Something fishy here?

[rconstruct]

Hi
The lead developer already sent an email to ebay. There's been some confusion regarding Danger from the Deep.
Danger from the deep's source code is licensed under the GNU GPLv2 license. Which means that under the GPL you can distribute the binaries, provided the source code is included and that the authors reference/copyright notes are maintained.
The artwork however is _not_ GPL, never was, and that was clearly mentioned in the source tarball in the file LICENSE_README, LICENSE_ARTWORK, and in the artwork directory in LICENSE_ARTWORK and the CC deeds of remaining contributions. Not only this, but the data tarball also had these files, and the windows and linux x86-32/64 installers, have an scrolling window with the license specifying this, so anyone installing it, would see it. There is no excuse to say that X person didn't know the artwork license, when there were several copies of the licenses, as well as license notes, item info, etc.. all over the place, duplicated, even triplicated.
As far as the ebay auction, it's plain and simple copyright infringement.
The artwork is licensed under a CreativeCommons At-Nc-Nd 2.0 (2.5 now, same thing basically) license > Attribution/NonCommercial/NonDerivs license.
This means:
Attribution. You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor.
Noncommercial. You may not use this work for commercial purposes.
No Derivative Works. You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work.

If someone wanted to sell it, they should've contacted the authors to discuss the situation, but there's still another problem. We could only license/sublicense the works for which we are the respective copyright holders. This means that for anyone to sell dftd, we would have to first license the distribution, and second, to remove 2 soundtracks that are licensed under the same CC license, version 2.0 (Attribution/Noncommercial/Nonderivative), because we're not the copyright holders of these tracks, and we don't have the right to sublicense this.
So, the person selling this game, didn't contact any of the copyright holders, of any of the 2d artwork, 3d artwork, sound effects, and soundtracks - it's simply copyright infringement.

P.S.: Software licensed under the GNU GPLv2 isn't automagically waived of copyrights. GNU GPLv2 software is copyright of the respective authors.

[AVGWarhawk]

Rcontruct,

In laymens terms, what is the next step? Stop Apex from selling this game? Is is possible?

[AVGWarhawk]

Well, I guess I answered my own question. I went to the Apex site to look and see if the game was set up to be bid on again. I cannot find it for bidding. Perhaps the good guys won this round?

[rconstruct]

Hi
Well, if Apex would've contacted us, we could've worked out something. We would have to remove the artwork that we can't sublicense, which would be a pain, but doable. Personally, i understand perfectly that not everyone has access to a fast internet connection, i still remember my 56k days, and CD/DVD distribution might help those people. On other side, it's quite frustrating for me personally to see people making a profit, when simple things as books that would be reference/research material to make more work for dangerdeep, or blueprints, like the smithsonian blueprints of 1930-1940's ships, or subscriptions of uboat.net, are considered a luxury which i can't afford atm.
Still, the game development process is an open process, it would be reasonable to expect that if Apex had doubts, he could've just contacted us, so overall, the feeling that this leaves, is one of frustration and disrespect for everyone's work, when everyone's sacrificing their time to make a project as open as possible.
I'm glad that this issue was solved, because i'm frankly tired of this mess, and want to return to work, there's going to be _major_ new features and improvements in the next version of dangerdeep, and time is best spent working in these

P.S.: i'll post in the indie subsims section a thread about the new features, as soon as things are relatively settled

[AVGWarhawk]

Well, as of today it is still not up for bid anymore at the Apex site. However, they still have other games that are in the same situation showing for bid.

Looks like we won one for the good guys. Hoorah!

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by AVGWarhawk

Well, as of today it is still not up for bid anymore at the Apex site. However, they still have other games that are in the same situation showing for bid.

Looks like we won one for the good guys. Hoorah!