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karlb / castle-combat

A clone of the old arcade game Rampart. Multiplayer on one computer or via network.
http://www.linux-games.com/castle-combat
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14 stars 3 forks source link

Sound files not free: https://github.com/karlb/castle-combat/blob/master/LICENSE #4

Open gnusupport opened 2 years ago

gnusupport commented 2 years ago

Thanks for working on this game.

As sound files (Music) are not free, one has to point it out clearly, as all the game is infecting free software distributions with proprietary software.

In particular there is only copyright for sound files (Music), but there is no freedom described by the license, which implies that sound is proprietary: https://github.com/karlb/castle-combat/blob/master/LICENSE

Either make it free, explain explicitly if it is free, or remove non-free sound from the game, so that game becomes purely free software.

Even the Github policy is that it should be free.

karlb commented 2 years ago

I got permission from the author of the music freely redistribute it. However, that was more than 20 years ago and neither was I strict enough to get him to assign a specific license, nor was it easy to find suitable licenses (that was before Creative Commons, and GPL was not recommended for music files). Unfortunately, I was unable to reach the author for clarification within the last decade. If anyone finds the current contact info, please let me know!

Either make it free, explain explicitly if it is free, or remove non-free sound from the game, so that game becomes purely free software.

I would like to keep the music in the official releases. Would adding a sentence like "The music maybe redistributed at no cost as part of this game. It is not free according to the Debian Free Software Guidelines" make the situation clear enough?

Removing or replacing the music is easy enough for a distributor who cares about freedom. Debian does so for ages.

Even the Github policy is that it should be free.

Can you be more specific? As far as I know, github allows hosting of non-free software.

gnusupport commented 2 years ago

How I understand that situation, you are licensing the game as free software, but distributing non-free music. That makes a conflict, as then redistribution is heavier. Why not find music which is free to distribute?

I see you mentioned "at no cost" -- but point of free software is freedom, not the cost. Even if you say "at no cost" that would mean it is proprietary. Free software is not related to money and can be sold for money.

Basically, you expect from distributors to change music or remove it. That is hard way to go, people cannot easily notice the problem. One piece or package like that may influence whole distributions and organizations. There is hidden legal threat in background of copyright holders.

See this list of links with free music: https://creativecommons.org/about/program-areas/arts-culture/arts-culture-resources/legalmusicforvideos/

Maybe you could find free music there and replace it.