How Linux Community Steals Proprietary Assets

Looks like large parts of Linuxland are inhabitated by thieves: On GitHub, a random guy explains how Linux game developers ignore copyright on assets and proudly claim that they don't care.

I'm not sure how to fight that. Anyone?

The tone alone suggests a troll manufacturing an issue.

Taking his claim at face value? It's not (EDIT: adding the critical "not") my problem. If the people who hold the rights to the non-free assets do have a problem, they are free to contact the projects in question, and escalate (to courts, to media, whatever) if they have to.

I actually think that many of the examples he gives *are* of assets being used correctly. The sound effects ones in particular.

Also, the example links under "GNOME steals assets" don't go to GNOME.

I'm not sure how to fight that. Anyone?

For cases where there's actually an issue? Submit an issue on the infriging project's GitHub page. Then notify the owners of the original assets.

Originally Posted by dugan The tone alone suggests a troll manufacturing an issue. Taking his claim at face value? It's my problem. If the people who hold the rights to the non-free assets do have a problem, they are free to contact the projects in question, and escalate (to courts, to media, whatever) if they have to. I actually think that many of the examples he gives *are* of assets being used correctly. The sound effects ones in particular. Also, the example links under "GNOME steals assets" don't go to GNOME. For cases where there's actually an issue? Submit an issue on the infriging project's GitHub page. Then notify the owners of the original assets.

Agreed; I read this as a troll/flame post as well.

I like how his commit comments all just say "update".

Lennarts doppleganger? Or if Lennart had a son.

Seriously though, this reminds me of the crap Microsoft tried to do years ago with Linux, back when Novell caved into them.

opengameart.org hosts a lot of non-free content. There are assets clearly derived or stolen from non-free shows, as well as art illegally re-licensed from non-free licenses. http://opengameart.org/content/fbi-chic (Dana Scully character from X-Files)

Hahaha.

Hahahahaha!

If you follow his links, he brags about "burning my hamster alive to get authentic rodent agony sounds".

I would suggest that he be banned immediately when he inevitably finds this thread and signs up to LQ to "respond" (i.e. troll).

EDIT: he's linked to at least two places where he was clearly banned for exactly that, and he said they showed him being banned "for no reason". If he presents himself as not understanding even those, then I'd question his grasp on more difficult subjects, such as international copyright and trademark law.

Originally Posted by YesItsMe Looks like large parts of Linuxland are inhabitated by thieves: On GitHub, a random guy explains how Linux game developers ignore copyright on assets and proudly claim that they don't care. I'm not sure how to fight that. Anyone?

Interesting choice of words, "thieves" and "fight". So you have already established guilt, extended it to the whole Linux community, and are prepared to apply a forceful (aka violent) solution? All on the "authority" of someone you yourself recognize as a random guy on the internet?!!

Intellectual property, so-called, is 100% a concept of human rule-sets we call "law". If you think that some rule is authoritative in some domain, and is being violated by someone in that domain, then you bring them into compliance by the process defined in that same domain - "law". That is how you establish both applicability of law and guilt under that law, and establish compliance.

Pointing a finger and shouting, "Thief!" in a crowded market place is the worst sort of slander, thuggery and cowardice. What is your interest in doing so?

Grab the pitchforks and torches, some random guy has made an accusation!

Hint: look at the edit history. Some aspects of his story change quite rapidly.

e.g...

I went to check if the troll guy had caught this before today. He hadn't.

While it is billed as an “open source” version, the remake did include original artwork, belonging to Electronic Arts.

When [the developer] announced the project earlier this year, several people pointed out the potential copyright issues. This is also the reason why the developer came up with an asset conversion tool early on. That would make it possible to replace the original artwork with open source content, however, due to some code changes and other priorities, this hasn’t happened yet.

EA Takes Down 'Open Source' SimCity 2000 Remake

Projects like ScummVM and OpenTTD have been around for many years. Even if not fully aware of the legality, by now you'd think that a developer of this kind of thing would at least be aware of these two examples (among others) and note that they do not redistribute the proprietary content, but only provide a implementation of the game engine.

As with those two, it's usually fairly standard to just advise which game data files are needed. So he really only has himself to blame...

Originally Posted by YesItsMe Looks like large parts of Linuxland are inhabitated by thieves: On GitHub, a random guy explains how Linux game developers ignore copyright on assets and proudly claim that they don't care. I'm not sure how to fight that. Anyone?

YesItsMe:

congrats at yet another mildly succesful trolling campaign.

thread title: generalising some individuals into "Linux Community": bad.
thread title: overly broad statement ("stealing proprietary assets") created from no facts at all: also bad.

quoting random mentally deranged online individual (*) to substantiate claims: worse.

(*) i stopped reading after about the third time he called linux people "communists"...

Originally Posted by ondoho ... (*) i stopped reading after about the third time he called linux people "communists"...

I never started reading it because of my ignore file...