FreeGameDev

qreeves {l Wrote}:"-by" asks that they give us credit for the artwork, zlib just asks really nicely. It is probably due to the awesome attention we've paid to our licenses that enables everyone, not just Microsoft, to do neat things like this.

Coming back on that, sorry about Free-software supporters coming into the #redeclipse channel to complain about non-Free textures. I've tried to get Red Eclipse in the FSF directory (because, well, it seemed to be Free), but they are having two small issues:

{l Code}: {l Select All Code}

Files: data/textures/bloodbath.png data/textures/carnage.png
       data/textures/critical.png data/textures/dominate.png
       data/textures/firstblood.png data/textures/headshot.png
       data/textures/massacre.png data/textures/multi.png
       data/textures/revenge.png data/textures/slaughter.png
       data/textures/triple.png
Copyright: Ed Merrit, Ten by Twenty, <http://www.tenbytwenty.com/>
           2011, Red Eclipse Team
License: Akashi-Font and CC-BY-SA-3.0
Comment:
The Akashi font is used as a basis for the word art in these images.


http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/redeclipse/browser/doc/all-licenses.txt#L178

{l Code}: {l Select All Code}

All our products are supplied under our license agreement which basically states that:

    Our products can be used for personal or commercial purposes.
    Our products may not be redistributed or sold.
    Free fonts may be used with @font-face, but paid ones may not.
    To show your appreciation for the free stuff, a small donation or link back to this site would be hugely appreciated.


http://www.tenbytwenty.com/akashi.php

This one is of the least concern. The Akashi-Font license is unclear about what the "product" is, but practically everyone agrees that we can safely assume that this usage is fine and that the files created can just be used fine.

However:

{l Code}: {l Select All Code}

Files: data/torley/*
Copyright: 2007-2008, Torley Linden
           2010, Red Eclipse Team
License: custom and CC-BY-3.0-US
 All Torley Textures are 512x512 in (lossless) PNG format and seamlessly tiling.
 Use 'em almost however you want — just don't resell as-is — and let me know if
 you make somethin' kewl with 'em. You can also get them in Second Life @
 http://torley.com/here

http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/redeclipse/browser/doc/all-licenses.txt#L201

That part is of a bit more concern. Red Eclipse seems to be in the directory right now because the license says "CC-BY", but there are a lot of discussions if "just don't resell as-in" doesn't mean "NC", making the textures non-Free. Of course, this use is still Free enough to make the game usable like in the Microsoft advertisement, but if we can get Torley to retract his "just don't resell as-in" statement, there should be absolutely no issue at all with Red Eclipse anymore.

Now, I'm not saying this HAS to be fixed, but seeing how we are talking about the licenses anyway, I thought it may be worth the time to bring this very minor issue (which I don't consider a real problem, but some people seem to consider it so) up. I would also completely understand it if you can't be bothered to worry about it (because, personally, I find the game Free enough as it is, and I wouldn't be surprised to get similar opinions).

Hmm, for the akashi-font license I've taken the clarification we have by email to be sufficient, but I guess that it might not be then, it would be interesting to hear more of their comments on that...
https://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/redec ... s.txt#L367

{l Code}: {l Select All Code}

License: Akashi-Font
 http://www.tenbytwenty.com/
 .
 License Agreement
 .
 By downloading any product from Ten by Twenty, you agree to the following:
 .
     * All products remain property of Ten by Twenty.
     * Products may be used by the licensee in any personal or commercial
       projects (royalty-free).
     * Products may not be resold or redistributed.
     * Wordpress themes may be edited and developed for individual use, but
       credit links must remain in place and adapted themes may not be
       reditributed.
 .
 Clarification:
 .
 I ("Arand") contacted Ed Merrit (of Ten by Twenty) via email, requesting a
 clarification for the font license and received this response:
 .
 > Hi Arand,
 >
 > Basically, you can use the fonts for whatever you like, the only restriction
   being that:
 > If the font is a "paid" one, rather than a free one, you should not make the
   .ttf file available to the public.
 > Other than that I'm happy for you use the font however you like.
 >
 > Ed
 .
 The "akashi" typeface (available from http://www.tenbytwenty.com/akashi.php) is
 made available for free by the author.



