Re: [linuxiran] FreeCraft gone, what's next?

[Hooman Baradaran]

> I don't know about FreeCraft, cause I never heard of it. But if it was
> free software (published under a free software license) and if it was
> legal (which Zoup says it wasn't), then you can safely put it somewhere
> on the web, and others may use it. If enough people are interested in
> something, then the project will continue, and people will help
> develo/test/debug it.

FreeCraft was a WarCr*ft clone which came with a game pack but also used the 
WarCraft CD if you wanted to. It was GPL. It wasn't illegal. It was just a 
clone like PrBroom (the Doom clone) or QuakeForge. In fact there are many 
clones that come without game packs and you need the game CD like those that 
I mentioned (I don't particularly care about those because if I am to get the 
game CD I'll just use the original. And besides I only open source play games 
because I like the fact that they are open source.)

I had a typing error it my email, the game came with some open source maps, I 
wrote that "I" had some maps.

Anyway, Blizzard, the company who owns the original game has asked them to 
shutdown because the name was similar. Blizzard could not sue them so easily 
but they freaked out and shut down the project. 

The question is what if something like the SCO case happens to a smaller 
project that we care about - let's say for having a code copied, just like 
SCO - and they freak out and close the project. 

And yes, the source is out there and the project can come back online with 
another name and some changes but why should there even be a such a thing?

We probably know by what happens to SCO. Of course they are unlikely to win. I 
mean who knows if "they" haven't copied "their" code from Linux? Or if some 
Linux hacker has copied their code it's his falt not Linux but until we know 
what will happen to the SCO case anything that happens against open source 
makes me go nuts. X-(

-- 
Hooman Baradaran
address@hidden
www.hoomanb.com