id Resolves DOSBox/GPL Issue

The British Gaming Blog is reporting that id Software has successfully resolved the minor issue it had with DOSBox, regarding older PC games being sold on Valve's Steam network. "The problem is all fixed up now with the proper licensing text in the game's readme. Developers working hand in hand with smaller application authors is not all that uncommon; SCUMM has worked closely with point and click masters Revolution and LucasArts to improve compatibility with their games, and hopefully this trend will continue so we can experience more old classics in the future."

Re:Source

[DrXym]

I expect DOSBox was already capable of running Quake, and any modifications by Steam are probably just in the configuration file to set its memory, Soundblaster, game image and so on.

Re:Source

[Anonymous Coward]

*sigh* More elitism. Most people don't KNOW what DOSBox is or have any idea what a 'port' is. This is for those people.

Get off your high horse. And nice job moding up worthless post people.

Re:Non-issue

[maniac/dev/null]

ID-software started fixing this, even before the /. article hit the frontpage.

Copy GPL, paste into readme.txt. I still don't get why people where so upset in the first place.

Re:Source

[Applekid]

It is much better to light a candle than damn the darkness.

DOSBox [sourceforge.net]

Re:id still committed to open source

[Walkingshark]

I'm glad that Carmack isn't evil.

Who'd have thought this generation's Einstein would be making video games?

Actually the opposite

[huckamania]

This is probably the dream situation. First, the GPL developers actually recognize that id and steam using their stuff is a good thing. Second, id and steam didn't integrate any of the GPL stuff into their own base.

Take either of those two things away and this situation can quickly approach nightmare levels from a corporate perspective. Eventually, there is going to be a very high profile case where some developer at some company gets caught stealing gpl code after integrating it into their companies product line. It's happening already, just no one has got caught yet.

I'm sure the company will blame the developer. That may be their main line of defence. I wonder if removing the offending code will work, after all, that's what everyone says they'll do if MS ever tries to enforce a patent. I don't think that would work in either case (seriously, if you remove code then you are admitting infringement, maybe not a good strategy).

So far, most of these GPL violations have been minor, not that you'd know it on slashdot.

Re:Non-issue

[jonadab]

> I still don't get why people where so upset in the first place.

Oh, that's easy. People like to get upset. Any excuse will do.