Warzone, on it's data or what the license of that data is I have decided to
write an email to Eidos Germany.
With some help I have assembled following letter.
It will be made available on our wiki as soon as I send it Eidos Germany.
I will also make a translation to English available, but please remember that the original is in German and is the only one which is of legal importance. (And the English translation may contain translation mistakes.)
Translation:Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren.
Ich bin Mitglied des Warzone Resurrection Projects, einem Team von Hobbyentwicklern die das Spiel "Warzone 2100" seit seiner Veröffentlichung unter der GPL Ende des Jahres 2004 weiterentwickeln.
Leider hat die in der damals veröffentlichten warzone2100.rar Archivdatei (z.B. beziehbar von http://www.3ddownloads.com/liberatedgam ... ne2100.rar) enthaltene readme.txt Datei (siehe Anhang) einige bis heute ungeklärte Fragen aufgeworfen:
1. Es ist nicht vollkommen sicher wer das Copyright an dem Spiel (Spielgeschichte, Charaktere usw.) hält.
2. Es ist nicht vollkommen sicher wer das Copyright an den in o.g. Archiv veröffentlichten sonstigen Daten hält und unter welcher Lizenz diese veröffentlicht wurden.
Aus diesem Grund und der Tatsache das einige Dateien des Spiels, die durch Copyright Dritter geschützt sind (wie z.B. Ziwschensequenzen und Musik), vor der Veröffentlichung entfernt wurden, interpretieren wir (das Warzone Resurrection Project) das Release folgendermaßen:
1. Das Copyright am Spiel und an den Daten verbleibt bei Eidos.
2. Sowohl jeglicher im Ende 2004 veröffentlichen Archiv enthaltener Quellcode als auch alle enthaltenen sonstigen Daten wurden unter der GPL veröffentlicht.
Kontaktieren Sie mich bitte innerhalb einer Frist von 14 Tagen ab Eingang dieses Briefes bei Ihnen ob Sie unserer Interpretation des Releases zustimmen, ansonsten werden wir annehmen das unsere Interpretation korrekt ist und dementsprechend mit der Entwicklung von "Warzone 2100" fortfahren.
Der Text dieser Email sowie eine nicht rechtskräftige, sinngemäße englische Übersetzung derselben ist im Internet unter http://wz2100.net/wiki/... öffentlich zugänglich.
Mit einer Antwort auf diese Email erklären Sie sich unwiderruflich mit einer unveränderten Veröffentlichung des Wortlauts Ihrer Antwort sowie einer englischen Übersetzung einverstanden.
[[Oder: Wir möchten sie dringend bitten sich unwiderruflich einer unveränderten Veröffentlichung des Wortlauts Ihrer Antwort sowie einer englischen Übersetzung einverstanden zu erklären, damit die andere, nicht deutschsprachige Entwickler, ebenfalls eine Dokumentation dieser Korrespondenz erhalten.]]
Mit freundlichem Gruß,
Dennis Schridde
Für das Warzone Resurrection Project
[ ... Attached readme.txt ... ]
[ Feel free to provide a better translation ]Dear sir or madam.
I am member of the Warzone Resurrection Project, a team of hobby-developers who continue to develop the game "Warzone 2100" since it's release under the GPL in late 2004.
Sadly the file readme.txt in the released warzone2100.rar archive file has thrown up some questions:
1. It is not 100% clear who owns the copyright on the game.
2. It is not 100% clear who owns the copyright on the released data and under which license this data is.
Therefore and because some files of the game, which are under copyright of third parties, were removed before the release, we, the Warzone Resurrection Project, interprete it as follows:
1. The copyright on the game and on the released data remains at Eidos.
2. The released sourcecode as well as the included data were released under the terms of the GPL.
Contact me in a respite of 14 days, starting from the day where you get this letter, if you disagree with our interpretation of the release, otherwise we will assume that our interpretation is correct and will continue to develop "Warzone 2100".
The text of this mail as well as a non legally binding, corresponding englisch translation is publicly available on the internet at http://wz2100...
With an answer to this mail you declare that you are unrevokably accepting publication of your answer unchanged in wording as well as an english translation.
[[Or: Please declare that you unrevokably accepting publication of your answer unchanged in wording as well as an english translation, so that other, non german developers, get documentation of our correspondence.]]
...
This form of writing has one benefit:
It is their fault if our interpretation is incorrect and they don't answer. In this case we have the legal prove that they didn't clarify it and thus accepted our continued development under our assumptions.
I will send this mail mid next week or after I got informations from Cap'n'Kyth, who wants to phone Pivotal to find out if they can send me the written (mail) what the status of Warzone is or if they can at least name a contact a Eidos, which might increase our chances of getting a fast and friendly answer from Eidos.
Till then feel free to give corrections, but keep in mind that I won't change the general form.
After I sent the letter and got the response from the post agency that it arrived, they have 14 days to respond.
They will probably increase that respite to probably a maximum of additional 4 weeks. (Conforming german law.)
After that respite we will have clarity about the status of Warzone, one way or the other.
And it is intended that this will go to their legal department. Other approaches didn't seem to have any effect.
Several people said that their emails did not get answered. Even those from Virgil Glyph aka Rman Jack who was involved in preparing the release in 2004 did get no answers from Eidos as well as Pivotal.
So I decided that it is time for the legal hammer.
For those wondering: The paragraph about publication of their text is needed because of the German "Fernmeldegeheimnis" / "Postgeheimnis" which prevents making public of private conversations via phone or mail or ... without the agreement of both sides.
If someone knows if it is legally (German law!) correct to say "when you answer you agree with this conditions" (What shall they do if they don't agree and don't agree with our interpretation of the license either?) then please feel free to tell me a better paragraph.
Also if we have any lawyers in here or people who have lawyers (for the current approach German ones, but if it is decided that we write to Eidos USA, then US american lawyers) as their friend and they would like to help us with this for free, then please speak up!