[quake3] Re: ioUrT licensing controversy (was Re: Greetings)

[LinuxManMikeC]

On Tue, Apr 22, 2008 at 8:32 AM, Thilo Schulz <arny at ats.s.bawue.de> wrote:
>
>  Alas, the rights to the original mod code lies with id of course. Still, it is
>  very cheap of the Urban Terror developers to resort to this phrasemongering
>  bullshit to reap the benefits of open development work we do for ioquake3
>  while at the same time keeping their sources closed out of fear someone might
>  fork or change the gameplay in a way they don't want. Timbo is rightly angry,
>  and all of ioquake3's main developers share these sentiments.
>

As I understand the GPL, the contributors to ioQ3 have the rights to
the changes that were made since the original release by id Software.
So you should have leverage and the right to make them release their
code or cease using the ioQ3 fork as they have been.  I don't see how
any supposed special permission by id could be forced onto the changes
provided by the ioQ3 engine.  It should only apply to id's original
release, beyond that id loses any ability to restrict the code.  Its
GPL and thats final.  Now figuring out how to deal with the Q3 SDK
license is another matter and having your own blessing from id's legal
department would be helpful should you choose to do something about
UrT.  Anyway, I have no law degrees to back up this advice, so
whatever.

Mike