Open source does not mean that the intellectual property is free. There’s a lot of good that comes from this, and it’s not like those games are expensive.
Which, in the immediate future, makes me wonder less about the things that are going to be done in code, and more about the creation of new, free, visual and audio resources that make this work. That seems like quite a noble pursuit.
Correct. The license (at least, the one I read for Red Alert) is GPLv3 with some additional stuff. The additional stuff is mostly about not using EA trademarks in your version or showing any connection to EA itself. So it appears that a clean room asset swap would be allowed as long as it includes the title screen.
Was expecting a catch. Still good for modding I guess
Anyone know if this is a technologically-enforced “must” or just a “pretty please”?
Open source does not mean that the intellectual property is free. There’s a lot of good that comes from this, and it’s not like those games are expensive.
Though do also note that of these four, TD and RA1 were already made freeware years ago.
I realize. Intellectual property is an icky concept IMO but I know not everyone agrees
Intellectual property is what allows them to make these games GPL.
The GPL is a way to make intellectual property work the way it should by default.
I’m assuming this is more about art assets. Art is not code and you shouldn’t expect them for free. It’s not a catch.
Which, in the immediate future, makes me wonder less about the things that are going to be done in code, and more about the creation of new, free, visual and audio resources that make this work. That seems like quite a noble pursuit.
Correct. The license (at least, the one I read for Red Alert) is GPLv3 with some additional stuff. The additional stuff is mostly about not using EA trademarks in your version or showing any connection to EA itself. So it appears that a clean room asset swap would be allowed as long as it includes the title screen.
This is a pretty standard affair for open sourced games.