[Freeciv] Re: copyright infringement

[Tobias Brox <tobiasb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> So the world owes you cross-platform compatibility?  This is a
> justification for ripping off a developer's intellectual property? 

This is not about ripping off a developers intellectual property, this is
about giving a company healthy competition.  And if Hasbro thinks
differently, they are very bad representatives for the industry, and
deserves to get ripped off anyway. :)

FreeCiv is not a clone of Civilization, it's two steps forward.  This is
how the gaming industry is working, company A makes game a and company B
makes a better game b, reusing most of the ideas from game a.  

I do think that this process might accellerate in the free software
environment, because in this environment game b can be built directly at
the top of game a, there is no need for company B to spend years redoing
the efforts of company A.  I already see people thinkering about using the
FreeCiv engine for totally different games.  I think that in the long run,
the gaming industry itself will also reap benefits from this.  I think
that sales of physical boxes is a dead end street ... in the future, the
game developers will charge the customers directly, not for a physical
product but either through commercials or for playing time and services on
the servers. Freeware fits very nicely in this environment. 

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