Re: doom source GPL'd
At 00:57 1999.10.04 +0100, you wrote:
>Andre Majorel <amajorel@teaser.fr> wrote:
>How can they put limitations on your piece off work, I do not understand, do
>they have a patent on wad files (I do not think so).
I don't think so either but they act like they had. IIRC, the deal
was : OK, we'll let you reverse-engineer the wad format and write
tools to create wad files but we'll sue you if
- you make wads that work with shareware Doom (because then no-one
would register)
- you sell wads (we want to be the one who make money with Doom).
I don't know whether this "contract" has any legal value but, so far
no-one I know of has violated it. Probably in part because almost
everyone in the Doom hacking community respects and loves id (the
fact is they've always been surprisingly friendly to us).
On the other hand, this is 1999 and Doom is probably a marginal part
of their revenue now. And they've released it under the GPL (where
is the announcement, BTW ?) -- that might void any restrictions on
the wad format.
So,
- should their "contract" be enforced on the tools ?
- if so, would that prevent them from going in the main section ?
André Majorel <amajorel@teaser.fr>
http://www.teaser.fr/~amajorel/
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