Why upgrade? I'm not a lawyer, but here's my take on the differences
to version 2:
* Software patents: better protection against abuse of patents to
prevent users from exercising the rights under the GPL. I doubt
we'll get hit with a patent suit, but it's a good move just on
general principles.
* License compatibility: compatible with more free licenses, i.e. can
"steal" more free software for use in Empire. I don't expect to steal
much, but it's nice to have the option.
* Definition of "source code": modernization of some details for today's
networked world, to make it easier to distribute the software. Not
really relevant to us now, as we normally distribute full source code.
* Tivoization: this is about putting GPL-licensed software in hardware,
then make the hardware refuse to run modified software. "Neat" trick
to effectively deny its users their rights under the GPL. Abuse was
"pioneered" by TiVo (popular digital video recorders). GPLv3 forbids
it. Unlikely to become a problem for us.
* Internationalization: more careful wording, to harden the license
outside the US. The lawyers tell us it better be done that way.
* License violations: friendlier way to deal with license violations.
This has come out of past experience enforcing the GPL.
* Additional permissions: Probably not relevant to us.
Also include myself in the list of principal authors.
Add check to ensure a country by that name does not exist.
Ensure the length is not too long. Note this is a change
behaviour for edit and change commands which used to silently
truncate long names. Enforce that a country name can not have
control characters in it. Ensure that a country name is not
blank or just spaces.
Replace daychange() and gettimeleft() by update_timeused_login(),
update_timeused() and enforce_minimum_session_time(). The new
code doesn't assume the day is always 24 hours long which can
occur when transitioning into or out of DST and such. Logging
in after more a multiple of 128 days now resets nat_timeused
properly.
Fix nat_timeused calculation on midnight rollover to include
the time since midnight.
struct natstr member nat_dayno and struct player member timeleft
are now unused, remove them.
This simplifies things. In particular, it gets rid of random rounding
in getcommand(), which created a variation in the nightly build
depending on whether the update starts before or after the deity logs
out.
Replace struct natstr member nat_minused by nat_timeused, and update
cou_ca[] accordingly (this affects xdump nat). Replace player member
minleft by timeleft, and getminleft() by gettimeleft(). Update
getcommand(), daychange(), player_main(), status() accordingly, taking
care not to change player output. Change edit country key 'u' to work
in seconds.
The common nation wipe code is not quite identical, and it doesn't
wipe the nation thoroughly enough. The new code does.
Changes to both commands:
* Wipe nat_update, nat_ann, nat_access, and nat_contact. Bug: should
set nat_ann to the number of announcements.
Changes to add command:
* Don't wipe for status active and god. Before, nat_relate and
nat_flags where wiped then.
Changes to newcap command:
* Wipe nat_hostaddr, nat_hostname, nat_userid, nat_dayno, nat_minused,
nat_reserve, nat_last_login, nat_last_logout, nat_newstim,
nat_annotim, nat_relate, nat_rejects, nat_flags.
