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Carmack on GPL Dispute

id's John Carmack updated his .plan in response to the author of the QuakeLives Quake 1 project's decision not to release his source code (a direct violation of the GPL license under which the Q1 source was released). Here's what Carmack had to say:

This is a public statement that is also being sent directly to Slade at QuakeLives regarding http://www.quakelives.com/main/ql.cgi?section=dlagreement&file=qwcl-win32/

I see both sides of this. Your goals are positive, and I understand the issues and the difficulties that your project has to work under because of the GPL. I have also seen some GPL zealots acting petty and immature towards you very early on (while it is within everyone's rights to DEMAND code under the GPL, it isn't necessarily the best attitude to take), which probably colors some of your views on the subject.

We discussed several possible legal solutions to the issues.

This isn't one of them.

While I doubt your "give up your rights" click through would hold up in court, I am positive that you are required to give the source to anyone that asks for it that got a binary from someone else. This doesn't provide the obscurity needed for a gaming level of security.

I cut you a lot of slack because I honestly thought you intended to properly follow through with the requirements of the GPL, and you were just trying to get something fun out ASAP. It looks like I was wrong.

If you can't stand to work under the GPL, you should release the code to your last binary and give up your project. I would prefer that you continue your work, but abide by the GPL. If necessary, I will pay whatever lawyer the Free Software Foundation reccomends to pursue this.

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