Func_Msgboard: Shareware Episode Distribution

Shareware Episode Distribution - Legal Issues

Posted by Izhido on 2016/06/27 20:04:38

So, I'm pretty much close to publishing my iOS engine port in Apple's App Store - it looks like publishing an app based on GPL code is not a problem anymore.

However.

Publishing an app without actual content is pointless. I would like to include vanilla's shareware episode (and dopa, maybe?) into the .ipa (the executable file) so it automatically decompress it in the Documents directory on first time run. I know by now virtually everyone has a copy of the shareware episode, and many many web sites publish it on their own servers.

Do you guys think I would get into serious trouble if I include the shareware episode in my app?

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#26 posted by Baker on 2016/06/28 22:03:37

ericw provided a library that is able to extract stuff from the id software ftp shareware.

#27 posted by Kinn on 2016/06/28 22:21:26

My common sense gut feeling suggests that one can't release one's own iOS app that is basically a port of one quarter of the content of a game that id/bethesda owns.

Not sure what the shareware legal blurb says, but I'm sure it doesn't allow you to modify the actual content of the shareware game, including modifying it to make it run on iOS.

#28 posted by mankrip on 2016/06/28 22:56:18

Custom engines are not "modified shareware content", because they're not based on the binary executable included with the shareware game.

The engine's source code was never part of the shareware package.

That kind of argument is the same thing as saying that the whole full game is under the GPL, just because the source code is. That's nonsense.

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