Proprietary graphics in a free program?

[Tord Romstad]

I've been contacted by a guy who wants to make a commercial chess program based on the iPhone version of Glaurung. Because my program is GPLed, he is free to do so, as long as his commercial program is also delivered under the GPL. He understands this, and intends to release all changes he does to my source code, so everything is OK so far.

The problem is that he intends to hire a professional graphic designer to draw things like piece images, the icon, and perhaps textured board squares, and keep the graphics proprietary. He wants to know whether the GPL allows this, and I honestly don't know myself. Does anybody else know anything about this?

Tord

[Rolf]

I've been contacted by a guy who wants to make a commercial chess program based on the iPhone version of Glaurung. Because my program is GPLed, he is free to do so, as long as his commercial program is also delivered under the GPL. He understands this, and intends to release all changes he does to my source code, so everything is OK so far.

The problem is that he intends to hire a professional graphic designer to draw things like piece images, the icon, and perhaps textured board squares, and keep the graphics proprietary. He wants to know whether the GPL allows this, and I honestly don't know myself. Does anybody else know anything about this?

Tord

Tord, excuse me if I disturb you. I come with a compliment in disbelief. You are literally the first programmer I know of who came with a question and admitted that he didnt know. That's so rare that I want to thank you. Please go on in this manner. Questions IMO are much more helpful in such a community than just perfect end results.

Now please allow me also a little question. Am I correct in believing that Fabien didnt define his Fruit as GPL? In your eyes would it then be allowed to take something for your own if you admitted that? Finally, if Fabien didnt express a negative word against Vas in the exchange with Dann, wouldnt you think that Vas alone for this reason is beyond any form of doubts or reproaches on behalf of a Fruit based criticism?

If it's second best for you to answer me in public for group prssure, could you write me in email or PN?

[Matthias Gemuh]

Now please allow me also a little question. Am I correct in believing that Fabien didnt define his Fruit as GPL? In your eyes would it then be allowed to take something for your own if you admitted that? Finally, if Fabien didnt express a negative word against Vas in the exchange with Dann, wouldnt you think that Vas alone for this reason is beyond any form of doubts or reproaches on behalf of a Fruit based criticism?

If it's second best for you to answer me in public for group prssure, could you write me in email or PN?

Vas and Fabien ?

Rolf, you are in the wrong thread

Matthias.

[slobo]

I've been contacted by a guy who wants to make a commercial chess program based on the iPhone version of Glaurung. Because my program is GPLed, he is free to do so, as long as his commercial program is also delivered under the GPL. He understands this, and intends to release all changes he does to my source code, so everything is OK so far.

The problem is that he intends to hire a professional graphic designer to draw things like piece images, the icon, and perhaps textured board squares, and keep the graphics proprietary. He wants to know whether the GPL allows this, and I honestly don't know myself. Does anybody else know anything about this?

Tord

Tord, excuse me if I disturb you. I come with a compliment in disbelief. You are literally the first programmer I know of who came with a question and admitted that he didnt know. That's so rare that I want to thank you. Please go on in this manner. Questions IMO are much more helpful in such a community than just perfect end results.

Now please allow me also a little question. Am I correct in believing that Fabien didnt define his Fruit as GPL? In your eyes would it then be allowed to take something for your own if you admitted that? Finally, if Fabien didnt express a negative word against Vas in the exchange with Dann, wouldnt you think that Vas alone for this reason is beyond any form of doubts or reproaches on behalf of a Fruit based criticism?

If it's second best for you to answer me in public for group prssure, could you write me in email or PN?

As far as I know, Fruit was defined as GPL from the beginning.
Anyway, who should answer your question is Fabien, not Tord.

[Dirt]

I've been contacted by a guy who wants to make a commercial chess program based on the iPhone version of Glaurung. Because my program is GPLed, he is free to do so, as long as his commercial program is also delivered under the GPL. He understands this, and intends to release all changes he does to my source code, so everything is OK so far.

The problem is that he intends to hire a professional graphic designer to draw things like piece images, the icon, and perhaps textured board squares, and keep the graphics proprietary. He wants to know whether the GPL allows this, and I honestly don't know myself. Does anybody else know anything about this?

Tord

My opinion is no. It is certainly against the spirit of the license (which license? You didn't say, not that that would help me) but I don't think here is the best place to get a definitive answer as to whether this is allowed. Does the FSF have some place to ask these questions?

