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Re: Fwd: [FSF] Breakthrough for Free Software Gaming

 

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...

On Thu, May 6, 2010 at 10:13, Moustafa Chamli <moustafa.chamli@xxxxxxxxx> 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@xxxxxxxxx
>
>
> On Thu, May 6, 2010 at 8:34 AM, Danny Piccirillo
> <danny.piccirillo@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>
>>
>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>> From: Peter Brown <info@xxxxxxx>
>> Date: Thu, May 6, 2010 at 08:01
>> Subject: [FSF] Breakthrough for Free Software Gaming
>> To: info-fsf@xxxxxxx, info-press@xxxxxxx
>>
>>
>> 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@xxxxxxx
>> 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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