[Nel] Gamer question (the asp hole)

Fri, 14 Dec 2001 11:29:14 -0800

12/14/2001 5:52:43 AM, "Paul Siegel" <psiegel@geneticanomalies.com> wrote:
+
+>Kai, from my reading of the GPL, everything wraps around the clause of "if
+>you distribute".  Since Ryzom has yet to be distributed, I don't think
+>Nevrax is under any obligation to share the source code.
+>
+>Under this same logic, I would think that Nevrax will never have to release
+>the source code of their servers, since such software is really for internal
+>use only, not to be distributed.  Isn't that correct?
+>
+thats what's known as the ASP hole (application service provider).  On the one hand it has been used to create money-making websites out of gpl pieces by companies who have never released their code changes.  On the 
+other hand, with a massively multiplayer game there is a lot of server side stuff- rules/ agent experience/ object locations that you may not want to release in the interests of gameplay.  However, most of that type of thing can 
+be abstracted from the core programs and written in a definition or scripting language specific to the game or in some general purpose language like python.  these interpreted programs, stored in some database, can now be 
+considered content and free from gpl obligations.  But that means that even if all the backend source is available, you have a lot of work to do before it does anything useful.
+with a few grey areas in rules (physics?) I think this is as it should be.
+
+michael
+
+
+