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Author Topic: question about the licencing  (Read 7058 times)
toasty
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« on: March 27, 2011, 10:59:28 AM »

If I have some free time (I have my own unrelated project to run and maintain) I might think about making some stuff for OA. I have a question though. I read the wiki about the not-todo and I'm still a bit stuck on one particular part. Is NO-Copyright content compatible? I am unfortunately not so familiar with the gplv2 license. Any content that I would release would have to be as Public-domain/No-copyright.

I prefer to release under this so that I can still use anything that I create for other projects without having to worry about licensing issues.
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dbX
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« Reply #1 on: March 27, 2011, 11:45:41 AM »

If I have some free time (I have my own unrelated project to run and maintain) I might think about making some stuff for OA. I have a question though. I read the wiki about the not-todo and I'm still a bit stuck on one particular part. Is NO-Copyright content compatible? I am unfortunately not so familiar with the gplv2 license. Any content that I would release would have to be as Public-domain/No-copyright.

I prefer to release under this so that I can still use anything that I create for other projects without having to worry about licensing issues.

You can use your own stuff however you like, regardless of the license, if you made your stuff from scratch(e.g. you have not used stuff from anyone else to create your own). The license only relates to other people using your stuff. This way, e.g., ID Software can give the quake 3 engine to the community under a GPL2 license, while still being able to license it differently to anyone else who wants to use it in their own proprietary project, since the quake 3 engine was created by ID.

If you make something, you can use it under whatever terms you wish. However, if you provide it under a license to other people, those people need to respect the license.
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Cacatoes
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« Reply #2 on: March 27, 2011, 04:41:36 PM »

That's right, you always possess full rights over your own creations, so even if you license them under something, you still have the rights to do anything with it. However, if you give rights to people, you usually can't take them back.

The only requirement to make it suitable for OA is to make it GPL-compatible, that includes, to name a few licenses {GPL, BSD, Public domain...), that excludes {Full copyright, Creative Commons...}

After that, it's a game about what you allow/disallow. GPL is already a quite permissive license (hence it's called a "free" license) which allows: copy, distribution, modifying, selling...
These rights have a counterpart, which are: if you use some GPL stuff and modify it, then your result also has to be GPLed. You have to keep track of contributors/paternity and specify them in credits. You have to distribute the GPL license text along with the work, more I have forgotten.

I'm personnally more keen on public domain like things, which allow people to really do whatever they want and have no counterparts at all. Most OA contributors publish their work under GPLv2, and it's sometimes felt like necessary since they re-use some GPL materials inside their work (which says "if you use me, then GPLize your work")

This is quite summed up and already complex, hope you get the idea.
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« Reply #3 on: March 28, 2011, 01:39:21 AM »

In short, if that work is 100% yours, you can release it under Public Domain and/or GPLv2 and it can be used in OpenArena.
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