--- /dev/null
+This directory is intended to document the history of Beyond The Titanic and
+provide documentation of how it became free software.
+
+Beyond The Titanic was originally written by Scott Miller in the 1980s. Going
+off of the copyright notices in the source code he began in 1984. The game
+was originally proprietary.
+
+Later, Scott Miller was one of the founders of Apogee Software, Ltd. in
+1987 [0].
+
+According to the corporate timeline [1] Beyond The Titanic was published in
+1986 before Apogee started and then released as freeware (but still
+proprietary) in 1998 [2]. In 2009 Apogee Software released the source code
+under the GPL [3].
+
+Based on the comments made in the announcement [3] and in the readme.txt that
+came with the game [4] it appears that they were putting it under the GPL as
+part of their process to throw the code over the wall to forget about. They
+even just added the part of it being GPLed underneath the previous text from
+where the game had been released as freeware in 1998.
+
+In reviewing the license headers in their release [5] there are copyright
+notices from Apogee Software so it appears that Scott Miller transferred his
+copyright to Apogee at some point. This make sense since he was one of the
+founders of the company and the game had been distributed as an Apogee
+program. Also, the license headers indicated it was specifically released
+under the GNU General Public License version 2 or any later version. I took
+advantage of that to upgrade it to the GNU General Public License version 3
+or any later version. The modifications are licensed under the GNU Affero
+General Public License version 3 or any later version. This combination of
+GPLv3 or later and AGPLv3 or later is permitted under section 13 of each
+license.
+
+[0] See https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=3D_Realms&oldid=605663632
+[1] See the file timeline.png or visit https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.3drealms.com/history.html
+[2] See the file btt-freeware.png or readme.txt in this directory or visit https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.3drealms.com/news/1998/03/beyond_the_tita.html
+[3] See the file gpl-announcement.png or visit https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.3drealms.com/news/2009/03/several_old_games_released_as_freeware.html
+[4] See readme.txt in this directory.
+[5] See the initial commit in this git repository or ftp://ftp.3drealms.com/freeware/tit_free.zip
--- /dev/null
+Beyond the Titanic Release Notes - March 2009\r
+Beyond the Titanic is (c)1988/2009 Apogee Software, Ltd.\r
+--------------------------------------------------------\r
+\r
+This game was deleted from Apogee's product line a VERY long time ago, and \r
+has been re-released as freeware in March of 2009. There are a few notes\r
+you should be aware of with the release.\r
+\r
+1) We offer no support in helping to getting this freeware release running. \r
+ You are on your own in getting it working.\r
+\r
+2) This game does not handle modern computers very well, and as such \r
+ requires a third party program to help your computer adapt to the game\r
+ better. We recommend a program called DOSBox. It can be obtained at \r
+ the following location (and it's free): http://www.dosbox.com.\r
+\r
+3) The registration information mentioned inside the game no longer exists; \r
+ no one lives at the addresses mentioned in the documentation. Please do\r
+ not try and contact anyone with this info - if someone is there, it's not\r
+ us, you'll just be bothering someone who has no idea what you're talking \r
+ about.\r
+\r
+4) This game is released as freeware. That's not to be confused with \r
+ public domain, abandonware (which is illegal), or releasing something \r
+ under the GPL. This is a freeware release, which means we retain full \r
+ legal rights to the title and it's materials. You are free to play the \r
+ game as we've released it, but not free to "do whatever you want with \r
+ it", which includes selling it or otherwise using the materials for your\r
+ own gain.\r
+\r
+5) This game was originally released as freeware in March of 1998. It is\r
+ being re-released again in March of 2009 to include the source code. This\r
+ was discovered when doing research into source code for our old Kroz game.\r
+\r
+Enjoy Beyond the Titanic!\r
+-- Apogee Tech Support, March 2009\r
+\r
+----------------------------------------------------\r
+\r
+Source Code Notes:\r
+\r
+=====================================================\r
+Beyond the Titanic Source Code Release - Mar 20, 2009\r
+=====================================================\r
+\r
+LEGAL STUFF\r
+-----------\r
+\r
+"Beyond the Titanic" is a registered trademark of Apogee Software, Ltd.\r
+"Beyond the Titanic" copyright 1987 - 2009 Apogee Software, Ltd. All trademarks and copyrights reserved.\r
+\r
+This is the extent of our source code archives for BTT as pulled from the dusty archives of Scott Miller's old floppy discs. This is all we know to still exist. \r
+\r
+The code is licensed under the terms of the GPL (gnu public license). You should read the entire license (filename "GNU.TXT" in this archive), so you understand your rights and what you can and cannot do with the source code from this release.\r
+\r
+Please do not contact us for possible commercial exploitation of this title -- we will not be interested.\r
+\r
+Please note that this is being released without any kind of support from Apogee Software, Ltd / 3D Realms Entertainment. We cannot help in getting this running and we do not guarantee that you will be able to get it to work, nor do we guarantee that it won't blow up your computer if you do try and use it. We don't even guarantee it will compile! Use at your own risk.\r
projects / beyond-the-titanic.git / commitdiff
