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I am just seeking some clarifications on GPL compatibilities as far as closed source mods works.

Is it legal to play a closed-source mod designed for Quake 3 on OA?

Is it legal to play the original Quake 3 on OA?

It seems as if it is allowable as I have read many posts from others running closed source mods on OA, but I'd rather not assume anything (especially concerning the GPL) and I hadn't found anything from searching on the forum.

Also I was wondering if anyone knows the terms that the quake3 point release is licensed under? Is it possible to re-package this as an rpm for example?

Yes, we just can't distribute them.


Yes, _IF_ you have a legal copy. 

We do not and never will advocate piracy.  If you have a warez copy we will hunt you down and force you to listen to the bee gees repeatedly until you are frothing at the mouth.  This torture will end only when you run screaming into the streets to be ran over by a Chartreuse VW Microbus carrying 14 long haired Friends of Jesus driven by one rather annoyed blind buddhist.



I believe that was released under the GPL, but the patched pak files are not.  :)

Thanks for the reply.


I do own a legal copy of quake 3 arena. I even just purchased a copy of quake 4 the other day. (Couldn't resist as it was clearanced for $7.48)


So it would not be possible to re-package the files the point release installs in to an rpm and redistribute that? I'll have to look and see if there is a license that is installed or email id. The reason I'm asking is because I've been thinking about setting up a repository for linux users to more easily install opensourced games and qame content for open sourced engines. Thus if you wanted to install quake 3 you would install the quake 3 package, which includes the updated point release data and a simple install script that would prompt the user for the original game cd and install the missing data files from there.

Seeing that the patch PK3 files contain copyrighted id content (like new maps, sounds, models and gfx) it's not legally possible in a Free environment. There's some license stuff on ioquake3's site (http://ioquake3.org) about that too since they also provide the full Quake3 patch with their engine installers.

Now Does that mean that 3rd party mods, model's, and maps etc.. could be used?  As they are not the intellectual property of Id more of the person who created them non gratis and are freely distributed across the web..