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FyreWulff
Still Jaded
Joined: 02 Apr 2005
Posts: 406
Location: The Internet
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 Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2011 9:02 am Post subject: Sword of Jade: PD GPLv2/CC-BY-NC-ND release! |
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...mostly.
Effective April 1, 2011, all existing copies of Sword of Jade: Parallel Dreams on the internet are now available under a new license, with some exceptions.
For a quick overview of what is and is not GPL:
Download the license here if you wish to use the GPL release:
http://www.fyrewulff.com/fdc/files/jade_gpl_addon.zip
Alternate License
If the GPLv2 release is too confusing to you or you just don't like it, you may also use the CC BY-NC-ND license for your updates to Sword of Jade.
Download the license here if you wish to use the CC BY-NC-ND release:
http://www.fyrewulff.com/fdc/files/jade_cc_by_nc_nd_addon.zip
-Fyre out
Last edited by FyreWulff on Sat Apr 02, 2011 5:52 am; edited 3 times in total |
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Moogle1
Scourge of the Seas
Halloween 2006 Creativity Winner
Joined: 15 Jul 2004
Posts: 3377
Location: Seattle, WA
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| Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2011 10:50 am Post subject: |
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I'm not sure why you thought April 1 was a good day to do this
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FyreWulff
Still Jaded
Joined: 02 Apr 2005
Posts: 406
Location: The Internet
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| Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2011 12:00 pm Post subject: |
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| It's the sixth anniversary of Sword of Jade: Balancing Act's release, that's why! |
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Bob the Hamster
OHRRPGCE Developer
Joined: 22 Feb 2003
Posts: 2526
Location: Hamster Republic (Southern California Enclave)
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| Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2011 12:04 pm Post subject: |
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Iiiinteresting.
This is the most complicated semi-GPL release I have ever seen :) |
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FyreWulff
Still Jaded
Joined: 02 Apr 2005
Posts: 406
Location: The Internet
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| Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2011 12:17 pm Post subject: |
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It is! I wish I could just blanket GPL it, but since we plan to commercially exploit the characters and story down the road, it would be dangerous to release the graphics into the GPL world since there's no takebacks. It could be legally construed that we set out Dogero under the GPL, and not just certain representation of him.
Essentially, the idea is that the data of the game is now GPL, the graphics are not. If this were a 3D game, the meshes would be GPL, the textures to go on said meshes would not.
If anyone can point to a sound legal case or otherwise where it'd be safe to GPL even more of it, feel free. But I don't want to end up like the Penny Arcade guys where they signed away the rights to their own books and had to spend tons of money untangling that decision legally.
Now that I think about it though, it could be safe to GPL the textboxes.
tl;dr I want people to be able to update the game with minimal need for me to be managing it, but not have people re-using the graphics in all their games, much like the way you pulled WH out of the distribution when Vikings was able to replace it as the 'demo game'. |
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Bob the Hamster
OHRRPGCE Developer
Joined: 22 Feb 2003
Posts: 2526
Location: Hamster Republic (Southern California Enclave)
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| Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2011 1:44 pm Post subject: |
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| FyreWulff wrote: | It is! I wish I could just blanket GPL it, but since we plan to commercially exploit the characters and story down the road, it would be dangerous to release the graphics into the GPL world since there's no takebacks. It could be legally construed that we set out Dogero under the GPL, and not just certain representation of him.
Essentially, the idea is that the data of the game is now GPL, the graphics are not. If this were a 3D game, the meshes would be GPL, the textures to go on said meshes would not.
If anyone can point to a sound legal case or otherwise where it'd be safe to GPL even more of it, feel free. But I don't want to end up like the Penny Arcade guys where they signed away the rights to their own books and had to spend tons of money untangling that decision legally.
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I understand that. You want to protect the Trademarks. Those are separate from the copyright, and GPL covers copyright only and not trademarks, but because of the way trademark works, GPLing might be seen as weakening your trademark.
I think the solution you have come up with is fine, althought I think if I was trying to get the same effect I would probably put the whole thing under a CC Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs license, accompanied with a waiver explicitly saying that updates and bugfixes are an exception to the "No Derivatives" part.
| FyreWulff wrote: |
Now that I think about it though, it could be safe to GPL the textboxes.
tl;dr I want people to be able to update the game with minimal need for me to be managing it, but not have people re-using the graphics in all their games, much like the way you pulled WH out of the distribution when Vikings was able to replace it as the 'demo game'. |
I understand.
