2 small changes. Will be send in 2 hours. > Dear Sir or Madam, > > I am writing to you on behalf of the Warzone Resurrection Project > (http://www.wz2100.net/, http://gna.org/projects/warzone/), since we have > questions regarding the license under which the source and data to the game > Warzone 2100 were released. (I'll repeat the most important ones at the end > again.) > > The game Warzone 2100 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warzone_2100) was > developed by Pumpkin Studios and published by Eidos in 1999. After ten > patches to the game, Pumpkin Studios ceased development on Warzone 2100, > and was disbanded by Eidos in early 2000. Pumpkin Studios then reformed > into Pivotal Games (http://www.pivotalgames.com/). > > The fan community produced two further patches. Feeling that they could not > realize their plans for the game without access to the source code, the > community started petitioning Pumpkin Studios to release the source code. > > On December 6, 2004 Alex McLean, Lead Developer of the game, uploaded an > archive file to a community member's FTP server. This archive, > downloadable at http://www.3ddownloads.com/liberatedgames/Warzone2100.rar, > contains the source code to the game and several utilities (as far as they > could release it), and a copy of the game stripped of only the music (which > were CD audio tracks in the commercial release) and most of the larger > video sequences telling the story of the single player campaign. In > addition to that, a gpl.txt (version 2) and a readme.txt were included. > I'll quote the readme.txt in full here: > > *************************************************************************** >**** "Warzone 2100 Source & Data > > 1) These source and data files are provided as is with no guarantees. > > 2) No assistance or support will be offered or given. > > 3) Everything you will require to make a build of the game should be here. > If it isn't, you'll have to improvise(*). > > 4) None of us here at Pivotal Games are in a position to be able to offer > any help with making this work. > > 5) This source code is released under the terms of the GNU Public License. > Please be sure to read the entirety of this license but the summary is that > you're free to do what you want with the source subject to making the full > source code freely available in the event of the distribution of new > binaries. > > Finally, the primary motivation for this release is for entertainment and > educational purposes. On the subject of the latter, don't be surprised to > see some pretty gnarly old-school C code in here; the game was a classic > but large areas of the code aren't pretty; OO design and C++ evangelists > beware! We haven't spent any time cleaning the code or making if pretty - > what you see is what you're getting, warts n' all. > > Thankyou to Jonathan Kemp of Eidos Europe for permitting the release. > Thanks also to Frank Lamboy for assistance with the release and for > campaigning along with many many others over the years for the source to be > made available. The correspondence, online petitions and persistence made > this possible. We were constantly amazed at the community support for > Warzone even after all this time; it's nice to be able to give something > back, assuming you can get it to compile...;-) > > 6th December 2004 > Alex M - ex Pumpkin Studios (Eidos) > > (*) Except FMV and music..." > *************************************************************************** >**** (With FMV he refers to Full Motion Video.) > > The archive was put together by Alex McLean (as far as we know) without > spending a lot of time on it, since they were busy with their newer games > (thus also the refusal of any help or support), they basically just put > everything together and added the gpl.txt and the readme.txt files. > > Now this was a bit unlucky. The readme.txt states in 1) "These source and > data files are provided as is with no guarantees", but 5) says "This source > code is released under the terms of the GNU Public License." As the source > archive contains both source code and data, this seems to indicate that > only the source was released under the GPL. This leaves the question about > the data. Is "as is with no guarantees" some kind of license itself (ie. > can we just assume an implicit "... and no restrictions" after that)? > > Parts of the game mechanics are implemented using a scripting language, > with script files loaded and interpreted by the game code written in C; > those scripts are in the data directory, but, depending on the point of > view, they could be seen as source as well. What is legaly correct?
> The release was intended as a present to the fan community, so we > believe that there was no intention of keeping anything closed, except > that which was necessary because of third party rights. There were > third party rights to parts of the code (movie codec, sound and > networking), and to the music sound track, both of which were omitted. > The movie files were also omitted, although we believe this was > because they thought we could not play them (legally or otherwise) > without the source to the movie codec. > > A previous debian-legal discussion > (http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg30913.html) > resulted in "probably everything is GPL, but you have to ask the author to > be sure." Unfortunately, until now, none of our inquiries was answered. > Some of those were done by Frank Lamboy (mentioned in the readme.txt, who > had contact with Pumpkin Studios since the release of the game and was > involved in the creation of the ten patches to the game, as well as being > crucial to the petitions for the source), but even he received no answer. > > Now he has said > (http://www.realtimestrategies.net/forums/viewtopic.php?p=15347&highlight=# >15347) http://www.realtimestrategies.net/forums/viewtopic.php?p=15347#15347 >>that "the legal rights to the WZ Cam content were turned-over by > Eidos to the ex-Pumpkins and they inturn have liberated it". They have not > answered any past inquiries. > They have been bought by SCi, and at least Jonathan Kemp isn't employed > there anymore, so it might be quite difficult to reach someone > knowledgeable on this matter. > > > Questions: > > 1. Does the readme.txt give us any indication on what license the data was > released under, ie. does "as is with no guarantees" give us any permissions > (like an implicit "with no restrictions", since they don't mention any)? > > 2. Is there a way to legally distribute the game data without further > word from the copyright holders?" > > 3. How can we best ensure that the possible legal ambiguity of the license > does not threaten or opens up to lawsuits the project and anyone who > distributes our builds of the game? > > 4. If so, what proof of that is necessary and who has that? > > 5. Does it make sense to try to contact Eidos on this matter? > > I intend to post your replies to our mailing list ([email protected]) to > keep the other members updated; if you do not want your answer publicised, > please state so clearly. > > Thanks for your help, and if you have any further questions, don't hesitate > to contact me. I, along with a very active Warzone 2100 community, await > any response you are able to offer > > Yours faithfully, > Dennis Schridde > For the Warzone Resurrection Project > > Address: > xxxxxxxxxxxx Str. xx > D xxxxx xxxxxxxxxxx > Germany > > Phone: +49 xxxxx / xxxxx
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