It has come to My attention that in the 10 or so Years I have been doing this (The UO Emulator thing) I have acquired quite a Library of scripts (probably at least 500 different zipped files), as I'm sure most of You that have been around awhile have also. But what might be an even better "Library" of scripts could be found would be in My Folder of Abandoned or Donated Shards. Heres a List of Shards I have been fortunate to be around when they were uploaded:

Age Of Valor
Ancient Times <---Only client files
Die andere Welt <--- A German Shard
RelPor
Ulmaria <---Only client files
Ulmeta <----- This one was recently released on RunUO

Now I have no idea why they were uploaded or even if they are around still. I had nothing to do with any of these shards!

I just think it would be a loss to others who might find something useful, I mean some of these things have custom maps and custom scripts and systems. Now I don't just want to upload these, they range from 100mb to 950mb, I also don't want to just send them out at random. So.....

#1 Is there an interest in these?
#2 Is it uh....ethical (?) to upload these not knowing their status?
#3 If I were to upload these what would be a good semi permanent option?

I don't mind hearing from people with new accounts but people who have been around awhile will have more...."sway".

Discuss
 
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I remember when a particular shard donated all of their scripts. Don't remember which one, but I remember it was fairly popular before it closed up, and many people were grabbing the files. They zipped it up to MegaUpload or something. It was interesting to go through the stuff to see what direction they took, but most of the scripts were distro or a jumble of stuff from the forums. I would suggest trying to glean the cream from the Customs folders. Age of Valor sounds like it might have a few custom scripts worthy of having a look. You might consider just going ahead and setting up a github or google code repository, to protect the files from getting lost.

**EDIT**

As far as ethics, I get tired of people crying over "proprietary" rights or some such. If your scripts were made for RunUO, ServUO, or any other UO emulator, then by definition, they are OPEN SOURCE, and you have NO personal rights to speak of, beyond acknowledgement of authorship.
 
Fair enough Loki but what about Custom Maps?

When I downloaded each of these packages each had something to offer (at the time), whether a custom map or custom script. Not sure how much of that's still true but that's kinda the fun of going thru something "new". I have others these were what i remember as the "good" ones.

Ill look at a repository, obviously it will take a while to upload.
 
Amazing for you to have so many of these old server's/scripts :) I'm sure many would love to check them out along with any custom maps. I agree once any thing has been posted to a public forum they become open source and credit should always be given "where credit is due" :)
Just my thoughts!
 
So I will need a repository that takes zip files (as these are all zipped up) and a bit of space, all 6 shards are over 3gb. Keep in mind these are as I received them save files and all.
 
I would suggest removing any save files that contain personal information such as the account.xml file.

As for the shards themselves I think it would be a capital idea to upload them. It's a shame to let someones work just lay dead on a hard drive somewhere when it could be used again.

Regarding the file size I am sure you could make that smaller by removing the saves altogether and any other files generated by the server such as many of the files in the data directory.
 
I would suggest removing any save files that contain personal information such as the account.xml file.

As for the shards themselves I think it would be a capital idea to upload them. It's a shame to let someones work just lay dead on a hard drive somewhere when it could be used again.

Regarding the file size I am sure you could make that smaller by removing the saves altogether and any other files generated by the server such as many of the files in the data directory.
Are You suggesting or rather granting permission to upload here?
 
I don't think Insanity would care if they were uploaded here, but I think GitHub or BitBucket is a better idea, and then just post links.
 
I've got one as well... Milva & I both staffed, created, built & played on it. Loads of custom art, plus custom dungeons we created all frozen to the map & a custom Fel map. I keep a copy of the server & modified client simply because of the memories & the sheer amount of work that went into it. It would have been a shame to just let it fade away. I still refer to it at times for ideas & have even loaded it up & just wandered around. Guess I'm kind of sentimental so I can definetly understand why some hold onto old server files & scripts. Making them available to others is a great idea. Personally I would need to have permission from the original owner(s) of the server I have before I would release it.
 