As for the torley textures, I've assumed that similar to how the OFL 1.1 works the textures would be re-sellable if in a bundle with other stuff. But I can definitely see that this might be unclear, or even the wrong interpretation, since the OFL does this much more explicitly:
https://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/redec ... s.txt#L400

{l Code}: {l Select All Code}

(...)
 1) Neither the Font Software nor any of its individual components,
 in Original or Modified Versions, may be sold by itself.
 .
 2) Original or Modified Versions of the Font Software may be bundled,
 redistributed and/or sold with any software, provided that each copy
 contains the above copyright notice and this license. These can be
 included either as stand-alone text files, human-readable headers or
 in the appropriate machine-readable metadata fields within text or
 binary files as long as those fields can be easily viewed by the user.
(...)


I'm not sure how much we modify these textures in adaptation to RE as well and if that could be considered to still be "as-is" at all...

Since I think that the FSF directory is likely reasonably authoritative, I'll see about looking over these things again in the (hopefully near) future.

You could try. I'd recommend relicensing under the very popular SIL Open Font License. It has received surprisingly significant uptake amongst typeface designers where 'free culture' and open source have not been as popular in their fields. Send the chap that exact link and mention possibly increased uptake (leads to more popularity of his commercial, proprietary fonts, so good for business!), as well as a possible expansion of the font to support other languages (you currently can't type in Greek). I'm sure he'd be happy to see his work being appreciated and expanded, with his name rubber-stamped on everything (have to give credit, as with any open source license).

Evropi {l Wrote}:You could try. I'd recommend relicensing under the very popular SIL Open Font License. It has received surprisingly significant uptake amongst typeface designers where 'free culture' and open source have not been as popular in their fields. Send the chap that exact link and mention possibly increased uptake (leads to more popularity of his commercial, proprietary fonts, so good for business!), as well as a possible expansion of the font to support other languages (you currently can't type in Greek). I'm sure he'd be happy to see his work being appreciated and expanded, with his name rubber-stamped on everything (have to give credit, as with any open source license).

Well

• Note that there's two fonts, Play (the current main font) has none of these problems (if Greek doesn't work, that's RE's fault, and it's already OFL).
• The Akashi font is the old one, currently only used in the logo and in some word art, I think I did suggest OFL when asking about it initially, which didn't catch unfortunately (maybe worth another go at nagging...)

arand {l Wrote}:Hmm, for the akashi-font license I've taken the clarification we have by email to be sufficient, but I guess that it might not be then, it would be interesting to hear more of their comments on that...

I can't believe I missed that part. I would consider that to be sufficient, and if I have my system up and running again (still busy configuring Gentoo properly) I'll talk with the guys about it, although most seem to have already accepted it, so I wouldn't talk too much about it.

arand {l Wrote}:As for the torley textures, I've assumed that similar to how the OFL 1.1 works the textures would be re-sellable if in a bundle with other stuff. But I can definitely see that this might be unclear, or even the wrong interpretation, since the OFL does this much more explicitly:
https://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/redec ... s.txt#L400
[...]
I'm not sure how much we modify these textures in adaptation to RE as well and if that could be considered to still be "as-is" at all...

I personally wouldn't know either, I'm quite new to this whole licensing stuff. jgay, the guy who helped me add it, considered it to just be the Creative Commons license, and nothing more, but that decision sparked quite a fight on the IRC.

arand {l Wrote}:Since I think that the FSF directory is likely reasonably authoritative, I'll see about looking over these things again in the (hopefully near) future.

I wish you the best of luck.

I believe I found the perfect typeface for a game such as RE on Google Webfonts: Aldrich http://www.google.com/webfonts/specimen/Aldrich
No licensing issues here

We could still use Play for menus and chat. UNfortunately, this font ofc does not have a full set of unicode characters (This is needed for foreign players, like Russians)
So... Nag the author? He is a pretty well-off guy who now designs fonts for Disney and such. His email is mattdesmond@gmail.com; tell me if you think this is worthwhile or I am just wasting my time :P

As of http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/redecl ... geset/4874 the Torley textures are now purely CC-BY-SA-3.0.

That's great news, arand! This will definitely convert the few which were still complaining about the licensing. Great job!

arand {l Wrote}:As of http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/redecl ... geset/4874 the Torley textures are now purely CC-BY-SA-3.0.

Awesome birthday present, you've done well.