Re: Setting rules for source requirements on artwork in games
2014-03-11 3:54 GMT+01:00 Bas Wijnen <wijnen@debian.org>:
>> Making a blanket statement that covers all games currently maintained
>> within the Games team, as well as any future games that may become
>> packaged in Debian, and that everyone can fully agree with, is going
>> to be extremely difficult.
>
> I don't mean to make binding rules. However, I do want us to agree on
> the general idea. That's what I hope to get as a result of this
> discussion.
I kind of like reaching at least a consensus regarding what we would
like to have. I seem to remember that we tried to move along these
lines too in the past without too much success, mostly because of
practical problems, that I don't know if we have already solved.
The first more important problem, in my opinion, is the size of the
source files of multimedia elements, specially video and audio. We
discussed some times how to manage these big files and came to the
conclussion that it wouldn't be a good idea to upload them in the
source packages for tecnical reasons. Relying on upstream to keep the
source files of their artwork available for as long as we distribute
the package is not practical, it's probably an unwanted burden on
them, and can also be quite costly. Relying on them providing the
source "on demand" when someone requires it, I don't think will be
DFSG-free, and also means an unwanted burden and extra work on their
part. If we are makeing the requirement of needing to make the raw
source of all the multimedia elements available, we don't have any
other solution than being us who provide some infrastructure for that.
The second main problem, as was mentioned, is the need of external
programs or external hardware to "compile" the multimedia elements. In
the case of the music, for example, the transformation of MIDI files
into OGG/MP3s or equivalent might not only rely on a particular
program, but also on a particular device. In the case of video, for
example, many people work with privative programs, or with privative
formats. That might also be the case with some raw photo formats. I
find that requiring that all the artists contributing to Debian have
to do so using only programs in main quite restrictive, and that plays
against us, even though I see the ethical and practical reasons behind
that.
The third problem we found was that the "compilation" chain of
multimedia contents often includes doing some modifications "by hand".
The artist might compose a music via MIDI, they will convert it to a
long wave file, will modifñy it by hand, adding echoes, compression,
sounds in every part they want, maybe also voice. That's not something
that could be repeteable in the same sense than the compilation of a
progam is. That's also often the case with video, in which different
layers are made with different programs and later put together by
hand.
I'm not sure that we have a solution to all those issues that would
not let out most of the games currently in the archive.
Greetings,
Miry
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