I did change that later on. WH is now completely GPL (but Vikings is still a better base for re-use because Fenrir put it in the public domain)
Anyway. Yay for ease of updating! :) |
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FyreWulff
Still Jaded
Joined: 02 Apr 2005
Posts: 406
Location: The Internet
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| Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2011 6:01 pm Post subject: |
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| Ooooh, didn't know about that variant of the CC license. I think I will license it under that too (or instead?). I need to sleep first though. |
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Moogle1
Scourge of the Seas
Halloween 2006 Creativity Winner
Joined: 15 Jul 2004
Posts: 3377
Location: Seattle, WA
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| Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2011 6:25 pm Post subject: |
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Hey Fyrewulff/IM/whoever,
The image in the top post is breaking the layout of the front page. Fyrewulff can solve this particular problem by resizing his image, but a more general fix would be to set a max-width for images on the front page.
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Pepsi Ranger
Reality TV Host
Joined: 05 Feb 2003
Posts: 493
Location: South Florida
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| Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2011 8:39 pm Post subject: |
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Actually, this GPL license versus character IPs and whatnot has my interest. When we release a game with the license.txt, are we also blindly committing our characters to the GPL, or just the use of the engine? Like Fyre, I have plans for reusing most, if not all of my characters in alternative formats, some of which are already being reused elsewhere. I want to make sure the formats (and characters, locations, etc.) remain separate from any kind of umbrella license.
I haven't studied copyright law nearly as extensively as Fyre has, nor am I entirely clear on the depths to which GPL runs, so light on the situation is appreciated. Thanks.
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Progress Report:
The Adventures of Powerstick Man: Extended Edition
Currently Updating: General sweep of the game world and dialogue boxes. Adding extended maps.
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FyreWulff
Still Jaded
Joined: 02 Apr 2005
Posts: 406
Location: The Internet
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| Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2011 5:21 am Post subject: |
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license.txt only applies to the ohrrpgce binaries, not the .rpg files.
Also I forgot that posts in here go on the front page, so I've thumbnailed the image and will be clipping down the text here shortly, also because I'm adding that CC license. |
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TMC
On the Verge of Insanity
Joined: 05 Apr 2003
Posts: 3240
Location: Matakana
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| Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2011 12:37 pm Post subject: |
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Dual licenced! Extra complexity!
I don't see any time to spend enhancing SoJ anywhere in the relatively near future, unfortunately.
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"It is so great it is insanely great." |
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FyreWulff
Still Jaded
Joined: 02 Apr 2005
Posts: 406
Location: The Internet
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| Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2011 4:56 pm Post subject: |
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It's like choose your own adventure, but with licenses. Go with the semi-complicated GPL release for your additions or the simpler CC one, since I can't remove the GPL option if someone already downloaded it. I think.
Option of licensing isn't a new thing in the computer world anyway! |
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TMC
On the Verge of Insanity
Joined: 05 Apr 2003
Posts: 3240
Location: Matakana
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| Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2011 11:04 pm Post subject: |
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Or the third option, which I would choose: distribute modifications under the dual licence (triple?), for compatibility.
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FyreWulff
Still Jaded
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Posts: 406
Location: The Internet
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| Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2011 6:12 am Post subject: |
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| That would also work. |
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Bob the Hamster
OHRRPGCE Developer
Joined: 22 Feb 2003
Posts: 2526
Location: Hamster Republic (Southern California Enclave)
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| Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 9:44 am Post subject: |
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| Pepsi Ranger wrote: | | Actually, this GPL license versus character IPs and whatnot has my interest. When we release a game with the license.txt, are we also blindly committing our characters to the GPL, or just the use of the engine? Like Fyre, I have plans for reusing most, if not all of my characters in alternative formats, some of which are already being reused elsewhere. I want to make sure the formats (and characters, locations, etc.) remain separate from any kind of umbrella license. |
Fyre is right.
Although be aware you should be including LICENSE-binary.txt not LICENSE.txt
the LICENSE-binary.txt file explicitly states that the license only applies to the game engine and not the game data.
However, even if you accidentally included LICENSE.txt with your game, don't worry, there is an extra couple lines at the beginning which make it explicit that the license applies to the OHRRPGCE source code.
Also, even if you have a plain vanilla GPL license, that doesn't necessarily mean you lose your trademarks on your characters. GPL says nothing at all about trademarks, ONLY copyrights (and patents for GPL v3)
My understanding of trademark law is this: To protect your trademarks, you have to keep an eye out for people who are infringing on them, and yell at them. :) That is why I wrote this wiki article :) |
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