Another stolen Wesnoth graphics report

Discussion among members of the development team.

Moderator: Forum Moderators

kasmiros
Posts: 9
Joined: October 21st, 2012, 11:26 am

Another stolen Wesnoth graphics report

Post by kasmiros »

Hello,
I'd like to inform you about this issue. The website's adress: "www.kf2.pl". Let's just start with a screenshot:
Image
The website above is a text-type(?) MMORPG, based on something like a vallheru engine(or maybe it is, I'm not an expert in this kind of programming). It is polish site, as you can see, which is using some graphic arts from Battle for the Wesnoth(i just went straight here when i saw it, long time ago I've played Wesnoth and I remember it very well). I don't know if it's OK or NOT OK, and that's why I'm posting a message here to inform you.
//The two white rectangles are hiding my character's avatar and its informations, and names of my villages(just some info that i don't wanna reveal and aren't necessary for you).
User avatar
Dugi
Posts: 4961
Joined: July 22nd, 2010, 10:29 am
Location: Carpathian Mountains
Contact:

Re: Stolen Wesnoth Graphics / A Question

Post by Dugi »

I had a quick look at it (I can read polish, though I cannot speak it), and it seems to be a free to play, World of Warcraft tribute game - in that case, I think they may have used the graphics, they are not earning anything at it - but they should post a copy of GPL somewhere around.
If it is not free to play (including money required for premium accounts of some kind), a discussion will be needed.
kasmiros
Posts: 9
Joined: October 21st, 2012, 11:26 am

Re: Stolen Wesnoth Graphics / A Question

Post by kasmiros »

You don't have to pay to play this game, but there are additional payment options.
User avatar
Dugi
Posts: 4961
Joined: July 22nd, 2010, 10:29 am
Location: Carpathian Mountains
Contact:

Re: Stolen Wesnoth Graphics / A Question

Post by Dugi »

Seems these options are shown only to those who have accounts.
Do the payments bring some profit to the authors of the game, or they are just to help them funding the server's expenses?
And do they bring in-game advantages or just more honour on the forums?
kasmiros
Posts: 9
Joined: October 21st, 2012, 11:26 am

Re: Stolen Wesnoth Graphics / A Question

Post by kasmiros »

My english isn't professional, but i will try to translate something for you.
There is a "magic shop" in which you can:
Buy "dragon coins" via sms(mobile) and use them to buy some feedstock(like wood,iron,stone etc.)
The 2nd option is to pay via transfer(bank,credit card) and you will get:
- 300gold in game for every 1PLN
- 3000 ActionPoints once after transaction
- An editor while making fabular session
- Possibility of sending a message to more than one person
- 100MB on the server for your mp3
- Reducing the respawn time of monsters to 1min
- Possibility of choosing your own, any colour of nickname in tavern or ingame chat
- An aristocrat logo on the players list
And I guess that's all
User avatar
Dugi
Posts: 4961
Joined: July 22nd, 2010, 10:29 am
Location: Carpathian Mountains
Contact:

Re: Stolen Wesnoth Graphics / A Question

Post by Dugi »

I clearly haven't noticed that. Now I doubt that that just helps them to found the community, or that they are a non-profit community.
Now a discussion can start. Why didn't you post this in the very fist post of yours?

Technically anybody playing that game should be noticed the graphics are free to redistribute, where do they come from, and delivered a copy of the GPL licence. Also, they should allow everyone to download everything their game contains (speaking about the source code), for free of for a charge tied to the distribution. But I think that they might even give you the source code and claim their game to be open-source if they went into trouble, as their profit is based on the server and not on the game itself.

But these guys are already earning on a game that is related to World of Warcraft, using its universe, and this can get them into a much bigger trouble.
kasmiros
Posts: 9
Joined: October 21st, 2012, 11:26 am

Re: Another stolen Wesnoth graphics report

Post by kasmiros »

I'm not a lawyer, but just a player. I think, i will leave this issue for you guys, but if there is anything that i can help you with, i'll be glad to help.
// Maybe just ask someone who can tell you more in english about that game/website etc., so you will be able to find out more.
User avatar
Dugi
Posts: 4961
Joined: July 22nd, 2010, 10:29 am
Location: Carpathian Mountains
Contact:

Re: Another stolen Wesnoth graphics report

Post by Dugi »

If you have problems with english, just send me it in polish and I will translate it, I have a 90% success rate at translating polish to english for common things (actually means that I miserably failed once).
kasmiros
Posts: 9
Joined: October 21st, 2012, 11:26 am