I would suggest removing any save files that contain personal information

RunUO released an old shard once. Can't find the links any more. They left the Save files intact, which was fun, because if you logged in as one of the existing players you could see their houses and what they were doing at the time the shard went down. I don't remember if the passwords were encrypted back then, but they are now, so the only way to view that stuff now is to create a new account, set your access level to Owner, then you can create an Owner character and view all the other characters and such. You can even change other account's passwords, so that you can log in under their characters too. I don't see any ethical problem with it, but yes, it would make the files larger.
 
I remember Zippy released one on runuo, they had closed that server but don't remember the name.
 
I would be interested in having these shards and files in their whole if you would not mind hooking up with me for a way to share them.
I really enjoy poking and peeking at how others set things up and learn a lot from stuff like that. please contact me if you have time to share them with me.
 
As far as ethics, I get tired of people crying over "proprietary" rights or some such. If your scripts were made for RunUO, ServUO, or any other UO emulator, then by definition, they are OPEN SOURCE, and you have NO personal rights to speak of, beyond acknowledgement of authorship.

In the context of RunUO, you are correct, but software licensing is a tricky subject. RunUO is released under the GNU Public License (GPL). This is why I had to abandon using Awesomium in my webgumps project and use CEF3 instead, which has a GPL compatible license.

GPL is a poisonous license in that any code used that is GPL requires that you make the entire codebase licensed under the GPL or a compatible license.

When I wrote UltimaLive, I decided to use some search functionality and function signatures from MasterControl. Because MasterControl was released under the GPL, I was obligated to release the full source code of UltimaLive under the GPL.

Other emulators may be released under different licenses. For example, if an emulator released it's sourcecode under the MIT license, you could modify it / write scripts for it, and keep them proprietary.

If you release a program and you used any of the code from RunUO / ServUO, then you must license your entire program under GPL and make the source code publically available.

Code:
/***************************************************************************
*  SequentialFileWriter.cs
*  -------------------
*  begin  : May 1, 2002
*  copyright  : (C) The RunUO Software Team
*  email  : [email protected]
*
*  $Id: SequentialFileWriter.cs 4 2006-06-15 04:28:39Z mark $
*
***************************************************************************/

/***************************************************************************
*
*  This program is free software; you can redistribute it 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.
*
***************************************************************************/

The complete license is here: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html

From the GPL FAQ:
In an object-oriented language such as Java, if I use a class that is GPL'ed without modifying, and subclass it, in what way does the GPL affect the larger program?
Subclassing is creating a derivative work. Therefore, the terms of the GPL affect the whole program where you create a subclass of a GPL'ed class.
Does the GPL require that source code of modified versions be posted to the public?

The GPL does not require you to release your modified version. You are free to make modifications and use them privately, without ever releasing them. This applies to organizations (including companies), too; an organization can make a modified version and use it internally without ever releasing it outside the organization.
But if you release the modified version to the public in some way, the GPL requires you to make the modified source code available to the program's users, under the GPL.

Thus, the GPL gives permission to release the modified program in certain ways, and not in other ways; but the decision of whether to release it is up to you.
If I know someone has a copy of a GPL-covered program, can I demand he give me a copy?
No. The GPL gives him permission to make and redistribute copies of the program if and when he chooses to do so. He also has the right not to redistribute the program, when that is what he chooses.
I want to get credit for my work. I want people to know what I wrote. Can I still get credit if I use the GPL?
You can certainly get credit for the work. Part of releasing a program under the GPL is writing a copyright notice in your own name (assuming you are the copyright holder). The GPL requires all copies to carry an appropriate copyright notice.

If I add a module to a GPL-covered program, do I have to use the GPL as the license for my module?
The GPL says that the whole combined program has to be released under the GPL. So your module has to be available for use under the GPL. But you can give additional permission for the use of your code. You can, if you wish, release your program under a license which is more lax than the GPL but compatible with the GPL. The license list page gives a partial list of GPL-compatible licenses.
My friend got a GPL-covered binary with an offer to supply source, and made a copy for me. Can I use the offer myself to obtain the source?
Yes, you can. The offer must be open to everyone who has a copy of the binary that it accompanies. This is why the GPL says your friend must give you a copy of the offer along with a copy of the binary—so you can take advantage of it.
If someone steals a CD containing a version of a GPL-covered program, does the GPL give him the right to redistribute that version?
If the version has been released elsewhere, then the thief probably does have the right to make copies and redistribute them under the GPL, but if he is imprisoned for stealing the CD he may have to wait until his release before doing so.
If the version in question is unpublished and considered by a company to be its trade secret, then publishing it may be a violation of trade secret law, depending on other circumstances. The GPL does not change that. If the company tried to release its version and still treat it as a trade secret, that would violate the GPL, but if the company hasn't released this version, no such violation has occurred.
 
