[games sig] Downloader for shareware data files for gpl engines such as vavoom

[Jason L Tibbitts III]

>>>>> "HdG" == Hans de Goede <j.w.r.degoede at hhs.nl> writes:

HdG> Hi, I had this idea last night, it would be nice to package doom
HdG> (and other) gpl game engines, or improved spinoffs such as
HdG> vavoom, but they are kinda useless without the shareware
HdG> datafiles.

The packaging guidelines specifically mention Doom:

----
Shareware

Shareware applications are not Open Source code, and are not
acceptable for Fedora.

However, it is worth noting that some non-executable content exists
that is required to make Open Source applications functional. An
example of this would be open sourced game engines, such as Doom,
Heretic, and Descent. These game engines come with freely
distributable shareware gamedata files.

In this case, the gamedata files can be packaged and included in
Fedora Extras, as long as the files meet the requirements for binary
firmware.
----

HdG> Now the shareware files are freely redistributed by a lot of
HdG> sites, but nowhere there seems to be a clear license under which
HdG> this is done, which makes things kinda dodgy.

This seems to be the case for xu4, which is an (open source) engine
which plays the Ultima 4 data files.  I would like to package it, and
the data is available all over (including from Sourceforge, which I
understand has significant restrictions on what you can host there).
But I can't find any statement that it's OK to distribute the data
except for some archived emails.

 - J<