The GPL and Free Licenses

We were having discussions on a U4 port to the iPad and whether or not it would/could be distributed (EA would like not allow it).

The point of the GPL came up. A little surfing comes up some interesting tidbits

• the GPL has dropped from 70% to 65% of hte market share
• Apple has developed their own
• MS is the rising star of open licenses

a few years ago I was also researching the OGL (d20) and other free licenses for RPG's seeing if I could find a system that could be used in software without having to come up with my own. Only real thing I could find is Pathfinder which doesn't look complete yet.

IIRC Knights of the Chalice used OGL. I was curious if the developer used some existing code (binaries, whatever you call them) for implementing the rules, or if he had to build it all out from the rule set definitions.

OGL may be "free", but it is so loaded with patent bullshit that it defeats the purpose.
About MS championing open... yeah, no. MS is evil. Just look at that damn Mexican and his monkey bullshit.

Nobody uses the Apple and MS licenses. Those generally in use are GPL3, APACHE 2.0, BSD, or variations on those. Choosing one depends on how you want to enforce the sourcecode you release. The OGL license I think is primarily aimed at people creating roleplaying books/system, not computer games. I doubt you could use it in a commercial game, though not certain.

You've probably already looked at these this and this one? I remember reading them about a year ago and my conclusion was: fuck it.

The OGL was explicit to not allow computer software. Regardless, I believe the OGL is expired and WotC always retained a an opt out to reject anything they deemed damaged the brand.

I'm not sure how Pathfinder gets away with what it does seeing it still seems to be an expansion of the 3.5e rules.

the GPL is dropping - it has been convenient but there are problems with it some don't like - for one thing getting an Apple app published, eh? Don't think anyone takes the Apple free license seriously.

What is it about the MS license that has people interested?

Lucky Day said:

The OGL was explicit to not allow computer software. Regardless, I believe the OGL is expired and WotC always retained a an opt out to reject anything they deemed damaged the brand.

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If they didn't include a time limit in the original license it would probably still be valid. Their faq also says that previous licenses can't be changed, but new revisions can be made.

Lucky Day said:

What is it about the MS license that has people interested?

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If you see any let me know, hehe.