Heir to the throne comics

[peileppe]

Hi Wesnothians,

As while ago as a hobby I started a web comics based on my Wesnoth's replay (featuring Konrad in the "heir to the throne" Campaign )-
it's now finished and it is with great pleasure, that I can now provide you a link to the finished book (pdf)

detail : it's free - the printed version is around 25$ - that's what lulu.com is charging for paper and hard cover -

Here's the link to the PDF :
http://www.lulu.com/content/6128556

More detail on my website :
http://peileppe.wordpress.com/2009/03/02/link-lulu/

Hope you like it !

[thespaceinvader]

If you're goign to use Wesnoth's artwork, you must make it clear that the artwork is GPLed. I'm not sure about the interaction between GPL and derivative works, and between GPL and Creative Commons licenses, but you should be aware of that too...

[bonehead11]

it's free - the printed version is around 25$

Where this world is going, they want to make money from anything its sick.

[turin]

Where this world is going, they want to make money from anything its sick.

So you think they should give out the printed version, which costs them money to produce (paper, ink, etc), for free?

[Girgistian]

After a short stop to look at conrad's general appearance, the voiceplay in my head said something other than maggot.

[Corvvs]

When I first looked at your post, I was taken aback because the same thing happened to me. I don't know if I should be amused or depressed...

[Viliam]

COOL!

Unfortunately, the licences are probably incompatible.

[woodmouse]

After a short stop to look at conrad's general appearance, the voiceplay in my head said something other than maggot.

For me, too.

But I like this, but I also think like some other people, that maybe the licence does'nt allow using Wesnoth images for something that needs to be payed of getting... But because there's the free version, too.... hmmm, I don't know.

[Unnheulu]

The license does allow that,read GPL.

[Viliam]

GPL allows selling products containing Wesnoth images.

The problem is that GPL almost surely does not allow selling products containing Wesnoth images under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.

5. You may convey a work based on the Program, or the modifications to produce it from the Program, in the form of source code under the terms of section 4, provided that you also meet all of these conditions:
[...]
c) You must license the entire work, as a whole, under this License to anyone who comes into possession of a copy. [...] This License gives no permission to license the work in any other way, [...]

This is the point of GPL. No rights may be removed from the work. Selling the book under license which allows only NonCommercial use, is removing a right from user.

It would be more in spirit of GPL (though I am not sure if still legal) to use a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license, which is very similar to GPL. I do not know if Lulu allows it.

Wesnoth is free not only in sense "it does not cost money" but also in sense "you can use it and modify it as you wish (as long as you do not remove these freedoms from others)". This is why we use different words for "freeware" and "free software". It is pefectly legal to sell Wesnoth, or modified versions of Wesnoth (as long as they come with GPL license). On the other hand, it would be illegal to forbid people from selling Wesnoth. It may sound strange, but it works. It is actually simpler than to speak about non-commercial use, because where exactly is the line between covering my expenses and making profit? We save a lot of time by not pretending there is such a line. We do not need to discuss when exactly selling a book with Wesnoth images on Lulu makes profit. GPL does not care about it. GPL only cares about freedom. The problem is, the "NonCommercial" license removes a part of freedom -- namely, the freedom to print the comic and sell it (or its modified versions) for profit. The problem is, by GPL you are forbidden to forbid such things.


Short version:
If possible, please change the license of comic at Lulu to Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike. (Even better would be to change it to GPL, but maybe that is not available.)

[peileppe]

Hi,

Thanks for all the feedbacks ; I will make some modifications according to them

@thespaceinvader, Viliam > concerning the potential license issue

So if I understand correctly, the best thing would be to re-publish the Wesnoth comic under GPL or under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.
(to add to the confusion some of my drawing in the comic are public domain (see http://openclipart.org/media/people/Peileppe )

Here's the license thingy on lulu.com > http://www.lulu.com/uk/help/license_how

And also I was thinking that It would make sense to add a Credits page :

Artwork and Graphics Design
Francisco Muñoz (fmunoz)
Richard Kettering (Jetryl)
Neoriceisgood

@bonehead11

The 25$ price is lulu.com charging for ink, paper and hard cover (I'm not making any profit here) @turin > thanks for your post
The PDF is free - what I could do is remove the hard cover Printing option - so that would totally remove possible confusion ?!

@Girgistian and all the people with little voice in their head

Well spotted, I could change this to something else - Little Worm, little monkey, .. or keep it that way.

Again thanks for the comments, be well and have fun in the World of Wesnoth

[Thumper]

So if I understand correctly, the best thing would be to re-publish the Wesnoth comic under GPL or under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.

No, you can't dual-license it. If you use the images under the terms of the GPL, then you have to offer them under the terms of the GPL. You cannot offer additional licensing terms as you aren't the copyright holder.

As for the actual printing, you can charge whatever you want. The important thing is that you offer your source freely through an electronis medium, which you're doing with the PDF. So that's not an issue at all.

- Chris

[silene]

So if I understand correctly, the best thing would be to re-publish the Wesnoth comic under GPL

Yes, but it doesn't seem like lulu.com allows it (GFDL is not GPL).

or under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.

No, the "NonCommercial" part is incompatible.

That being said, nothing prevents you from privately contacting the authors and see if they would accept to relicense their work under CC-by-nc-sa for you to use.

[Lord Ork]

The comic is based on screenshots, I think, and the screenshots are in a fuzzy legal situation regarding to copyright. I have seen a lot of books with tons of screenshots of GPL applications, that are published in the more restrictive license (all rights reserved, no copy and so).

Anyway, as I don't think anyone is willing to mount a business on this comic, and anyway lulu.com is doing money with it (which I don't think is bad), I don't see the point of NC restriction in this case.

[silene]

I have seen a lot of books with tons of screenshots of GPL applications, that are published in the more restrictive license (all rights reserved, no copy and so).

There is nothing wrong nor fuzzy with putting screenshots of GPL applications into a book. In most countries, using excerpts of a work is allowed for informative purpose. But this is not the case here; peileppe is not doing a game review or a software survey or whatever, therefore the license of the pictures applies.