Team members, please read...

[Mark_Everson]

Status and History of Clash is now available at http://people.mw.mediaone.net/markev...ash_status.htm . Please give a read and let me know of any errors or omissions.
Thanks,
-Mark

[Mark_Everson]

Hi All:

I've had a death in the family and will be out of commission until the 16th. So don't take it personally if I don't respond to messages...

-Mark

PS This is an Old message from Mid-May

[This message has been edited by Mark_Everson (edited May 19, 1999).]

[Theben]

Geez, what's going on here? I've been to 2 funerals in the last week myself. Mark, I offer my condolences.

[Mark_Everson]

Theben:

Thanks, I offer my condolences to you too.


ALL:

Just thought I should say something about my plans for rewarding team members if we ever get far enough to show a profit on Clash...
Comments Welcome.

If there are profits to be divided we will have to work out a fair way to do that. I suggest everyone keep a not-very-precise count on time spent (how many tens of hours maybe) and things accomplished. Hopefully those notes will someday become relevant!

I will have to bite the bullet and talk to a lawyer at some point on the details of working out an agreement, possible legal entities to use, and paying out money to people on an international scale. I'm not ready to shell out serious cash for that consultation just yet.

We are de facto now open source (anyone who says they want to join can have the code as it is). However we hope to license/sell the final product . My notion is to close at least a portion of the source (but it would of course still available for all the project members) when Clash starts to resemble a game your average person might want to play.

If we distribute over the web which is by far the cheapest way to go about it, piracy will be an issue. I don't have a good answer for that at the moment.

These are all pretty mushy thoughts, but I believe we should start talking about this stuff in at least a vague way about now...

-Mark

[F_Smith]

I believe that we won't have to worry about piracy if we do it over the web -- that's one of the beautiful things about distributed computing, esp if we end up with a 'perpetual world' type setup similar to Microsoft's 'Zone' or Ulitma Online. Almost no one will be able to duplicate the client-server architecture, and we can easily build in safeguards, like a 'signature' method that runs remotely off the server. In other words, people could save the applet files to their desktop, but it would still have to have net access to even launch -- just to access the method. Like a 'key'.

P.S. -- I'm pretty lucky, in that I'm not exactly strapped financially. I consider this a hobby. When it comes time for profits, I'll likely trust the group to be fair. I'm wierd like that.

[JimC]

Well, as far as I'm concerned, piracy will always be an issue. Unless one of us wants to come up with a new encryption system (which will make us millionaires as a product in itself) then there's not much we can do.

I'm not really too concerned about financial reimbursement anyway - it's the simple things in life that matter.

My main motivation will be trying out some zany new AI techniques when the engine is up and running....

If we do end up making some money, I'll be hoping that you'll all take pity on a poor, impoverished student and send a fair portion of the profits his way :-)

Jim

[Mark_Everson]

Jim: LOL I don't think money is the primary objective of Any of us... But It'd be an awfully welcome byproduct .