Message posted on Stardate 98081.2 at 1751 hours
Posted by Mike Bourdaa (STF President). I am posting this long overdue edict here, as well as in my office, since it directly affects the Engineering Department moreso than any other Department in STF.
Effective immediately, any existing, pending, or future specification submitted to the Engineering Department will be considered the intellectual property of both any and all designers, and the EDept of STF. For the remainder of this edict, the following abbreviations shall be employed.
OD - the Original Designer of any class submitted to the ED.
SD - any Secondary Designer, either to an original design, or a subsequent upgrade to a class.
CM - Class Maintainer - the person who has authority over the class, and the responsibility for upkeep of that class.
The first person to begin working on a given class is automatically recognized as an OD. Any persons who assist with the design may be declared as SDs by any OD. Any SDs who have contributed signifigantly to a design may be “promoted” to OD status by a unanimous vote of all active ODs for any given class.
In the event that there are multiple ODs of a class of vessel whom are active members of STF, the one who was the first to be recognized as having OD status shall be recognized as the CM of that class.
In the event that there is only one OD for a class who is an active member of STF, that person shall be recognized as the CM.
In the event that there are NO OD’s for a class whom are active members, but there are SD’s who are active, the SD’s shall decide amongst themselves who shall serve as CM, by electing one of their number to become a new OD for that class (and thus automatically the CM).
In the event that there are neither any ODs nor SDs for a class whom are active members, the Dockmaster of the Engineering Department shall become the Acting CM for that class, with the full authority over that class until such time as either:
a) Any of the original ODs or SDs returns to STF, in which case they shall immediately assume ownership over the specifications.
b) The Engineering Director of STF appoints a new SD or OD to that class, for the purpose of upgrading the ship in some necessary manner.
c) The Engineering Department decides to remove the specification from the list of approved specifications.
The CM shall have the power to modify specifications in whatever manner is deemed appropriate and necessary to further their utility by the membership and the EDept.
The Acting CM shall have authority only to:
1) Make non-substantial changes to a specification (i.e. updating the fates of ships listed in any ship list based on RPG events, or changing the location or colors/backgrounds of a specification’s web page.)
2) Backup a copy of the specification, in case an original copy not hosted on star-fleet.com is deleted or otherwise lost.
3) Answer questions about the specification, if necessary.
*For specifications that are currently unowned, and approved for general use, under this edict, such as Aurora and Colorado, they shall immediately revert to Engineering Department ownership.
*For specifications that are currently unowned, and NOT approved for EDept use, such as Columbus, these specifications shall be phased out unless a member of STF wishes to take over the duties of improving the specs to the level of eventual approval.
*For specifications that are owned currently, there is no real change to the status quo. This edict merely provides the framework for what will happen to specifications after the original author has gone.
If there is a dispute over who owns any given specs, that dispute shall be mediated by the President of STF. The decision of the President shall be final in any and all regards.
By submitting specifications to the Engineering Department, the owners acknoledge and accept this policy.
For existing specifications that have already been passed, the owners of these specifications shall either:
a) Do nothing, automatically accepting this policy and its effect, if any, on their design.
b) Obtain an exemption from this policy from the President of STF: Exemptions may be granted under extraordinary circumstances.
c) Ask that their specifications be removed from STF use.
Any action (a, b, or c) must be completed by October 1, 1998, otherwise the edict will have full force over any specifications not otherwise already exempted or revoked.
Any specification that is revoked, but already in RPG use, will continue to be in use until the completion of the current RPG, after which the ship will be “upgraded” to a different, approved class of starship.
Any specification which obtains an exemption will be phased out of RPG use effective whenever the owner of the specification is no longer a member of STF. This policy will go into effect immediately.
Signed,
Michael Bourdaa
President, STF
August 12, 1998