Monetization of SCUMMVM

avae · Post by **avae** » Sun Jun 21, 2009 1:31 am

I'm a great admirer of this project, however I cannot fathom why you allow the developer of Flight of the Amazon Queen (iPhone port) to derive an income from your work?

I spat out my tea when I seen that in the app store. You guys are being taken for a ride.

Freddo · Post by **Freddo** » Sun Jun 21, 2009 4:05 am

Eh, some games on GoG use ScummVM too.

Not to mention that the developer of Flight of the Amazon Queen gave the source code of the game to the ScummVM team years ago.

Post by **eriktorbjorn** » Sun Jun 21, 2009 6:03 am

avae wrote:I'm a great admirer of this project, however I cannot fathom why you allow the developer of Flight of the Amazon Queen (iPhone port) to derive an income from your work?

Surprising as it may sound, that's actually a consequence of ScummVM being free software. The license allows anyone to distribute copies of the program of course, but it also states that "You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy, and you may at your option offer warranty protection in exchange for a fee." So as long as it doesn't violate the license in any other way, there's no problem.

The Free Software Foundation has written an essay about selling free software, so they clearly have no problem with it either.

md5 · Post by **md5** » Sun Jun 21, 2009 9:39 am

Thing is, if someone uses ScummVM like this, they should include any changes made to the source code (as stated in the GPL).

Post by **eriktorbjorn** » Sun Jun 21, 2009 10:27 am

md5 wrote:Thing is, if someone uses ScummVM like this, they should include any changes made to the source code (as stated in the GPL).

I thought they did. At least, there's some source code on this page, which I assumed is the one we were talking about. I have no way of testing it for myself.

LogicDeLuxe · Post by **LogicDeLuxe** » Sun Jun 21, 2009 11:12 am

Sure, they may sell it as GPL allows it. I'm much more surprised that the game is sold at all, since they released it as freeware already.

ezekiel000 · Post by **ezekiel000** » Sun Jun 21, 2009 11:22 am

Yes but people will pay for the convenience of not having to figure out how to set-up scummvm and the game files on their iPhone won't they?

fingolfin · Post by **fingolfin** » Sun Jun 21, 2009 11:52 am

As long as they comply to the GPL by publishing all sources to the program (and adhering to the GPL in every other regard, too), they are allowed to sell their binaries.

Still, we had to apply quite some pressure before they put up the source code, and at least marginally complied to the GPL. (Note: I am not really convinced by the way they do it, but at least there is *some* source available, much better than what some other people do... ).

The real problem here is that they distribute FOTAQ for money. Compare that to this quote from the license of the free FOTAQ version available from us:
" 3) You may not charge a fee for the game itself. This includes reselling the game as an individual item."

Note that these guys claim to have obtained a separate license for the data from John Passfield (IIRC). I have not tried to verify this myself, though.

Post by **eriktorbjorn** » Sun Jun 21, 2009 12:10 pm

fingolfin wrote: Note that these guys claim to have obtained a separate license for the data from John Passfield (IIRC). I have not tried to verify this myself, though.

Me neither, but there's an article about it on John Passfield's blog, so at the very least he's aware of it.

avae · Post by **avae** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 11:49 am

It just doesn't seem fair. I have no issues with buying it if you guys were to release it, but the developer just seems to be getting money for doing pretty much nothing.

Anyways thanks for making SCUMMVM in the first place and making this site too and replying to my post, I see its more complicated than I first thought.

Freddo · Post by **Freddo** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 2:21 pm

avae wrote:It just doesn't seem fair. I have no issues with buying it if you guys were to release it, but the developer just seems to be getting money for doing pretty much nothing.

Nothing? So what about all the art, sound, music and programming, added to the fact that he then gave the source code to the ScummVM team.

ezekiel000 · Post by **ezekiel000** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 2:27 pm

I think avae means the developers of the port not the original game.

ovvldc · Post by **ovvldc** » Fri Jun 26, 2009 9:20 pm

That is what intellectual property rights will do for a good businessman...

Frank_Baier · Post by **Frank_Baier** » Wed Jul 08, 2009 9:33 pm

I think the scummvm team should do ...

1. build up a license fee for every game which use scummvm.
2. sell their supported games and take money for every download. The money is not for the game but for the "download service".

3. They should sell only adventure games, like gog.com so the team can buy much more time to develop scummvm.

ScummVM reminds me a little bit at DivX.com. First there was a free version of this codec, it was a community project. After a while they get professional and sell their pro codec.

The ScummVM team should take over the wheel and manager their own course.

A lot of people are downloading old games from illegal sources. It's not fair.

I would pay for every german version of a game which i could get and support the scumm team.

MusicallyInspired · Post by **MusicallyInspired** » Wed Jul 08, 2009 10:06 pm

ScummVM doesn't have any rights to charge for any games compatible with it.

Monetization of SCUMMVM

Monetization of SCUMMVM

Re: Monetization of SCUMMVM