[Ubuntu-gaming] Fwd: [FSF] Breakthrough for Free Software Gaming

Thu May 6 15:26:27 BST 2010

On Thu, May 6, 2010 at 10:21 AM, Danny Piccirillo
<danny.piccirillo at ubuntu.com> wrote:
> Identica:
> http://identi.ca/notice/31264446
> Reddit:
> http://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/c0kn3/ryzom_mmorpg_partners_with_the_fsf_and_goes_gnu/
>
>>If Ryzom is still a game you have to buy in order to get access to the code
>
> Of course, that would be illegal...

That's not actually illegal. You can sell code ( that's the free as in
beer part ), but to remain open source you have to provide the source
code at a modest ( at most ) price ( free as in freedom part )

>
> On Thu, May 6, 2010 at 10:13, Moustafa Chamli <moustafa.chamli at gmail.com> wrote:
>> While this may be great news, there is still one issue to be adressed: Is it
>> still sold, or downloaded for free?  The reason most large companies don't
>> go Free is because of the fear of losing profits.  If Ryzom is still a game
>> you have to buy in order to get access to the code, this would be excellent
>> news as it could encourage more companies to do the same.
>>
>> Moustafa Chamli
>> Game designer, 3D modeler
>> moustafa.chamli at gmail.com
>>
>>
>> On Thu, May 6, 2010 at 8:34 AM, Danny Piccirillo
>> <danny.piccirillo at ubuntu.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>>> From: Peter Brown <info at fsf.org>
>>> Date: Thu, May 6, 2010 at 08:01
>>> Subject: [FSF] Breakthrough for Free Software Gaming
>>> To: info-fsf at fsf.org, info-press at fsf.org
>>>
>>>
>>> Breakthrough for Free Software Gaming--Ryzom Announces Full Release of
>>> Source Code and Artwork, and a Partnership with the Free Software
>>> Foundation to Host a Repository of the Game's Artistic Assets.
>>>
>>> Press release: http://dev.ryzom.com/news/13 and at
>>> http://www.fsf.org/news/free-ryzom-1
>>>
>>>
>>> By Brett Smith - FSF Licensing Compliance Engineer
>>>
>>> Ryzom is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG),
>>> where players work together to explore a fantasy world and set out on
>>> various quests. Today, the Ryzom team has released the game as free
>>> software: both the client and server programs have been released under
>>> the GNU Affero General Public License version 3, while its models,
>>> textures, and other art are covered by CC-BY-SA 3.0.
>>>
>>> This release is probably the single-biggest contribution to free
>>> software games yet. If you missed it, check out the press release. We're
>>> thankful to the Ryzom team for making this release, and excited about
>>> the possibilities it presents to all free software games. The code is
>>> tested and proven, having run the Ryzom game since 2004, and the
>>> art—more than 13 gigabytes of data—can be adapted and used in other
>>> games. This release can provide a lot of new resources and energy for
>>> free software game development.
>>>
>>> Since we're expecting people to have a lot of interest in this release,
>>> we wanted to provide some detailed information up-front about exactly
>>> what has and has not been released, and suggestions for ways developers
>>> can contribute to the project effectively.
>>>
>>> All of the code necessary to run both the client and server software has
>>> been released under AGPLv3. If you want to play on the official Ryzom
>>> server today, you can do that using only free software. Modified clients
>>> will not be allowed to connect to the official server, but a testing
>>> server is available to try them out.
>>>
>>> If you want to run your own server for the game, you have the software
>>> to do that, but you won't really have any world data—information about
>>> geography, special places, characters, quests, items, and so on—to run
>>> it with. Winch Gate Properties, the company that currently holds the
>>> copyright for all game materials and runs the official server, has
>>> decided not to release that data, to avoid causing disruption for their
>>> current player community. People who want to run their own server will
>>> need to develop their own world to do so—only a small test world comes
>>> with the code.
>>>
>>> Unfortunately, that development can't be done with free software,
>>> because most of the world creation process depends on proprietary 3-D
>>> modeling software. Work is already underway to eliminate those
>>> dependencies and use free software alternatives like Blender. This is
>>> the next big task that needs to be done to make Ryzom even more useful
>>> to the free software community, so if you'd like to help, please see the
>>> project page for more information. In the meantime, the server code may
>>> be adapted for other games.
>>>
>>> Art files from the game, including both textures and 3-D models, have
>>> been released under CC-BY-SA 3.0. The FSF is helping distribute these
>>> files by hosting a mirror for the Ryzom media server. You can use these
>>> files in other games, software, artistic works—anywhere, really—under
>>> the terms of that license. Music and sound effects are not being
>>> released today because Winch Gate does not have the legal rights to do
>>> so, but they are trying to find an arrangement that will see these files
>>> released under a free license as well.
>>>
>>> Today's release offers free software developers a lot of opportunities,
>>> both to contribute to Ryzom and to improve other software. If you see a
>>> project that you'd like to see benefit, please get involved! For more
>>> information about this release, including downloads and more projects
>>> underway, please visit the Ryzom team's page.
>>>
>>> http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/ryzom-free-software
>>>
>>> info-fsf mailing list
>>> info-fsf at fsf.org
>>> Unsubscribe: http://lists.fsf.org/mailman/listinfo/info-fsf
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> .danny
>>>
>>> ☮♥Ⓐ - http://www.google.com/profiles/danny.piccirillo
>>> Every (in)decision matters.
>>>
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>>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
> --
> .danny
>
> ☮♥Ⓐ - http://www.google.com/profiles/danny.piccirillo
> Every (in)decision matters.
>
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