Difference between revisions of "License"

Latest revision as of 06:32, 1 March 2017

Odamex dutifully follows the guidelines of the GNU General Public License (GPL). As a result, the Odamex source will always be available for everybody to download, observe and modify.

GPL Compatibility

Origins

Odamex is based on csDoom 0.62. This was, in turn, based on ZDoom 1.22. Fly, the author of csDoom, claimed that it was GPL; however, the ZDoom codebase which he used actually contained source code under several conflicting licenses:

The Doom source under the Doom Educational License.
QuakeWorld, which was released under the GNU General Public License.
Heretic and Hexen code, which was released under a separate, GPL-incompatible license.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to have a proper GNU GPL port while the codebase contains code under a GPL-incompatible license.

Solution

Odamex has taken the following steps to ensure that it is compliant with the GPL:

The Heretic and Hexen source codes have since been rereleased under the GPL, so all Raven code is now usable in Odamex.
Randy Heit has agreed to relicense his own code in this version of ZDoom under the GNU GPL.
The fact that Doom is now available under both Doom Educational License and the GNU Public License grants the author of a doom port the right to choose either one (assuming there are no other conflicts to the GPL option).
Fly's own code was provided with a GPL license, so we are taking this to mean that any of his contributions are licensed under the GNU GPL.

@@ Line 5: / Line 5: @@
 === Origins ===
-The codebase for [[csDoom]] .62 (the codebase upon which Odamex is based, which was, in turn, based on [[ZDoom]] 1.22), while GPL, was not GPL compatible since it had several parts to the code with several licenses to contend with:
+Odamex is based on [[csDoom]] 0.62.  This was, in turn, based on [http://zdoom.org ZDoom] 1.22.  Fly, the author of csDoom, claimed that it was GPL; however, the ZDoom codebase which he used actually contained source code under several conflicting licenses:
-*ZDoom 1.22, which was based on the original release of the Doom source under the Doom Educational License.
+*The Doom source under the Doom Educational License.
-*QuakeWorld, which was released under the GNU Public License.
+*QuakeWorld, which was released under the GNU General Public License.
-*Heretic and Hexen code, which was a part of the source and was released with a separate, GPL-incompatible license.
+*Heretic and Hexen code, which was released under a separate, GPL-incompatible license.
-Unfortunately, during this day, having an invalid GPL license means that all of the advantages of releasing said source under the GPL vanish until it can be rectified.
+Unfortunately, it is not possible to have a proper GNU GPL port while the codebase contains code under a GPL-incompatible license.
 === Solution ===
 Odamex has taken the following steps to ensure that it is compliant with the GPL:
-*All code in ZDoom 1.22 that was added by Raven's team for Heretic or Hexen has either been completely removed or rewritten from scratch.
+*The Heretic and Hexen source codes have since been rereleased under the GPL, so all Raven code is now usable in Odamex.
-*Upon meeting the above condition, the author of ZDoom 1.22 has agreed to license the remaining code under the GPL.
+*Randy Heit has agreed to relicense his own code in this version of ZDoom under the GNU GPL.
-*Although originally released solely under Doom Educational License, the fact that Doom is now avalable under both Doom Educational License and GNU Public License grants the author of ZDoom 1.22 the right to choose either one.
+*The fact that Doom is now available under both Doom Educational License and the GNU Public License grants the author of a doom port the right to choose either one (assuming there are no other conflicts to the GPL option).
-*Because csdoom was accompanied by a gpl license at some point and due to no other mention of anything anywhere pertaining to Fly's own changes compounded by the lack of proper contact information for him, we are taking his work as being compatible with this license.
+*Fly's own code was provided with a GPL license, so we are taking this to mean that any of his contributions are licensed under the GNU GPL.
 ==External Links==
-[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_General_Public_License Wikipedia]
+*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_General_Public_License Wikipedia entry on the GNU GPL]
+*[http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html GPL License v2]
-[http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html GPL License v2]
+*[http://odamex.net/doc/doomlic.txt Doom Educational License]
-[http://odamex.net/doc/doomlic.txt Doom Educational License]