[Freeciv-Dev] Re: Why fascism is bad but not communism

[Steve Hodge <shodge@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Juan Cortes wrote:
>  On the other hand, I am agree with Reed that for legal reason it is
> better that freeciv'll departure from Civ II as soon as possible. If
> you have the original, Why do you want a clone?. If the game won't leave
> the civ II, the game is commiting plagiarism!!!!. I know that MAME project
>  has had problems with this issue. Also, probably will have ROMnet as
> Napster had problems with the MP3s.

I feel this is not a relevant issue with your patch. It's been discussed
before without any real consensus being reached, and without wanting to
revive that discussion I will make two points:
1. There's a vast difference between MAME/ROMnet/Napster where actual
unmodified copyrighted material is being used or copied and FreeCiv
where at worst we're guilty of copying the rules (and it has not be
conclusively shown that those rules are copyrightable).
2. Hasbro will not just jump in and start suing random individuals. They
will first issue cease and desist letters at which time we discuss
options.

Also, nobody has objected to your patch on the grounds that it is not a
PayCiv feature. The objections have mainly been about the perceived
controversial/offensive nature of it. I don't agree with those
objections in general although I accept that something that has been so
controversial is unlikely to get included in any form at this point.
Some people have taken extreme stances at this point and are not likely
to relent under any circumstances.

>  In conclusion, Freeciv must evolve or it'll have serious problems, and
> bigger than be illegal in Germany for a Svastika....

That's yours, and apparently Reed's, opinion. There has been NO
indication that Hasbro has an problem with FreeCiv now, and no
indication that they are likely to develop one in the future. Given that
computer games with near identical concepts/rules have always been
common (take Quake3 and Unreal Tournament for a recent example) I feel
that unless we are actually ripping off copyrighted graphics, text, or
sounds Hasbro are unlikely to consider any action to be worth their
while.

Regards,
Steve Hodge