[cc-community] Why the GPL-incompatibility?

Javier Candeira javier at candeira.com
Sat Feb 10 11:31:23 EST 2007


Rob Myers wrote:
>> This would  help the legal distrib-
>> ution  by free distros of some apps (particularly games).
> 
> Free distros are distros of free *software*. The requirements of freedom 
> for cultural works and for computer programs may be different.

Videogames are programs that require resources such as music, 3D vector
files and images. Those resources are needed for using the program. Without
them the code is useless. Shoud we require the freedom to modify the code, I
 think we should require it to modify graphics and sounds too.

Freedom to modify the code that runs a menu is not enough if I can't modify
the graphics for that menu, and freedom to modify the code for a videogame
is not enough if I can't modify its models and textures.

Otherwise, I agree that the requirements of freedom for cultural works may
be different than those for computer programs. I just think that in the case
where the two are closely enmeshed, the requierements for computer programs
should extend to the rest of the resources.

Miriam Ruiz has made a list of her problems packaging games for Debian that
include licensing issues:
http://www.miriamruiz.es/weblog/?p=20

There may be a formal problem in defining the pint where the code in a game
and its resources meet: they are not "linked" as two pieces of code, but
they are more than "mere aggregation". That is where my earlier GPL mistake
came from.

>> Debian,  in particular, does not deem any CC license
>> to be free, even the most permissive by and by-sa flavours.
> 
> Debian have worked very hard to help improve the CC licenses, and 
> hopefully BY and BY-SA 3.0 will prove acceptable to Debian Legal.

I now see I was not well informed. I stand corrected, again.

-- javier



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