License
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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 Compatability
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:
- ZDoom 1.22, which was based on the original release of the Doom source under the Doom Educational License.
- QuakeWorld, which was released under the GNU Public License.
- Heretic and Hexen code, which was a part of the source and was released with 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.
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.
- Upon meeting the above condition, the author of ZDoom 1.22 has agreed to license the remaining code under the 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.