Re: [Nel] Something I don't understand about the license agreement.

[Vincent Archer]

Well, you summarised my summaries...

According to Sal:
>     If I'm not mistaken, the things that define your game would mostly be
> located in serverside databases. Yes any modification to the server _code_

There are probably a few minor code modifications, required to support
very specific rules (if you want to run elections, the code for booths
and all that is probably hard code). But, if we've done our design right,
most of a MMORPG design should be a matter of fiddling data.

>     I'm pretty sure these databases would not be covered by the GPL.  All
> that people could 'steal' would be your binaries. And that does not mean
> they can carbon-coby your game.  Your rules, mapfiles, plot, etc. could all
> be copywritten material.

Not "could". Is. It's automatic and non-debatable. When you write it,
it is automatically covered by copyright, and you have to explicitely
put it in the public domain (which is not *that* easy). With the
provision about plot; as I explained before, a plot cannot be
copyrighted, while specifics are. You can't copyright "evil arch-villain
wants to overthrow king", you can only copyright "Mezzo Kharkan wants
to overthrow king Ariflax".

(hmmm, if I have infringed some copyright here, it's purely unintentional,
 and was only for purpose of citation. Honest)

>     I think 'derivitive works' pertains to modifications of the Nel codebase

In the GPL text, yes. Derivative works refer to code. GPL says exactly
nothing about data, so it's not covered by the license.

>     Say I downloaded the binaries for Everquest's client and server (imagine
> they were GPLed). I still could not create an 'Everquest' game and put them
> out of business, I would need to create an exact copy of all their media, I
> would also have to mimic their ruleset, copy their maps, etc. And doing all
> that would be illegal, since its all copywritten material.

That's a good example. However (assuming Everquest code was GPL), once
you'd produced a set of player and NPC models, and made a few zone files
under a 3D modeller, and created your own items, you'd be able
to launch Realquest.

And try to put them out of business :)

>     Where you're mistaken is that the GPL doesnt force you to distribute
> _everything_  for free.  Just the material that is covered under the GPL,
> which would be, the source code to the binaries... and the source to any
> libraries used in conjunction with them.

By FSF's own admission, the source of any library "not commonly available
with the system". Otherwise, we'd have to provide the Nvidia OpenGL driver
sources if we wanted to run our game on a Nvidia-equipped PC :)

-- 
Vincent Archer                                         Email: address@hidden

Nevrax France.                              Off on the yellow brick road we go!