straywild/CONTRIBUTOR-TERMS.md

# NETfishing contributor terms

NETfishing does not accept unsolicited contributions. These terms are retained
as the governing record for contributions previously accepted after their
publication and for specific future work that both Owners expressly invite in
writing before submission. They are not a request or standing invitation for
patches, pull requests, assets, or other material.

These terms do not retroactively change ownership of earlier work or replace a
separately signed agreement.

“Owners” means the two NETfishing co-owners who publish the Project as
Woofmeow and are publicly credited as Voyager and Endeavour. “Project” means
the official NETfishing game, its servers, tools, documentation, websites,
ports, updates, and promotional materials.

## 1. Your ownership and authority

You retain copyright in your original contribution. By submitting it, you
represent that:

- you created it or otherwise have authority to grant these permissions;
- its submission does not knowingly violate another party’s copyright,
  patent, trademark, privacy, contract, or other rights;
- you have disclosed relevant third-party material and license terms; and
- if an employer or another organization controls the contribution, you have
  obtained its permission before submitting.

Do not submit confidential information, unlawfully obtained material, or
content whose origin and permitted use cannot be documented.

## 2. Code contributions

You license an accepted software-code contribution under the GNU General
Public License, version 3 or, at the recipient’s option, any later version
(GPL-3.0-or-later).

You also grant each recipient a perpetual, worldwide, nonexclusive,
royalty-free patent license under patent claims you can license that are
necessarily infringed by your contribution alone or by its combination with
the Project as submitted. This patent license does not cover later
combinations that are unrelated to your submitted contribution.

## 3. Asset, writing, and documentation contributions

For an accepted contribution consisting of artwork, models, animation, audio,
music, writing, level content, branding material, or other non-code creative
work, you grant the Owners a perpetual, worldwide, nonexclusive,
royalty-free, transferable, and sublicensable license to:

- use, reproduce, modify, adapt, translate, and create derivative works;
- distribute, publicly display, publicly perform, transmit, and make
  available the contribution;
- include it in free and commercial Project releases, ports, updates,
  merchandise, marketing, and archival materials; and
- license it to Project users under `ASSET-LICENSE.md` or a later Project asset
  license jointly approved by the Owners.

This grant is limited to NETfishing, its promotion, and official successor or
derived NETfishing products. It does not transfer your copyright or authorize
the Owners to sell your contribution as an unrelated standalone asset.

## 4. Documentation accompanying code

Documentation submitted as an ordinary part of a code contribution may be
distributed under GPL-3.0-or-later with that code. Project credits and
provenance records may be reproduced in any medium needed to document the
Project and its releases.

## 5. Attribution

Provide the name or pseudonym you want used for credit. The Owners will make a
reasonable effort to preserve material attribution, subject to formatting,
privacy, platform, and practical limitations.

Attribution does not imply that a contributor endorses every Project change
or release.

## 6. No automatic ownership, employment, or payment

Submitting a contribution does not provide ownership of NETfishing, create an
employment, agency, partnership, or fiduciary relationship, or create a right
to compensation. Any payment, ownership, or employment arrangement requires a
separate written agreement signed by the appropriate parties.

## 7. Acceptance

A contribution is not accepted merely because it was posted, uploaded, linked,
emailed, or discussed. Unsolicited material will not be reviewed or accepted.
The Owners or their authorized maintainers may modify, decline, or later
remove previously accepted or expressly invited work.

For work expressly invited in writing, intentionally delivering the requested
material for Project inclusion after receiving notice of these terms records
agreement to the applicable grants above. Maintainers must retain both the
written invitation and the contributor's affirmative agreement in a durable
Project record.

Do not send unsolicited work. An owner invitation may instead specify a
separate written arrangement signed by the appropriate parties.