Reuse of images of Wesnoth in another game

evie · Post by **evie** » May 25th, 2005, 2:11 pm

Hi,

I'm also developing a small roleplaying game (GNU GPL license). I like Wesnoth a lot, and since I don't have much drawing skills I'd like to use some of the Wesnoth art for my own game.

Since Wesnoth is completely GNU GPL, there is officially no problem, but what do the developers think of it? Do they frown upon it, encourage it? I'd like to know, if they really hated the idea of their images being reused I wouldn't like to do it.

scott · Post by **scott** » May 25th, 2005, 2:52 pm

I can't speak for the developers so I won't, but also remember art posted on the forum isn't part of the game and not automatically subject to the GPL. The artist holding the copyright may not have granted a specific license for its use. On the other hand, phantasyrpg.com hasn't let that stop them. Good luck with your game.

Post by **turin** » May 25th, 2005, 8:59 pm

Actually, art posted on the forum IS GPLed automatically. See this thread: http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2014

If using the game's graphics will help your project, you're free to do so. But its likely they won't fit exactly with what you need, so you will probably end up replacing them.

scott · Post by **scott** » May 25th, 2005, 9:01 pm

Ok never mind. Go crazy.

Post by **Dave** » May 25th, 2005, 9:47 pm

I am fine/happy with it. We license Wesnoth under the GPL because we really want people to be able to use it under those conditions, not out of some blind faith.

Thanks for letting us know about your project though, and best of luck.

David

Seiryu · Post by **Seiryu** » June 7th, 2005, 9:08 pm

and who knows if it will be interseting because if u take the same images it might be boring( whithout offense ). well i think that u can ask wesnoth admin if u can ask them to make a new era on wesnoth so that we can have a wesnoth in the future for example.

Tomsik · Post by **Tomsik** » June 7th, 2005, 10:03 pm

huh?wesnoth admin?leader of project is Dave, and if you want new era you should ask not him, you should post this idea on ideas forum, but wesnoth in future idea has been proposed few times

Eldmannen · Post by **Eldmannen** » June 12th, 2005, 4:22 am

Yes, the GNU GPL allows it and its very nice of you to ask just to be sure its okay.

It would be nice of you (not required, but nice) if in your game (or website or manual or readme of game) mentiones that you borrowed graphics from "Battle of Wesnoth".

Also, I would like a link to your game, so I can try it out and see if its cool and come with feedback.

Arcamis · Post by **Arcamis** » September 23rd, 2005, 10:59 pm

I know you have your own storyline for your game, but I personally would like to see a "World of Wesnoth" RPG which explains the game's story. The campaigns are too frustrating for me and reading it in text form is too boring.

Post by **turin** » September 23rd, 2005, 11:03 pm

I would commit suicide if that happened.

Just kidding. But I do think it's a bad idea. At least until Wesnoth itself is relatively complete (which it is NOT, even though 1.0 is imminent).

Artis · Post by **Artis** » September 24th, 2005, 1:40 am

I took a brief look through Wesnoth's source directory and to tell the truth it seems (I'd love to be wrong on this) to be quite a mess as far licensing is concerned. IANAL, but this area really looks neglected:

The 'src' directory seems to be the most documented, but even there many files have a simple "Copyright (C) 2003 by David White" though the repository shows recent commits by (as far as I can see) quite a few different users. Some files only have "Copyright (C)" without any authors mentioned.

*.cfg files in the 'data' directory seem to contain no copyright or license information, even though they allow comments and are a significant part of the game.

And to get back on topic... The 'images' directory seems to be devoid of any information about authors/copyright holders of the images (except for comments in terrain/desert-*.png) making it very hard (or impossible) to give proper credit for someone who uses them.

That was just a curious look, a 'grep -r Copyright *' in the base directory reveals such things as '(C) 2004 Wesnoth development team' (is that a person or legal entity), 'Copyright (C) 2004 THE Battle for Wesnoth'S COPYRIGHT HOLDER' (who would that be?).

I understand that many people might simply want to program/design/compose without dealing with such matters, but you have to understand that this can cause headache to people who want to reuse things in their own free projects (even their own Wesnoth campaigns!)--but that's what the GPL is for, right?

scott · Post by **scott** » September 24th, 2005, 3:32 am

So it's licensed for free use, but you just don't know who you're getting the license from?

Artis · Post by **Artis** » September 24th, 2005, 4:30 am

scott wrote:So it's licensed for free use, but you just don't know who you're getting the license from?

It's redistribution I'm concerned about, not use. Also just because the program is GPLed does not mean that images, sounds, music and campaigns are likewise, from the GPL:

In addition, mere aggregation of another work not based on the Program with the Program (or with a work based on the Program) on a volume of a storage or distribution medium does not bring the other work under the scope of this License.

Either way the GPL does not give you the right to claim someones work as your own, so you have to state that you based it on or that it includes work of 'one or several anonymous authors'. I'd rather list the actual authors.

Post by **turin** » September 24th, 2005, 2:42 pm

It seems to me that all we need is for the file COPYING, or the file README, to say somewhere that "all content distributed with Wesnoth, including graphics, music, .cfg files, and source code, is distributed under the GPL, and is the product of many different authors" or something like that but more legal-sounding.

Artis · Post by **Artis** » September 24th, 2005, 3:38 pm

turin wrote:It seems to me that all we need is for the file COPYING, or the file README, to say somewhere that "all content distributed with Wesnoth, including graphics, music, .cfg files, and source code, is distributed under the GPL, and is the product of many different authors" or something like that but more legal-sounding.

That would certainly be a good thing to have.

Also a policy that if you edit a file that can have comments you also have to update the copyright notice at top (that would require to add notices to existing files though) would be helpful. As for images and music the respective folders could contain COPYING files that list authors and the files they contributed. The biggest hurdle is to get the existing things correctly tagged, maintaince would require very little effort. I'm mainly concerned about authors getting the recognition they deserve for the awsome work they have done.