setup, there will be only the fan-created ages that have received
permission from Cyan for distribution on a UU shard through a
fan-created content agreement. Each age submitted to the UU shard
owner by the age developer must be accompanied by the reference number
of the agreement sent by Cyan for that particular age as well as the
date that the agreement was sent. This information will be stored
by the UU shard owner, to provide only to Cyan if requested (see Audit
Support, below). The age will not be made available to the public
unless it was submitted with this information.
3. SHARD NOTICE. The shard
owner must post a notification about the fan-created content that is
visible when the client connects to the shard. The notice shall
have the following text:
"NOTICE:
You are connecting to a shard that is hosting fan-created ages which
have not been produced by Cyan. Each of the fan-created ages on
this shard have received an agreement from Cyan that permits them to be
distributed on this UU shard."
4. NECESSARY MODIFICATIONS. As
it currently stands, the default UU server/client setup will not have
any way for people to access the new ages. So, some modifications
are necessary in order to grant this access. These modifications
are collectively referred to as "Volcano", and are described in the
three subsections below.
4.a. VOLCANO DATASERVER. A
supplimental dataserver to Cyan's dataserver will be introduced,
which supplies the patched client with the fan-created ages' files
(.AGE, .SUM, .P2F, .PRP, .SDL, .PY and .FNI) - but no modified Cyan
data files. It
will work with the recent data updates from Cyan's dataserver, so those
will not have to be re-downloaded or replaced. The Volcano
Dataserver will be running at a central location (to be
determined). To limit the shards that appear on the
client's list, the Volcano Dataserver will only contain a list of UU
shards with "Volcano" additions that have been permitted to distribute
fan-created ages. If any future updates of the Cyan dataserver
are made after the Volcano Dataserver goes online, the Volcano
development team will upgrade the Volcano Dataserver software
accordingly.
4.b. SERVER ADDITIONS.
The UU shard administrator will need to make the following additions to
support fan-created ages:
4.b.1) A copy of all fan-created ages' .age and .sdl files will be
added to the existing set.
4.b.2)
The following additions to the Vault will be made by an admin (e.g. via
the Vault
Manager):
GlobalInbox folder
... \-- Text Node: [ServerInfo]
......... |-- Chronicle: VolcanoEnabled = 1
......... \-- Chronicle: VolcanoAges = (List of ages available
on this shard, separated by spaces)
4.c. CLIENT MODIFICATIONS.
Anyone wishing to visit a UU shard containing fan-created content must
apply a
"Volcano patch" to the already-installed Until Uru client which will
make the
modifications listed below:
4.c.1) The existing UU client installation will be copied over to a new
directory; it will be in this new directory that the remainder of the
modifications will take place, in order not to interfere with the
existing client.
4.c.2) The dataserver for the UU client is pointed to the Volcano
Dataserver. This will also serve to limit the list of available
shards to only the permitted UU shards with the "Volcano" additions.
4.c.3)
All available fan-created ages are downloaded either from the
Dataserver
or
included in the patch program (depending on what version of the patcher
is downloaded and how new the age is), and are added to the "dat"
and "sdl" folders of the UU installation.
4.c.4) The file Volcano.pak, which contains python modifications for
the
Relto Bookshelf to enable
clients to visit the fan-created ages from the Volcano book, is placed
in the
Python folder of the UU installation. The Volcano book will check
the selected UU server's vault and will only display the fan-created
ages that are available on the UU server. Any files contained in
this pak will also be updated with any
python.pak updates from Cyan's dataserver if and when it is necessary.
4.c.5) The file VolcanoAges.pak containing all of the python files for
the fan-created ages together in one file (for simplicity) is placed in
the
Python folder of the UU installation.
4.c.6) An extra Age with (currently) one Global PRP file, containing
the link panel images for the Volcano book, is added to the "dat"
folder of the UU installation.
5. AUDIT SUPPORT. In the case
that Cyan wishes to verify that the fan-created ages hosted on a UU
shard have received permission for distribution, the shard owner must
provide the following information about each fan-created age:
- The name of the age
- The reference number of the agreement sent by Cyan
- The date that the agreement was sent by Cyan
In addition, the shard owner must also provide the reference number of
the agreement they received from Cyan that permits them to distribute
fan-created ages on their shard, as well as the date that the agreement
was sent by Cyan.
6. FUTURE PROPOSAL MODIFICATIONS.
In the event that this proposal must be modified, the proposed changes
will be sent to Cyan for review. When Cyan approves the
modifications, the new reference number and date of the approval will
be listed at the top of the proposal, under the previous reference
number and date. At that time, the various UU shards that have
been permitted to host fan-created content will perform the changes to
their shards, if necessary.