[Nel] Something I don't understand about the license agreement.

Tue, 20 Feb 2001 15:55:20 +0100

Well, you summarised my summaries...
+
+According to Sal:
+>     If I'm not mistaken, the things that define your game would mostly be
+> located in serverside databases. Yes any modification to the server _code_
+
+There are probably a few minor code modifications, required to support
+very specific rules (if you want to run elections, the code for booths
+and all that is probably hard code). But, if we've done our design right,
+most of a MMORPG design should be a matter of fiddling data.
+
+>     I'm pretty sure these databases would not be covered by the GPL.  All
+> that people could 'steal' would be your binaries. And that does not mean
+> they can carbon-coby your game.  Your rules, mapfiles, plot, etc. could all
+> be copywritten material.
+
+Not "could". Is. It's automatic and non-debatable. When you write it,
+it is automatically covered by copyright, and you have to explicitely
+put it in the public domain (which is not *that* easy). With the
+provision about plot; as I explained before, a plot cannot be
+copyrighted, while specifics are. You can't copyright "evil arch-villain
+wants to overthrow king", you can only copyright "Mezzo Kharkan wants
+to overthrow king Ariflax".
+
+(hmmm, if I have infringed some copyright here, it's purely unintentional,
+ and was only for purpose of citation. Honest)
+
+>     I think 'derivitive works' pertains to modifications of the Nel codebase
+
+In the GPL text, yes. Derivative works refer to code. GPL says exactly
+nothing about data, so it's not covered by the license.
+
+>     Say I downloaded the binaries for Everquest's client and server (imagine
+> they were GPLed). I still could not create an 'Everquest' game and put them
+> out of business, I would need to create an exact copy of all their media, I
+> would also have to mimic their ruleset, copy their maps, etc. And doing all
+> that would be illegal, since its all copywritten material.
+
+That's a good example. However (assuming Everquest code was GPL), once
+you'd produced a set of player and NPC models, and made a few zone files
+under a 3D modeller, and created your own items, you'd be able
+to launch Realquest.
+
+And try to put them out of business :)
+
+>     Where you're mistaken is that the GPL doesnt force you to distribute
+> _everything_  for free.  Just the material that is covered under the GPL,
+> which would be, the source code to the binaries... and the source to any
+> libraries used in conjunction with them.
+
+By FSF's own admission, the source of any library "not commonly available
+with the system". Otherwise, we'd have to provide the Nvidia OpenGL driver
+sources if we wanted to run our game on a Nvidia-equipped PC :)
+
+-- 
+Vincent Archer                                         Email: archer@nevrax.com
+
+Nevrax France.                              Off on the yellow brick road we go!
+
+