Re: Quake 2 sources GPL'd
On Sat, Dec 22, 2001 at 06:07:02PM +0000, Jules Bean wrote:
>
> On Sat, Dec 22, 2001 at 11:06:11AM -0500, Ben Collins wrote:
> > On Fri, Dec 21, 2001 at 11:57:21PM -0800, Thomas Bushnell, BSG wrote:
> > >
> > > Ben Collins <bcollins@debian.org> writes:
> > >
> > > > That's not true. If it is possible to create game levels for it that are
> > > > free, than it is considered free. It's not like you can't get anything
> > > > but id's game data.
> > >
> > > I think it depends on whether there are any actual game levels around
> > > which are free.
> > >
> > > The distinction between contrib and main is not whether it is
> > > *possible* to create something free which the contrib software would
> > > be useful for; it's really whether there *is* such a thing.
> > >
> > > If the only practical use of the engine is to run non-free levels from
> > > id, then it belongs in contrib. If someone has levels (that at are
> > > all fun--that is, which are real games) which the engine works with,
> > > then it belongs (along with those levels) in main.
> >
> > So if I create a game with _no_ levels, but the tools to create them,
> > then is it none-free? Just because the only ones available are non-free,
> > doesn't preclude that it is possible to create your own. The engine has
> > much more uses than just to play games (as the README in the source
> > says, also for educational purposes).
>
> But the binary doesn't have educational purposes.
>
> The binary simply won't run, without some data files. I don't know if
> there's a freely downloadable shareware one like there was with
> quake1.
Of course it does. You can teach basics of game development using a
pre-existing engine. Teachers can use the binary to take their students
from planning to creating worlds, to designing AI, etc. It has many
benefits. We can even describe it as such in the description if it makes
the zealots feel better.
> Certainly I don't see how we can, in main, distribute a binary that
> does nothing but give an error message and exit.
>
> I could see it as a source-only package, though.
blimpo:~# gcc
gcc: No input files
You have to write or get code for gcc. Should we deliver a hello.c with
gcc to meet those same requirements? You do realize that there are
plenty of free levels out there for quake2 right? We don't have to
distribute that same code just to put quake2 in main.
--
.----------=======-=-======-=========-----------=====------------=-=-----.
/ Ben Collins -- Debian GNU/Linux \
` bcollins@debian.org -- bcollins@openldap.org -- bcollins@linux.com '
`---=========------=======-------------=-=-----=-===-======-------=--=---'
Reply to: