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Author Topic: Q3A 1.32 mods and GPL  (Read 9516 times)
luka
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« on: November 24, 2013, 10:55:22 AM »
Hello,
Do authors of Q3A 1.32 mods violate GPL when they do not release source code of their mods?
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fromhell
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« Reply #1 on: November 24, 2013, 02:18:55 PM »
If they based it off the Q3A SDK source (prior to the 2005 GPL release) then nope!

However, that also carries its own restrictions - for use with the full commercial version of Quake III Arena only.  There's already one super mega popular closed source "free game" that violates the Q3A SDK EULA, but try to weasel out of that by claiming they're distributing a q3 mod and providing the ioq3 port as a complimentary (despite being able to run stand-alone)...  


That said, OA capable of running mods out there is purely on the user's own risk - which is different than a developer just blatantly using the Q3A SDK (not GPL source) to make a closed source game falsely guised as an open source game...
« Last Edit: November 24, 2013, 02:24:33 PM by fromhell » Logged
asking when OA3 will be done won't get OA3 done.
Progress of OA3 currently occurs behind closed doors alone

I do not provide technical support either.

new code development on github
grey matter
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« Reply #2 on: November 24, 2013, 02:58:52 PM »
Quote from: fromhell on November 24, 2013, 02:18:55 PM
If they based it off the Q3A SDK source (prior to the 2005 GPL release) then nope!
Which of course implies that they can't use any patches (e.g. from ioquake3) or other code (from other mods) that is under GPL.
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Neon_Knight
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« Reply #3 on: November 24, 2013, 03:17:19 PM »
This might be an extremely dumb question, but... can a developer release a new version of his/her Q3A SDK mod under GPL?
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andrewj
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« Reply #4 on: November 25, 2013, 11:56:03 PM »
Quote from: Neon_Knight on November 24, 2013, 03:17:19 PM
This might be an extremely dumb question, but... can a developer release a new version of his/her Q3A SDK mod under GPL?
If everything they used from the SDK (code which their mod is based on) is available in the GPL code base, and the mod has not used any resources from the original game (e.g. use a model with a new skin), plus all other resources are GPL compatible -- then basically "yes" they can relicense it under the GPL.

A precedent for this (not tested in court though) is that numerous DOOM source ports were originally under a quite restrictive license that the DOOM source code was released under, but later on Carmack re-released the DOOM code under the GPL, and those source ports relicensed themselves to the GPL.
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