From:
Adam 'Bakshra' Krumbein
Subject: defending id
Okay, am I the ONLY one
who doesn't think id is an evil, bloodsucking, money-hoarding company
for causing the termination of the Generations project?
First of all, I think
it *IS* unfortunate that the TC god shut down. It's always sad to
see a group of people's hard work totally wasted. It would have
been nice if they were able to continue with the project, but I
do not agree with everyone that is going around and spamming IRC
and message boards with comments such as "ID SUX! DOWNLOAD
GENERATIONS AT BLAH.COM AND SHOW ID WHO'S BOSS! THOSE FUCKERS ONLY
WANT MONEY!"
I don't see why people
can't grasp the simple fact that there are laws, copyrights, and
trademarks for a reason, to protect peoples property. Wolfenstein
3d, Doom, Quake, and Quake 2 span many years and many publishers,
Apogee, GT, id themselfs and Activision, respectively. These publishers
are all different, competing corporate entities. When generations
mixed and matched parts from all 4 of these things, I can only imagine
the legal tangle that would ensue on id's end, with all of these
different publishers having THEIR work used in some way not legally
allowed. As I have come to understand it, id did NOT want to pull
the plug on generations. I'm sure they loved the idea, and wouldn't
have cared if it was made. It's not like it would case them to lose
any money, as you have to have the full version of Quake 2 to play.
The problem stems from
the contracts with the publishers. Material used in previous games
has never really been allowed to be used in other id games, unless
heavily modified, or made from scratch to resemble the original
item. This is why past Wolfenstein-related mods around the net have
been shut down. The same applies to generations' use of copyrighted
material. It also bring into play that *4* different publishers
are involved. As much as id might have wanted to allow them to continue
work, they cannot just simply back out of 4 separate contracts that
have been set up by lawyers. There is just no way they could do
that, and still protect their work from being stolen illegally by
less-then-notable companies trying to make a quick buck. It's unfortunate
that this level of protection is needed, because it restricts the
creation of great mods, such as generations.
I'd like to stress that
I'm not a lawyer in any way, shape or form. I just don't see why
such a big deal is being made, it's not that hard to understand
why id did what they did. People need to learn a little bit about
how the world works, and how business works.I'd also like to note
the maturity of the generations team through out this ordeal. They
seem to have a positive outlook on things, and have NOT been the
ones blaming id for this.
-=-=-=-
Adam 'Bakshra' Krumbein