[vox] Outlaws redux

[Rod Roark]

I'm a bit confused as to why it would first go to a legal
department.  I would think that it's fundamentally a
business decision (i.e., open up something you are not
willing to spend money maintaining in the hope of getting
community support, posiive PR and good will).  It was a
decision that made sense to Netscape at one time.

I would ask who makes the business decisions.

-- Rod

On Tuesday 18 November 2003 04:46 pm, Peter Jay Salzman wrote:
> hi all,
> 
> about a week(?) ago i sent a letter to the person in charge of
> lucasarts' "outlaws" (a pretty cool first person shooter) , asking him
> if it were possible to open source this nearly 10 year old engine.
> 
> he seemed very into the idea, but had to run it by the legal department.
> 
> here is the legal department's response.  i honestly don't comprehend
> everything about their reply, but it sounds like they may be a little
> confused about what open source means.
> 
> any suggestions on what my response should be?
> 
> would it be silly to contact someone like mad dog and ask him to take
> over "negotiations"?
> 
> pete
> 
> 
> ----- Forwarded message from Daron Stinnett
> 
> Subject: RE: Outlaws
> Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2003 15:17:24 -0800
> From: Daron Stinnett
> To: p@dirac.org
> 
> Hi Pete, here's the response I received from our legal department:
> 
> "We would not "give away" the code in the same sense done with the Doom
> and Quake engines and we certainly would not such to be considered or
> become "open source". What we could do (and was previously proposed by
> legal with respect to the SCUMM Engine) was that we make it available
> ("it" being either the entire engine or selected executable files)
> either through our web site (subject to certain very limited terms that
> make clear we continue to own the code, do not give up any claims of
> ownership to the code and make it available entirely on an "as is" basis
> absent any kind of warranties, support or other assistance."
> 
> 
> How does that response align with your inquiry?
> 
> - Daron