[cw-discuss] Subscription based software

[Christopher Dick]

I was just wondering if purchasing a copy of a game, and say a six-month subscription's worth of access to "donate" to Codeweavers was something that was "allowed" for potentially working on getting a software package working. In this case, of course, a game.

Just curious.

Thanks!

Chris

[Graham Todd]

On Tue, 16 Sep 2008 20:36:42 -0700 (PDT)

Post by Christopher Dick
I was just wondering if purchasing a copy of a game, and say a
six-month subscription's worth of access to "donate" to Codeweavers
was something that was "allowed" for potentially working on getting a
software package working. In this case, of course, a game.

Well, of course you don't "buy" a Windows game (or an Apple game, come
to that). What you are doing is purchasing a licence to use that piece
of software under conditions that the owners allow, not the software.
So you'd have to look at the conditions of the licence to find out.

Some licences (such as the GPL, for instance) allow users of software
to use the hardware as if they own it: others do not. Wine, the
software package at the core of Codeweavers' products, is free (as in
freedom), open source, and covered by provisions of the GPL. I'm not
sure what the situation is with the most specific Codeweavers' products
(Crossover Linux, Crossover Mac, etc), and Codeweavers do not publish
their licence on their website nor indicate if they are publish under
the GPL..

However, a principle of the GPL is that software may be worked upon and
improved, but if then published, the new source must accompany it
('published' has different meanings in the the law of different
countries, so be careful - in the UK, it means "seen by more than two
people").

So, the answer is....it depends, If the bit you want to change relates
to a GPL licenced software, then yes, you can change it, but if the bit
you want to change is covered by a different licence then it depends
what the licence says, but probably not......

[Martyn Hare]

Post by Graham Todd
Well, of course you don't "buy" a Windows game (or an Apple game, come
to that). What you are doing is purchasing a licence to use that piece
of software under conditions that the owners allow, not the software.
So you'd have to look at the conditions of the licence to find out.

You may buy games for other people provided you do not accept and thus
initiate the licence for that game. After that it is non-transferrable.

CodeWeavers may not be able to change the game but they can
change the environment around the game (i.e. adapt CrossOver) to be
compatible with the game; keep that in mind.

Post by Graham Todd
Some licences (such as the GPL, for instance) allow users of software
to use the hardware as if they own it: others do not. Wine, the
software package at the core of Codeweavers' products, is free (as in
freedom), open source, and covered by provisions of the GPL. I'm not
sure what the situation is with the most specific Codeweavers' products
(Crossover Linux, Crossover Mac, etc), and Codeweavers do not publish
their licence on their website nor indicate if they are publish under
the GPL..

CodeWeavers publishes the source to "CrossOver Wine" on the website,
"CrossOver Wine" is now the term for the LGPLed source code adapted
for use in CodeWeavers products.

http://www.codeweavers.com/products/source/ <- Wine parts of CX

They do not offer the GUI frontends and such under the GPL, the licence
to those components is displayed during the install process and really
isn't too bad; except for the mandatory car wash for all CW employees
;-)

Post by Graham Todd
However, a principle of the GPL is that software may be worked upon and
improved, but if then published, the new source must accompany it
('published' has different meanings in the the law of different
countries, so be careful - in the UK, it means "seen by more than two
people").

Ignore the meaning of "published", if you give someone binaries you
have to give them source if they ask for it with the (L)GPL, it's that
simple.

Don't distribute binaries to someone, not your responsibility to give
them source - this is how companies like Novell make their moola.