Re: Another stolen Wesnoth graphics report

Post by kasmiros »

Oh, ok then. Do your job, I'm not high-ranked enough to do anything, just wanted to make sure that polish site is not a problem for you.
User avatar
Dixie
Posts: 1757
Joined: February 10th, 2010, 1:06 am
Location: $x1,$y1

Re: Stolen Wesnoth Graphics / A Question

Post by Dixie »

Dugi wrote:I had a quick look at it (I can read polish, though I cannot speak it), and it seems to be a free to play, World of Warcraft tribute game - in that case, I think they may have used the graphics, they are not earning anything at it - but they should post a copy of GPL somewhere around.
If it is not free to play (including money required for premium accounts of some kind), a discussion will be needed.
Just to be clear, and I mainly say this because I think you said something similar a few days ago: GPL is not about money. Wether this guy asks money to play his game is irrelevant. Hell, I could compile BfW as is from trunk for whatever platform and sell however I liked if I wanted, and it would be perfectly legal. GPL is about open source, which is to say about making your source code available. Maybe it's not compiled and unusable by 99% of people: who cares, as long as the source code is available?

In this very case, if the only thing that's been used is a few sprites, the author should mention that these sprites are GPL and taken from BfW, possibly with a link. These sprites are to remain GPL: free to use by anybody as long as he respects GPL himself. The rest of his game could be licensed however he pleased, though.
Jazz is not dead, it just smells funny - Frank Zappa
Current projects: Internet meme Era, The Settlers of Wesnoth
kasmiros
Posts: 9
Joined: October 21st, 2012, 11:26 am

Re: Another stolen Wesnoth graphics report

Post by kasmiros »

I didn't find a word saying that they used those arts
User avatar
ancestral
Inactive Developer
Posts: 1108
Joined: August 1st, 2006, 5:29 am
Location: Motion City

Re: Another stolen Wesnoth graphics report

Post by ancestral »

Doesn’t seem too harmful. The biggest infraction, if any, is failure to attribute/mention that these assets are licensed GPL.
kasmiros wrote:You don't have to pay to play this game, but there are additional payment options.
Gratis versus Libre.
Wesnoth BestiaryPREVIEW IT HERE )
Unit tree and stat browser
CanvasPREVIEW IT HERE )
Exp. map viewer
User avatar
AxalaraFlame
Posts: 690
Joined: December 4th, 2011, 1:07 pm
Location: Pasadina, Caltech

Re: Another stolen Wesnoth graphics report

Post by AxalaraFlame »

Oh, this is not gonna to be good :o
I can not read any single polish :doh: but seems that these shameless developer of that game seem to have taken all our resources for free! :augh:
Anybody could read it, please tell me whether these are licensed GPL assets. Or, we could only get a lawyer.

Besides, my godfather taught me some law issues before. I believe even if wesnoth is totally an open source game, we can still apply for patents with legitimate restriction power. These copy rights are maninly used to protect ourselves not to be countercharged by someone else who register our resources as his/hers patents. Under that situation, if we proceed these steps properly, all resources created by wesnothians shall be only used in wesnoth UMC branches and mainlines. Other people like these guys will be technically punished, though... :( we still gotta get a lawyer to accuse them
AI
Developer
Posts: 2396
Joined: January 31st, 2008, 8:38 pm

Re: Another stolen Wesnoth graphics report

Post by AI »

AxalaraFlame wrote:Oh, this is not gonna to be good :o
I can not read any single polish :doh: but seems that these shameless developer of that game seem to have taken all our resources for free! :augh:
Anybody could read it, please tell me whether these are licensed GPL assets. Or, we could only get a lawyer.

Besides, my godfather taught me some law issues before. I believe even if wesnoth is totally an open source game, we can still apply for patents with legitimate restriction power. These copy rights are maninly used to protect ourselves not to be countercharged by someone else who register our resources as his/hers patents. Under that situation, if we proceed these steps properly, all resources created by wesnothians shall be only used in wesnoth UMC branches and mainlines. Other people like these guys will be technically punished, though... :( we still gotta get a lawyer to accuse them
No.
Boucman
Inactive Developer
Posts: 2119
Joined: March 31st, 2004, 1:04 pm

Re: Another stolen Wesnoth graphics report

Post by Boucman »

just to make it clear...

anybody that doesn't speaks polish (which is, afaik everybody that spoke in that thread) would be unable to know if it is mentionned that the assets are GPL.

moreover, even if it is not mentionned on the website, this could still be perfectly legal if it's mentionned in the game.
Fight key loggers: write some perl using vim
Post Reply