[Bf-committers] Node system for game logic

[Sjoerd de Vries]

> Message: 4
> Date: Thu, 26 May 2011 09:00:51 -0800
> From: Tom M <letterrip at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Bf-committers] Node system for game logic
> To: bf-blender developers <bf-committers at blender.org>
> Message-ID: <BANLkTi=JZakjNVfsnPEaK=G9g19chF8ExQ at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
> On Thu, May 26, 2011 at 8:07 AM, Sjoerd de Vries <sjdv1982 at gmail.com> wrote:
>

Hi LetterRip,

>>> 1) any plans to license it in a non-viral license (e.g. BSD)?
>>
>> In principle, yes. BSD is too promiscuous for my taste, but something
>> like the LGPL would be an option.
>
> The reason for the question is that moving to GameKit, which is BSD
> licensed is a longer term possibility.
>
> The plan that the GE dev team decided on was to BSD or dual BSD/GPL
> license all future code to make such a transition possible.
>
> The benefits of this are that GameKit is extremely cross platform -
> and can be ported and distributed to platforms that GPLed/LGPLed code
> cannot be used

I don't believe that the GPL would be viral in this context. The hive
system is in Python, it runs on top on whatever rendering engine you
provide. Adding GameKit bindings to the hive system doesn't make
GameKit a derived product of the hive system, so the GPL wouldn't
apply to GameKit.
I *think* that a Python GPL component like the hive system could even
be redistributed with GameKit, and any GameKit-based game wouldn't
need to be GPL as long as the game doesn't actually use
(Python-import) the GPL component.

from the GPL license:

"A compilation of a covered work with other separate and independent
works, [which are not by their nature extensions of the covered work,
and which are not combined with it such as to form a larger program,
in or on a volume of a storage or distribution medium,] is called an
“aggregate” [if the compilation and its resulting copyright are not
used to limit the access or legal rights of the compilation's users
beyond what the individual works permit]. Inclusion of a covered work
in an aggregate does not cause this License to apply to the other
parts of the aggregate."

cheers

Sjoerd