[IGDA_indies] GPL/LGPL, etc

[Thomas H. Buscaglia]

Brandon

Don't wimp out on the discussion.  You were raising good points.  And Chris 
can be a bit caustic...but that is no reason to acquiece of you think he is 
full of BS.

A few things you should consider though.

The IGDA White Papers are NOT pronouncements of the policy or position of 
the IGDA on the topics covered.  They reflect the opinion of each of the 
authors.  With some input fro the other contributors who provide review and 
comment prior to publication.  And while I suppose the organization could 
refuse o publish the work of a contributor it found offensive or incorrect, 
to my knowledge it never has done so.

These White Paper projects are, in fact, huge undertakings and represent 
thousands of dollars of time and effort being contributed to the 
organization by the professional contributors (the Ferengi in me shudders 
to think how many dollars of my billable time has been spent on IGDA White 
Papers and other volunteer stuffd).  So, I think a hands off policy towards 
anyone willing to step up and make a contribution has been followed and is 
appropriate.

This of course does not mean that "anything goes" but Chris stating his 
position that the viral nature of the GPL license make it totally 
inappropriate for any commercially viable game is not much of a 
stretch.  And if you disagree with his position or feel that these licenses 
deserve a more balanced treatment you are probably right.  But expecting 
Chris to change his position is not the way to get it done.

BTW the IP contributor group, as a direct result of your post adn the 
resulting discussion will be taking amuch more detailed look at open source 
liicensing issues in the new iteration of the IP White Paper....see this IP 
list email from Tom Barbalet the liist coordinator -

>The forum discussion gives a good backdrop to the level of
>detail open source merits in the next version of the white paper.
>
>As I've said, I would like to see a greater breadth of open source
>discussed. Central to this is some analysis of the wide variety of
>open source licenses and possible uses/problems in game development.
>
>Following a conclusion to (/slow down in?) the forum discussion, the
>IPR WP working group can generate dot-points from the discussion and
>start addressing these for inclusion to the next version of the white
>paper. Possibly coming very soon.
>
>Best regards,
>
>Tom [Barbalet]...


So you done good...keep fighting the good fight.  Indie input matters!

Tom B



>Your words are prescient.  I have just bowed out of the IGDA "IP rights
>white paper" thread by saying:
>
>"I think the best person to continue with input would be a FSF lawyer. I
>think we should have such an authority contributing to the whitepaper,
>as the say-so of the IGDA is important and shouldn't be used to spread
>misinformation. There are plenty of legitimate criticisms to be made of
>the GPL; misinformation is not required. Actually, so many of your
>points are addressed by the GPL FAQ, that I'm concerned about the axe
>you have to grind here.
>
>"I'm bowing out of this thread. If I see an IGDA whitepaper that is not
>factual, I'll bring it to the attention to the FSF and I'm sure they'll
>deal with it.
>
>"And, I'll reiterate, I don't even like the GPL. I'm a MIT/BSD kind of
>guy. But I think misinformation about open source business models has to
>be squashed at the source. Lest other open source licenses be tainted by
>market perceptions, or GPL adherants become even more radicalized than
>they already are, due to the "enemies circling all around."
>
>
>Cheers,                     www.indiegamedesign.com
>Brandon Van Every           Seattle, WA
>
>"The pioneer is the one with the arrows in his back."
>                           - anonymous entrepreneur
>
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>indies at igda.org
>http://four.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/indies


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