Official screenshots of PlaneShift Steel Blue

[Karyuu]

Ah crap, Induane - sorry to hear. I won't be able to guess who it was, but IMO that's a load of silly. I'll see if I can get some official statement for you guys.

[Tuxide]

I'll see if I can get some official statement for you guys.

Please do.  I was told from an insider that the content couldn't be used on a public server, but a private server was fine.  This may be a serious problem in case someone like IBM becomes interested in PlaneShift again.

...IMO that's a load of silly.

Also, I do agree to an extent, the whole point of using open standards for proprietary content is so people can tear apart the game and see how it works.

[Induane]

Perhaps a better suggestion would be a slight modification to the license itself.  Since it seems that running your own server for screenshots, etc, is acceptable then why not have a usage policy on using the art to connect to a private server, the bounds of which that can be done in, etc.  You could make it clear in the license that its ok to connect to a different server for testing purposes as well as exploratory and experimental purposes.  It doesn't seem to go against the spirit of it all as a whole anyways so rather than encourage people to violate the license because the way its being violated isn't of any real concern, why not just expand the license so that its ok in the first place?  It just seems like it would be a pretty simple addition and then people could toy with that sort of thing to their hearts content!

[Kerol]

I don't see a license change coming anytime soon officially allowing private servers being run by anyone, simply because the idea of the license is to have one consistent world with everyone playing on, to avoid a "split of societies" (like what you mentioned with your guild).
I wouldn't be too strict with the interpretation of the rules however myself when it comes to screenshots to show off the nice art of PS.
On the other hand, over a private server it's also possible to make screenshots of maps etc. and use them as spoiler which we certainly don't want (public).

From my understanding, Induane's comments are right. The license forbids the usage of private servers in general, with specific exceptions - those servers that are "licensed by Atomic Blue" which can be any on which the board of directors and members of AB agreed with.

I'd think testers and devs have a "general license" as in "note of understanding" by the AB people to run private servers to do what they need.

From this point of view encouraging people to run private servers without agreement from the rest of the devs and directors is wrong, but telling about the possibility to take screenshots this way for the benefit of PS.. shouldn't be a "bannable offense" 

[Tuxide]

The license forbids the usage of private servers in general, with specific exceptions - those servers that are "licensed by Atomic Blue" which can be any on which the board of directors and members of AB agreed with.

How does one go about obtaining such a license?  Because it is unclear how to do this.  This would be a good thing to know, in case one would want to set up, say, a corporate intranet server to have their online meetings in.  This is sad, Second Life made it onto the front of the Omaha World-Herald this week because the university I attend is using it instead of PlaneShift for this sort of thing.

[Kerol]

Ask the board of directors: Talad, Vengeance, Acraig. They have the final word in license issues, but normally things are discussed and voted on (semi-democratically) amongst the devs before a final decision is taken.

However, for such things like meetings you can always create your own little world and character models (maybe ask Arianna if she contributes the models she made for her project Virtual Anneloev?).
Then you're independant completely from the AB license, only bound to the GPL of the engine.

Btw, I've also thought of using PS for meetings before, especially for educational purposes on my (tele-) university.
I think it'd even work out if some functionality externally is provided (upload and sharing of files) and some minor things like copy&paste are implemented.

[Tuxide]

If that is the case, (and I'm not taking your word as official yet, Kerol) then that needs to be more clear.  As of now, pages such as those on the website and on the forums are geared towards intimidating some 18 year old and his buddies from making a working copy of Laanx overnight and mentions nothing about becoming a server licensed by Atomic Blue.  It is obvious now that there are people who have asked the same question for vastly different reasons and were given a totally different answer than the one they were looking for.  The reason is that up until now, we have gone under the assumption that everyone who has asked this question was an 18 year old who just wanted his own version of Laanx, but I have shown otherwise.

Sorry for this being off-topic in respect to the original post of Steel Blue screenshots but this has to be said.  Not every Fortune 1000 company is a game studio, and not every university is interested in teaching people how to use blend2crystal.

[Kerol]

As of now, pages such as those on the website and on the forums are geared towards intimidating some 18 year old and his buddies from making a working copy of Laanx overnight

True.

mentions nothing about becoming a server licensed by Atomic Blue.

Doesn't mean that one could not ask the license holder (AB) for an exception.

The reason is that up until now, we have gone under the assumption that everyone who has asked this question was an 18 year old who just wanted his own version of Laanx

I didn't assume that.
In fact it's nearly impossible to get a copy of the Laanx DB if it's not an emergency.
By now we have a test server aside of Laanx and it took months of discussion to get to the point where a copy of laanx on the testserver is considered a viable option. What you get with a blank private server is simply the opportunity to move around in the game art, that comes along with your client and make screenshots and movies, nothing more.

Arianna managed to make models, maps and other game data for her diploma more or less alone within one year, and she had to learn how to do everything, as well. Don't tell me a university or company couldn't do that in less time with more people at hand.
The other way is to pay for second life (and still have to learn how to include art if you need additional stuff).

On topic: I can ask my GMs to take screenshots during events in new territory, so you also see some action.