warsow: Clarification for the Warsow Content License
Dear Warsow Team,
I wasn't sure who exactly to contact about this so I've decided to
contact everybody whose email address was posted in the contact.txt
file of the Warsow archive/installer.
I and other Debian users would like to create and distribute a package
for the new version of Warsow (0.4). Before I get started on the new
packages, we have some concerns about the Warsow Content License that
we'll need clarification for.
The license states "Assets that are property of Chasseur de bots, use
the following Warsow Content License."
Then there are these two clauses.
" 3. You may not copy, modify, publish, transmit, sell, participate
in the transfer or sale or reproduce, create Derivative Works from,
distribute, perform, display or in any way exploit any of the Material
released under this License unless expressly permitted by the Warsow
Team.
4. You may freely distribute the Warsow archive/installer
unmodified on any media. You may re-compress using different archival
formats suitable for your OS (i.e. zip/tgz/rpm/deb/dmg), any changes
beyond that require explicit permission of the Chasseur de bots
association."
In clause 3 when it's stated, "unless expressly permitted by the
Warsow Team," did you really mean to say the "Warsow Team" or
"Chasseur de bots"? I ask this since it's stated that the license
applies to "Assets that are property of Chasseur de bots". If you did
mean to say the "Warsow Team", can it be assumed that the members of
the Warsow Team are those listed in the Warsow team page
http://www.warsow.net/?page=team or is there a different list?
In regards to clause 4, a Debian package includes a tarball (orig
tarball) that would contain the original source (a tarball named
<package-name>_<version>.orig.tar.gz). The Warsow archive/installer
can be delivered unmodified in the orig tarball, but this would be a
problem for the deb package.
The deb package contains the files in a manner that is compliant with
the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard. So the Warsow content would need to
reside in /usr/share/games/warsow-data/. Documentation would be placed
in /usr/share/doc/warsow-data/. A Debian package also would add in
other documentation that are related with the Debian package or are
for Debian users. The changelog.txt file from the Warsow
archive/installer is renamed to upstream_changelog.txt so as not to
confuse it with changelog.Debian.gz, which is the changelog for the
Debian packaging. Also, the changelog files are always compressed
using gzip, regardless of its size. Also, the binaries from the Warsow
archive/installer are included in a separate package that has the
binaries built from the SDK. So the binaries from the Warsow
archive/installer are not included in the deb package with the Warsow
content. The scripts from the Warsow archive/installer are also not
used. Even if they were used, they would need to be modified for use
in a Debian system and included in the package with the binaries.
Also, in the package with the binaries, some of the documentation from
the Warsow archive/installer is included in the package's "diff.gz"
file that contains the makefile script and other files necessary to
build a Debian package. This way, the documentation from the Warsow
archive/installer can be delivered in both packages.
With all this said, there are things that are added to, modified, and
deleted from the Warsow archive/installer in order to create packages
for Debian. Most of the modifications I've listed are meant as a way
to create and deliver a Debian package. Some others are for purposes
of complying with Debian policy. What I'm generally asking in regards
to this is, can it be acceptable to build and deliver Debian packages
without having to leave the Warsow archive/installer unmodified?
There is also some other things I want clarification for. I'm assuming
that the Warsow archive/installer is the warsow_0.4_unified.zip file.
Am I correct? Also, I'm assuming that when it's stated that the Warsow
Content License "is applied to all
art/models/music/texts/names/setting/... present in the game", that
this means "art/models/music/texts/names/setting/..." that would
appear only while playing the game. Am I correct?
If you respond, please email the Debian Games Developers' list at
debian-devel-games@lists.debian.org and also the Bug Tracking System
for Bug #461659 at 461659@bugs.debian.org. In your response, please
also clarify if the response is the position of Chasseur de bots
and/or the Warsow Team.
--
Regards,
Andres Mejia
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