[Bf-committers] Can BGE be relicensed?

Dahlia Trimble dahliatrimble at gmail.com
Sat Dec 1 05:06:18 CET 2012


I haven't used BGE so I can't really speak about compatibility, but I
thought GameKit https://code.google.com/p/gamekit/  was a MIT licensed BGE
compatible game engine.


On Fri, Nov 30, 2012 at 12:11 PM, Sinan Hassani <[email redacted]>wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I have started a thread on BlenderArtists asking whether BGE can be
> relicensed to LGPL based on the news that VLC is being relicensed from
> GPL to LGPL:
>
>
> http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?273712-VLC-coming-to-iOS-Can-BGE-be-relicensed-to-LGPL
>
> So one thing is for sure, a major open source, free software project
> that spans 10 years can indeed be relicensed. Whether that's good or
> bad, I don't know and it's not the subject of this topic. This subject
> is about whether BGE can be and should be relicensed to be more
> competitive as a game engine in the current environment we find our self
> in (App Stores, people spending more time on mobile devices, consumers
> that want to get their software from a familiar and convenient app
> repository, i.e. iOS App Store, Google Play).
>
> In the second link I post in that thread, it explains why LGPL is more
> suitable than GPL for App Stores (also based on a podcast from FSF I
> listened to):
>
> According to the LGPL terms, developers “are not responsible for
> enforcing compliance by third parties with this License.” With the
> project now licensed as LGPL software, there’s no longer an issue with
> Apple’s App Store policy that limits installation to five devices.
>
> Link:
>
> http://www.geek.com/articles/mobile/vlc-re-licensed-as-lgpl-ready-to-head-back-to-the-app-store-20121115/
>
>
> So my question is, can BGE be relicensed separate from Blender? If yes,
> then which parts can be relicensed?
>
> Additional points:
>
> -I'd like to get a reply from all major BGE contributors on whether they
> are okay with relicensing. And if yes, are they okay with LGPL, or do
> they want a more liberal license? Like MIT?
>
> -The VLC devs used commit logs to get a list of all developers that
> contributed code
>
> -It would be nice to know which parts of BGE can be relicensed? And
> which parts would we need to rewrite using GameKit for example?
>
> -How would the relicensing work? Changing BGE source file headers is
> okay? New developers contributing to BGE need to know the new license
> from the source files
>
> -Some BGE devs have told me that they would like more research on what
> is the best license for this situation if an effort is made to relicense
> BGE. I prefer LGPL based on what I know, and especially if it's suitable
> for current App Store models. However, Ogre3d went MIT, Torque 3D went
> MIT, GameKit is MIT, so MIT seems like a good license for game engines
> because you can integrate 3rd party SDKs and be suitable for more
> platforms like consoles
>
> In conclusion, GPL may not be viable for the BGE to be competitive. LGPL
> may be a good balance to enable BGE content to be submitted to App
> Stores and respect developers who have contributed code to BGE.
> Specifically, developers that want BGE to not only be open source, but
> free software as well.
>
> Sinan
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