Re: [Wesnoth-dev] Selling Wesnoth?

[David White]

I really don't have a problem with someone selling Wesnoth, as long as 
they follow the terms of the GPL. The GPL is designed not to make 
software free of cost, but rather to promote Freedom. If we didn't want 
people to be able to sell it, we should have chosen a license that 
prohibited that.

The fact is, that Théophile is legally entitled according to the GPL to 
sell Wesnoth and give us nothing for it. Giving us 10% in royalties 
would be rather generous of him.

I also doubt that he would be able to make a serious amount of money out 
of it -- it's unlikely enough to cover the cost of having the manual 
printed and the CDs pressed. I would imagine he's doing it simply 
because he likes the game. If he can make a serious amount of money out 
of it, well, good for him!

David

Asa Swain wrote:

> Isaac,
> I suppose it doesn't hurt to pursue this offer, but I
> am suspicious of the idea of "selling" wesnoth. If we
> offer a complete version for free on our website, I'm
> not sure that a pretty box and manual would justify
> people spending money for it. Of course people might
> buy it at a store not knowing there is a free version
> available.
>   This man seems like a fan of the game, but he
> obviously wants to try to make money off of it.
> Between trying to sell us his magazine and offering us
> profits from selling Wesnoth, I'm suspicious of his
> attempts to make money of the popularity of our game.
>    I don't mean that I don't trust him, I just
> ethically have issues with "selling" an open-source
> game. I don't think that that is how we should be
> spreading this game. What would we do with the
> profits? Defray bandwidth costs? Even if we write a
> really good manual, is that worth the 29 euros he
> wants to charge? Of course Wesnoth won't reach v1.0
> for quite a while, so we don't have to decide now. A
> good manual would make Wesnoth easier to learn and
> play, but for now I think finishing the game is more
> important.
>
> -Asa
>
> P.S. Although before v1.0 writing a HTML or pdf manual
> to include with the game might be a good idea. So is
> improving our help system, but I like reading manuals
> outside of the game. 
>
> --- Isaac Clerencia <address@hidden> wrote:
>  
>
> > On Saturday, 30 de April de 2005 16:41, you wrote:
> >    
> >
> > > Hello Isaac
> > >      
> > >
> > > Thank you for you kind answer. I will send you on
> > >      
> > Monday the issue where we
> >    
> >
> > > gave Wesnoth (that was four months ago) and also
> > >      
> > the last issue of the
> >    
> >
> > > magazine. I just need you adress of course, and
> > >      
> > don't hesitate to send me
> >    
> >
> > > the adress of other people of your team. I saw
> > >      
> > that you have many Frenchman
> >    
> >
> > > in your team maybe they know about PC4War (I also
> > >      
> > directed some others
> >    
> >
> > > magazine in the past years : Vaevictis and
> > >      
> > Cyberstratège) I can believe it
> >    
> >
> > > it possible to distribute and sell you game like
> > >      
> > this, freely... As a
> >    
> >
> > > Fantasy General / Master of Magic fan for years, I
> > >      
> > jump on the ocasion (I
> >    
> >
> > > play Wesnoth nearly once every week). What I would
> > >      
> > like to do is try to
> >    
> >
> > > finalize with you a "commercial" version, this
> > >      
> > mean a version you could
> >    
> >
> > > consider "final" (or at least 1.0), setup a manual
> > >      
> > with you, get all this
> >    
> >
> > > boxed and produce the CD, and try to sell them
> > >      
> > through our store
> >    
> >
> > > www.store4war.com to start with, with the support
> > >      
> > of PC4War. I will read
> >    
> >
> > > the GPL agreement to be sure this can be done. We
> > >      
> > will finance all the
> >    
> >
> > > production and I offer you the regular copyrights
> > >      
> > for this, which is 10%
> >    
> >
> > > royalties on all game sold (on the public price).
> > >      
> > As Wesnoth will still be
> >    
> >
> > > available freely from your website, I think that
> > >      
> > we have to realise a good
> >    
> >
> > > manual to justify for the fact that we sell the
> > >      
> > game. Msot probably, we
> >    
> >
> > > will try to sell the game around 29 euros at the
> > >      
> > most. Another way to do it
> >    
> >
> > > would be simply to give the game in the magazine,
> > >      
> > but it doesn't make a
> >    
> >
> > > real change. I will try to think about his in the
> > >      
> > next days, and I wait for
> >    
> >
> > > your adress. Théophile
> > > www.pc4war.com
> > >      
> > --
> > Isaac Clerencia at Warp Networks, http://www.warp.es
> > Work: <address@hidden>   | Debian: <address@hidden>
> >    
> >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > >      
> > Wesnoth-dev mailing list
> > address@hidden
> > http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/wesnoth-dev
> >
> >    
>
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