[Freeciv] Re: should I?

[Reinier Post <rp@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, Jul 19, 2000 at 03:21:08PM -0700, Brandon Van Every wrote:

> Did you crack the www.antimonopoly.com webpage that I gave you?  You'd
> have to be nuts to read that and think you wanna make a career of
> fighting Hasbro.

OK, I took a look at it.  It is, indeed, about fighting Hasbro.
The entire point of the site, or indeed the games advertised there,
seems to be to settle a score with the rightful Monolopy owners.
Freeciv development has never been motivated by this at all.
It is not about fighting anyone.

> Advice does not have to be dispassionate to be worthwhile.

(Can't agree more ...)
 
> Frankly, I think cloning instead of invention is only one step better
> than software piracy.  What really bugs me is you go to all this work,
> all this trouble, and you *can't be bothered* to invent anything new??!?

It's fairly easy to invent new games; I've invented a couple myself.
It's hard to find enough players.

>[...]   Still, I don't feel any pity for people
> who rip off intellectual property in the name of free software.  Free
> software is about developers *agreeing* to license people in a
> particular way, not just taking what you want that someone else did.
> The design of game rules is a lot of hard work consuming many hours,
> same as writing a screenplay, and you're wrong if you think just lifting
> someone else's work is ok in any legal or moral sense.  You didn't do
> the work that makes Civ II what it is,

I completely agree with you up to this point ...

> you aren't even trying to make
> Civ better than it is, you exist mainly to cut out the profits of the
> people who did do the legitimate work.

... but this is totally mistaken.  Freeciv was created because

1) Civ *did not exist* on the platforms most of us work with
2) it has a couple of features that *screamed* to be implemented
   in Civ, but never were, or only later (e.g. playing over the Internet)

Furthermore,

3) Freeciv does not cut into Hasbro's profits *at all* and certainly
   wasn't written with that objective in mind

> Well, I suppose I could perform the experiment of informing Hasbro about
> your site.  I could even go to the trouble of tracking down exactly the
> person or people at Hasbro who are most sue-happy.

I wonder, if they have ignored Freeciv for 5 years, why would they change
that now?  But I guess some newsgroup reading will help here.

> [...]   Would anyone like me to perform the Hasbro
> experiment?  Just as an acid test of "what I know?"  Hey, maybe it'll
> substantiate that really there's absolutely nothing to worry about.  ;-)

Mmm ...  i can't speak for anyone else here but I'd personally like
to see a little more clarity in this matter.
 
> Cheers,             Infernal Troublemaker                    Troll
> Mallor              "By simple mistake, mortals themselves amuse."
 
-- 
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Freeciv enthusiast