#2 Is it uh....ethical (?) to upload these not knowing their status?
Shards are permitted to use RunUO / ServUO and not release their custom scripts if they choose. If it was the original author of the scripts that uploaded them (i.e. released them to you), then you have every right under the GPL to re-release them.

If, however, they were uploaded without permission from the original authors or shard owners, then I think the last FAQ question that I posted would apply.

Allure of the Unknown had a dev that got pissed and released the entire code base at one point to various file sharing sites like MegaUpload. Did he have the right to do that? I believe he had the right to release his own scripts under GPL to the public, but he certainly didn't have the shard owner's permission nor the permission of the other developers who worked it at the time to release the entire code base to the public.

I have been very generous in releasing scripts that I have created to the public, but I would never release scripts that I didn't author or that I didn't have permission/license to release. That being said, if they were uploaded by someone who controlled the shard, then you probably have every right to release them. The only time you would avoid releasing them is if they were stolen or obtained illegally.
 
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As far as how to share them, why not use DropBox? You could get a free account that would give you 2GB to start. Remove save files and client files and the size of the scripts is probably very small.
 
I think its a great idea to share this great treasure trove of scripts!
Over the years I have downloaded hundreds of scripts myself and I would be happy to share my discoveries as well.

;-)
 
Github would be an easy place to put them.

I will stay out of the ethical side of the debate....since the whole emulator thing is iffy ha ha
 
It has come to My attention that in the 10 or so Years I have been doing this (The UO Emulator thing) I have acquired quite a Library of scripts (probably at least 500 different zipped files), as I'm sure most of You that have been around awhile have also. But what might be an even better "Library" of scripts could be found would be in My Folder of Abandoned or Donated Shards. Heres a List of Shards I have been fortunate to be around when they were uploaded:

Age Of Valor
Ancient Times
Die andere Welt <--- A German Shard
RelPor
Ulmaria
Ulmeta <----- This one was recently released on RunUO

Now I have no idea why they were uploaded or even if they are around still. I had nothing to do with any of these shards!

I just think it would be a loss to others who might find something useful, I mean some of these things have custom maps and custom scripts and systems. Now I don't just want to upload these, they range from 100mb to 950mb, I also don't want to just send them out at random. So.....

#1 Is there an interest in these?
#2 Is it uh....ethical (?) to upload these not knowing their status?
#3 If I were to upload these what would be a good semi permanent option?

I don't mind hearing from people with new accounts but people who have been around awhile will have more...."sway".

Discuss
Which Ulmaria is it? Sphere or RunUO?
 
Did not realize that at the time I deleted the link so there would not be a problem sorry about that I should have checked before I added that
 
DropBox it is....now where on the Forums should I put links? Should I just edit the first post in this thread?
 
You could edit the first post or release in Custom Releases and add the drop box url for the resource :)
 
Tru, I think if you post the links/packages in the "Core Modifications" section, that would be the best area.
 
I'd be curious to see any custom maps associated to these dead shards. Even a so so world map can contain some a few rare gems in terms of some nice locations. After all someone put a lot of time and energy into creating a world, always a shame to see good work fade away.
 
I will get these up later today. I'll put them in the Core Mod section as M309 suggested. I will also look and see if there are custom maps (in the files I have) and see if those shards are still active if not I may upload those in the custom map section.
 
I would be interested in having these shards and files in their whole if you would not mind hooking up with me for a way to share them.
I really enjoy poking and peeking at how others set things up and learn a lot from stuff like that. please contact me if you have time to share them with me.
The Grove is Available on Servuo.
 
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