Liberating games: low hanging fruit

Liberating games: low hanging fruit

Postby drummyfish » 06 Jul 2019, 19:41

EDIT: the ASCII version of KeeperRL has been liberated!

So I just wanted to add KeeperRL to libregamewiki. Their advertisement makes it looks like the gratis version (ASCII version without the commercial assets) is free -- they state it on their website and the whole repo that can be compiled and played is licensed GPLv2. However, that is not true because, as I have found, there is this sneaky little line hidden in COPYING-MEDIA:

Every file located in directory 'data_free' is granted under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA licence.


So the game is non-free, but it's just because of a few GUI elements and configs that could easily be replaced (or maybe even just deleted). Only a relatively small effort would be required to make the game free.

I am creating this thread firstly in order to highlight this fact so that there is a bigger chance someone will liberate the game, and secondly to ask you whether you know about other similar low hanging fruit projects like this. I'll start a list of these games, which I will keep updating.

the list:

  • KeeperRL: The gratis ASCII-only version is free except a few NC GUI assets and configs. liberated by the devs!
  • Meteorite: Only a font is non-free!
  • Tuxemon: A few tiles are under a weird "XYG" license, whose text I haven't found anywhere.
Last edited by drummyfish on 20 Jul 2019, 13:51, edited 2 times in total.
socialist anarcho-pacifist
Abolish all IP laws. Use CC0. Let's write less retarded software.
http://www.tastyfish.cz
User avatar
drummyfish
 
Posts: 448
Joined: 29 Jul 2018, 20:30
Location: Moravia

Re: Liberating games: low hanging fruit

Postby Hythlodaeus » 10 Jul 2019, 00:40

Hi there,

Thank you for pointing out this! I will update the article I have written for Freegamer accordingly.

I think that the sound thing to do here would be to contact the developers and ask them to relicense the NC elements to plain BY-SA.

Many sound reasons can be presented for this, for example, the desire to submit the game to the Debian repos. I think the devs should be kind enough on this matter, given they're already offering the game gratis and with libre code.
Hythlodaeus
 
Posts: 40
Joined: 26 Feb 2013, 14:04

Re: Liberating games: low hanging fruit

Postby drummyfish » 10 Jul 2019, 00:54

Yes, your article is how I came across that game :-) Contacting the devs is definitely a good thing to try as a solution, a simple way can be creating an issue in the GitHub repository. I've done this a lot of times and it often leads to me painstakingly reiterating and explaining over and over exactly why I am asking for it, why that is important, sometimes even arguments arise. I've kind of ran out of energy to doing that, but I'll be glad if someone else does.
socialist anarcho-pacifist
Abolish all IP laws. Use CC0. Let's write less retarded software.
http://www.tastyfish.cz
User avatar
drummyfish
 
Posts: 448
Joined: 29 Jul 2018, 20:30
Location: Moravia

Re: Liberating games: low hanging fruit

Postby Julius » 10 Jul 2019, 06:52

User avatar
Julius
Community Moderator
 
Posts: 3297
Joined: 06 Dec 2009, 14:02

Re: Liberating games: low hanging fruit

Postby Hythlodaeus » 10 Jul 2019, 10:05

Ok, so the developer was around and actually seemed committed to make the game 100% free, so the NC clause might have been a misunderstanding in this regard. I'll try to contact him to see what can be done. :)
Hythlodaeus
 
Posts: 40
Joined: 26 Feb 2013, 14:04

Re: Liberating games: low hanging fruit

Postby Wuzzy » 11 Jul 2019, 19:57

Nice! I suggest to add a wiki page for low-hanging fruit on the LibreGameWiki as well so they don't get lost.

Also, PLEASE try to give any improvements to upstream FIRST, before even thinking about a fork. :)
User avatar
Wuzzy
 
Posts: 989
Joined: 28 May 2012, 23:13

Re: Liberating games: low hanging fruit

Postby Hythlodaeus » 15 Jul 2019, 02:03

Hello,

I just contacted the author of keeperrl and he changed the license to CC-BY-SA in 5 mins. Please check the updated copying media file in the repo for reference.

You can now add the ASCII version of the game to libregamewiki and submit a repo inclusion request to the Debian Games Team. :)
Hythlodaeus
 
Posts: 40
Joined: 26 Feb 2013, 14:04

Re: Liberating games: low hanging fruit

Postby drummyfish » 15 Jul 2019, 16:36

Wow, this is really great, thank you very much :) I'll check it out further and create the article. Will also probably start playing it.
socialist anarcho-pacifist
Abolish all IP laws. Use CC0. Let's write less retarded software.
http://www.tastyfish.cz
User avatar
drummyfish
 
Posts: 448
Joined: 29 Jul 2018, 20:30
Location: Moravia

Re: Liberating games: low hanging fruit

Postby drummyfish » 15 Jul 2019, 17:41

I've created the article, feel free to expand: https://libregamewiki.org/KeeperRL.
socialist anarcho-pacifist
Abolish all IP laws. Use CC0. Let's write less retarded software.
http://www.tastyfish.cz
User avatar
drummyfish
 
Posts: 448
Joined: 29 Jul 2018, 20:30
Location: Moravia

Re: Liberating games: low hanging fruit

Postby Hythlodaeus » 16 Jul 2019, 12:12

Suggestion:

With some effort one could to try to adapt the supercomplete Dawnlike tileset by DragonDePlatino as replacement graphics.
Hythlodaeus
 
Posts: 40
Joined: 26 Feb 2013, 14:04

Re: Liberating games: low hanging fruit

Postby drummyfish » 17 Jul 2019, 05:12

socialist anarcho-pacifist
Abolish all IP laws. Use CC0. Let's write less retarded software.
http://www.tastyfish.cz
User avatar
drummyfish
 
Posts: 448
Joined: 29 Jul 2018, 20:30
Location: Moravia

Re: Liberating games: low hanging fruit

Postby Hythlodaeus » 17 Jul 2019, 10:34

I would consider trying dawnlike first, because not only it looks better, it actually has character animations and it definitely covers all of KeeperRL's needs.
Hythlodaeus
 
Posts: 40
Joined: 26 Feb 2013, 14:04

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Google [Bot] and 1 guest