[Freeciv] software license violation

["Brandon Van Every" <vanevery@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Aha.  You guys are screwed on a legal account completely different from
copyright law.  It says very clearly in the Civ II: TOT license
agreement at the back of the game manual (and I'm going to assume that
it's fundamentally similiar, and in any event applicable, to all the
other Civ games):

"OTHER RESTRICTIONS: You may not cause or permit the disclosure,
copying, renting, licensing, sublicensing, leasing, disseminating or
otherwise distributing of the CD-ROM or the Documentation by any means
or in any form, without the prior written consent of Hasbro Interactive.
You may not modify, enhance, supplement, create derivative work from,
adapt, translate, reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble or otherwise
reduce the CD-ROM to human readable form."

So, to the extent that these clauses are enforceable in the country of
your choice, you guys are crooks.  I think all you Free Software pundits
know how to read a GNU General Public License, so this kind of language
should be pretty clear and unambigous as to the rights Hasbro
Interactive intended to bestow upon you.  Clearly, Freeciv is a
derivative work.  You verbatim cloned the gameplay and the tech trees,
that's your sin.  Your website makes it pretty darn clear that you're a
derivative work, that's why you should change the name of the game and
take a swizzle stick to your Civ compatible rules.  If the tables were
turned and you were talking about someone abusing one of your Free
Software products for profit, your understanding and response on the
matter would be unambiguous.

There's also a lot of stuff about what courts these matters are to be
bound by, and how it shall all go to Arbitration in Boston,
Massachusetts.  Maybe your local gov't. laws apply but not if they are
in accord with various U.N. Conventions eneumerated in the license.
Basically, I think these guys are way ahead of you as far as what you
can and can't do with their software license.


Cheers,             Infernal Troublemaker                    Troll
Mallor              "By simple mistake, mortals themselves amuse."