Assuming you have clear ownership of this version of Glaurung, no open source graphics or anything from someone else, you could certainly sell him a license to do this if you want

[jdart]

> you could certainly sell him a license to do this if you want

Right. As the author you can distribute the program under another license. Many open-source programs have dual licensing. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual-licensing

--Jon

[Rolf]

Now please allow me also a little question. Am I correct in believing that Fabien didnt define his Fruit as GPL? In your eyes would it then be allowed to take something for your own if you admitted that? Finally, if Fabien didnt express a negative word against Vas in the exchange with Dann, wouldnt you think that Vas alone for this reason is beyond any form of doubts or reproaches on behalf of a Fruit based criticism?

If it's second best for you to answer me in public for group prssure, could you write me in email or PN?

Vas and Fabien ?

Rolf, you are in the wrong thread

Matthias.

For beancounters but I thought he could be as flexible to answer me. No need to jump in. My question is real and my ignorance isnt faked. More reasons for a decent question? NB this is the general forum, not the Holy Center. I asked too because I dont recall exactly how Tord thought about Rybka1. The last three numbers of my creditcard are 123! Hope this helps.

[bob]

I've been contacted by a guy who wants to make a commercial chess program based on the iPhone version of Glaurung. Because my program is GPLed, he is free to do so, as long as his commercial program is also delivered under the GPL. He understands this, and intends to release all changes he does to my source code, so everything is OK so far.

The problem is that he intends to hire a professional graphic designer to draw things like piece images, the icon, and perhaps textured board squares, and keep the graphics proprietary. He wants to know whether the GPL allows this, and I honestly don't know myself. Does anybody else know anything about this?

Tord

Depends. If this is "one program" then that is not allowed under the GPL. And I believe that the Iphone is brain-dead in that regard. If the GUI is a separate program that somehow executes the engine (unix fork/execve for example) then there is no problem at all...

[bob]

I've been contacted by a guy who wants to make a commercial chess program based on the iPhone version of Glaurung. Because my program is GPLed, he is free to do so, as long as his commercial program is also delivered under the GPL. He understands this, and intends to release all changes he does to my source code, so everything is OK so far.

The problem is that he intends to hire a professional graphic designer to draw things like piece images, the icon, and perhaps textured board squares, and keep the graphics proprietary. He wants to know whether the GPL allows this, and I honestly don't know myself. Does anybody else know anything about this?

Tord

Tord, excuse me if I disturb you. I come with a compliment in disbelief. You are literally the first programmer I know of who came with a question and admitted that he didnt know. That's so rare that I want to thank you. Please go on in this manner. Questions IMO are much more helpful in such a community than just perfect end results.

Now please allow me also a little question. Am I correct in believing that Fabien didnt define his Fruit as GPL? In your eyes would it then be allowed to take something for your own if you admitted that? Finally, if Fabien didnt express a negative word against Vas in the exchange with Dann, wouldnt you think that Vas alone for this reason is beyond any form of doubts or reproaches on behalf of a Fruit based criticism?

If it's second best for you to answer me in public for group prssure, could you write me in email or PN?

The GPL is quite simple. If you take code from a GPL'ed program, then your code then falls under the GPL as well, otherwise it is an illegal use of GPL software source.

[Tord Romstad]

Tord, excuse me if I disturb you. I come with a compliment in disbelief. You are literally the first programmer I know of who came with a question and admitted that he didnt know.

You are reading the wrong posts and threads. I ask questions about things I don't know about all the time, as do all the other programmers I know here. Asking and answering questions and learning from each other is why we are here. Fortunately, it is still possible to find good answers and discussions here, but all the noise makes it frustratingly difficult. It's disappointing to see that this thread is not an exception, and that I even contribute to the noise myself by posting this message. I'll try to avoid writing anything more in this sub-thread.

Now please allow me also a little question. Am I correct in believing that Fabien didnt define his Fruit as GPL? In your eyes would it then be allowed to take something for your own if you admitted that? Finally, if Fabien didnt express a negative word against Vas in the exchange with Dann, wouldnt you think that Vas alone for this reason is beyond any form of doubts or reproaches on behalf of a Fruit based criticism?

Fruit was GPL from the beginning, and no, you cannot take something from a GPL program if you admit that you do, unless you also distribute your derived program under a compatible license.

If you have general questions about the GPL and its interpretation, I would recommend you to create a new thread instead of posting in this one. You would be more likely to get useful answers that way, and we would prevent the current thread from drifting away from its topic.

Tord