Open Source *Game* Programming License

Henningsen peter at alifegames.com
Thu Jan 18 22:38:55 UTC 2001


>What I would argue is that someone (presumably a company, but it could
>be anyone) might provide the source code for a game program, together
>with a usable but less than awesome "reference" world file with a
>published format (so that if anyone else wants to develop open world
>files they may), then advertise and sell (yes, _sell_ :))
>professionally-developed world files.

That is indeed the best way to make money at open source games that anyone
has been able to point out so far, and it will mostly compensate artists. A
way for programmers to get paid would improve this model, but hey, it's a
good start. And in my suggested LGP license (which is not really a new
license, but a dual licensing scheme, and which has garnered no response
from this list so far) programmers (copyright holders) would also get
compensated if and when a commercial license is sold. For instance, if a
commercial publisher wanted to pick up an LGP-licensed game, and pay for
super-cool worlds with expensive graphics, and without GPL'ing his code
enhancements, *then* the programmers would get paid. Maybe a far shot, but
better than nothing.

Peter Henningsen
alifegames.com




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