Legality of Porting Maps

[Rawr]

Hey mappers,
I was curious of checking the legality of porting tremulous maps to another game, or vise versa. The map that I first wanted to do is ATCS. I looked in the files and in the readme.txt it said that Jex made it.
Would I need to Jex before doing anything?
Anything about GPL that I need to worry about?
Thanks

[ShadowNinjaDudeMan]

Would I need to Jex before doing anything?

What kind of verb would "Jex" be:

Ha!
You were Jex-ed!

How Jex-acious!

What the Jex?

[hitchen1]

give credit an your probably fine

[Caveman]

... probably ...

That is _not_ really assuring

@OP
If no license is mentioned in the pk3 you can be sure it is copyrighted by the author and you need permission, preferably written, just to be on the save side.

While I can't imagine Jex to deny your request, it is up to him

[hitchen1]

... probably ...

......_not_ really.........

Nor is that

[Rawr]

Anyone know about the dimensions for ATCS? ie, hallway width, human/alien base dimensions etc..

[waflz]

last time i checked Jex was contactable on IRC

[Steely Ann]

I must be missing something since I'm not sure why you'd need permission to port a map from an Open Source game.  Giving due credit should be enough.  
As to porting for Trem (i.e. Converting FaceII for Trem use, goodness forbid), that's a wee bit sketchier, though I've seen plenty of UT mods using ported models from HL1 or stuff like the Matrix Moves mod.

I'd advise you oughta cover your ass anyway, of course; go ahead and ask for permission from the individuals involved.

[Caveman]

Ann, the game itself (not the maps) might be OS, but the maps can be under any license the author wants them.
So if no license is expressively mentioned, they are copyrighted.

[Steely Ann]

Caveman

Thanks for the correction.  Figured it was something like that so I added the cover-your-ass part.

[TRaK]

I would get fairly irritated if someone ported my maps without asking my permission first.

I mean, it's not like it's hard to ask, and it's basically just common courtesy.

[Pat AfterMoon]

---------------------------------------------------------- Tremulous License ---

Tremulous is licensed in two broadly separate sections: the code and the media.

The code is licensed under the GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE. This license is
contained in full in the file named GPL. Please be aware of the exceptions to
this license as listed below.

The media is licensed under the CREATIVE COMMONS ATTRIBUTION-SHAREALIKE 2.5
LICENSE. Please read http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/ to learn
more about this license. The full license text is contained in the file named
CC. Please be aware of the exceptions to this license as listed below.


---------------------------------------------------- Code License Exceptions ---

The following files contain sections of code that are not licensed under the
GPL, but are nevertheless GPL compatible. The license text for these licenses
is contained within the files as listed.

    src/qcommon/unzip.c                                         zlib license
    src/game/bg_lib.c                                            BSD license
    src/client/snd_adpcm.c            Stichting Mathematisch Centrum license
    src/jpeg-6/*                                                JPEG license


--------------------------------------------------- Media License Exceptions ---

All shaderlab (http://www.shaderlab.com/) textures (by Randy 'ydnar' Reddig)
are subject to the following license:

  Usage and redistribution policy: Textures may be freely downloaded, modified,
  and used in free maps, mods or total conversions provided this copyright
  notice is left intact and a link to Shaderlab is provided in the credits or
  read-me file. Other non-commercial applications are considered on a
  case-by-case basis via e-mail. All other usage requires written permission.
  Bulk redistribution or archival of the textures in any medium, digital or
  otherwise (except mapping packages for mods) is prohibited.

[Caveman]

<loads of licensing stuff not pertaining to the question asked>

[Taiyo.uk]

You can port a map if it's license allows that. If you are unsure of the license terms or their relevance to whether porting is allowed then contact the original author of the map. If this cannot be done (no contact details, dead email account, etc..) then it's best refrain from porting to avoid possible license violation.

[Lava Croft]

If you do not want to use the original ATCS as a base, just rebuild it from scratch and you are safe from any possible violations of whatever rights the creator of the original holds.

[Pat AfterMoon]

<loads of licensing stuff not pertaining to the question asked>

As part of the Tremulous media, the ATCS map is released under the CREATIVE COMMONS ATTRIBUTION-SHAREALIKE 2.5. The spirit of this licence is relatively similar to the GPL, but for media. You can modify  the map and release the new version, but it will have to be under the same licence, and credit need to be given. Look at the license explanation on the CREATIVE COMMONS website
, it's written with simple words. Of course, even if it's not required by the license, it's always more polite to inform the author of the original work

Be careful, this licence cover explicitly the media released by DarkLegion for the official Tremulous release. The maps made by third party people may be licensed under other term. If I remember well (a post from Timbo), any map who want to be part of the official next release of Tremulous need to be covered by this same licence.

And just for being up to date, the actual SVN repository contain a modified version of the COPYING file I've posted above. The Tremulous team seem to have contacted ydnar, and he has re-licensed his shaderlab textures under the same CC license.
http://svn.icculus.org/tremulous/trunk/COPYING?rev=775

I think it's pertaining to the question asked by Imperium.

[Pat AfterMoon]

If I remember well (a post from Timbo), any map who want to be part of the official next release of Tremulous need to be covered by this same licence.

It's here, in the thread about "Maps in the next version"  :

So, if any of you mappers want this to happen with your map, say so here. Note this entails that your map and textures/sound/etc it uses must be licensed with the creative commons license used by Tremulous http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/ .

http://tremulous.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=748

Sound clear, no ?

[Caveman]

Yes it sounds clear I stand corrected, as far as the maps are concerned that are bundled with tremulous

[blood2.0]

i wouldn't just for the reason of tremulous getting sued

[Caveman]

i wouldn't just for the reason of tremulous getting sued

And why would tremulous get sued?

[ShadowNinjaDudeMan]

Because of the Communists.

[your face]

and dont forget the terrorists! D:

[CreatureofHell]

And the developers!  :eek:

[blood2.0]

if you stroll it from halo 3 see if you can see what wird i spleeled wrong sry bord have to do something

[your face]

ye