od@r
Admin & Founder
Počet príspevkov : 1442
Join date : 2009-05-21
Age : 47
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 |  Subject: Re: Nexuiz is sold .... :/ Thu Mar 04, 2010 10:56 pm | |
| explanation--> This is a draft for an official statement from members of the Nexuiz community regarding Illfonic's acquirement of the name nexuiz with domain name and related works reagrding game code, engine code. Please keep a civilized tone and an adequate description of what have transpired, since this might be a text that could be submited to various sources on the net like /. digg and so fourth. How to use Comments -> ## # http://www.alientrap.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=6050 <--------------- Official thread. ## please be "advised" regarding using a comment style like this: //blaha blah OR ##yes but not maybe blbb blubb maybe blah blah ok? IMPORTANT -----> -Sign up at the bottom ^^ -correct the text as you like and sign up than... -take a nick if you correct the text AND choose a STRONG visible color before editing -the writer of the draft will clean it up afterwards and make a final version -leave this pad afterwards since other community members want do their part for the community too ################################################################################ To whom it may concern, We, the open-source Nexuiz community are writing this letter to all the people out there, who actually care. On the March 1st in 2010, we, the Nexuiz community, were all struck by very unexpected and sad news: Lee Vermeulen, the founder of our beloved open-source game decided it was time to sell the domain "nexuiz.com" and license the title "Nexuiz" to the Colorado-based video game developer "Illfonic". While not participating in the community for years, and without providing any information, Lee Vermeulen claimed he was confined by a Non-Disclosure-Agreement which he and "Illfonic" signed. The community was told that there was something "great" about to happen to the main domain "nexuiz.com". It was more than a shock for most people in the community to see what happened on the 1st of March 2010: We were allowed to read that "Illfonic" is planning a console mockup of the game the community made and loved all over the years. It was not enough for them to just get their hands on the domain "nexuiz.com", but they even told the community they were going to publish the console game with exactly the same title, officially hijacking our whole community. Doing so, they even claimed it would be a good thing for us to happen. On March 3rd in 2010 Kedhrin Gonzalez, "Lead Designer and Co-Founder of IllFonic, LLC", finally showed up on the official Alientrap Nexuiz boards. Telling us: "I know this will come as a shock to some of you. I apologize for us having to keep this in the dark from you guys for so long. Some of you felt offended by this project being kept in the dark. Let me personally say this was not our intent. If anything, we want you guys to feel great about the things we are doing. We had to keep things in the dark until we locked in the rights from Dark Places and Alien Trap." How are we supposed to feel great about this? If they had good intentions, why did they not show up way earlier in the community? It's not Lee Vermeulen who is the Nexuiz community, but it's you guys and girls out there, who made Nexuiz what it is today. Without all the work and freetime a lot of people contributed to this project, it would have never be what it is today. That being said, it's maybe useful to reconsider about Lee Vermeulen's recent activities in the community. Being the founder of Nexuiz, it's strange to see how seldom he appeared on the forums and in the community in general. Within the last 4 years Lee Vermeulen did not really contribute much to the community anymore. Most of the work was done by guys like divVerent, esteel, Samual, [-z-], Morphed, FruitieX, MrBougo, tZork, mand1nga, Merlijn and a lot of other people who would be more worth to get mentioned than Lee Vermeulen. A really BIG thanks go out to you, guys and girls. You are part of the heart and soul of Nexuiz, like all those other people out there trying to improve the Nexuiz experience for everyone in their spare time. Let's also not forget the colaborative brainpower of the community that went into this project in form of ideas over many subjects ranging from balancing weapons to maps and whatnot. These things are of course lacking a 'papertrail' of commit logs in svn and such, yet they are as of now a part of IllFonic's Nexuiz. Recent discussions on the Alientrap boards have unfortunately shown that "Illfonic" shows little to no respect to the community. Being asked about adding a suffix to the new upcoming console Nexuiz, like e.g. "Nexuiz: Battlegrounds" all the community got as response from Kedhrin was: "Unfortunately, I have nothing else to say on this thread. I've responded in a professional format, way more personal than I usually do in a public forum these days trying to connect with. Unfortunately, I will not listen to demands or snappy comments." // Bit too "biased"? NPOV version would be better methinks That effectively shows how much he cares about the community opinion in this case. As if this had not been enough, Kedhrin Gonzalez enforced the topic on the Alientrap boards to get locked after receiving bitter outcry. This is a short quote from the official Alientrap developer channel to show what the situation is about, actually: " locked that topic at Kedhrin's request
-.-
Seriously?
yes
he said it's the top result on google and looks like it will never end
Meh I think i'm --- Meh.
he doesn't mind people making other topics for it, just that one is becoming too much of a headache for him
Tell him to come to this channel, clearly you're talking to him from somewhere.
so now he gets to moderate gpl nexuiz forrum?
"
All this happened, while Kedhrin was still claiming respect to the community. Being a free software project, Nexuiz has always been a place of open-minded and respectful people and a place where free speech was held important. Looking at the actual situation, we guess it's safe to say that "Illfonic" have already harmed the community and the Nexuiz project as is. In a free software community there should be no restrictions of free-speech, no matter what.
// Note: "Open Source" is the wrong term when you are referring to philosophy and policy.
// Use "Free Software" or "FOSS" (free open source software), or "FLOSS" (free/libre open
// source software). "Open Source" just means that technically the source code is
// accessible and says nothing about the motivation for making it accessible.
Unfortunately, it seems like "Illfonic" is trying to profit from the good label Nexuiz established over the last years without giving anything back at all. They clearly stated there will be no contribution art-wise to the open-source Nexuiz. All the community can hope is that improvements to the Darkplaces engine, made by LordHavoc while porting it to the consoles under contract with "Illfonic" will be useful on the PC platform. Not a big reward for the harm the whole action has done to the "free software Nexuiz" community.
We hope YOU are interested and willing to support our cause. Spread the word as much as you can on the web, the international media and of course to your friends, because your friends are actually what makes a community what it is.
We really hope you will unite all your forces for this case so we are maybe still able to turn things around for the better. The game is NOT published yet, so effectively "Illfonic" should still be able to get out of this situation by adding at least a suffix to the game title.
Don't get this wrong, we don't think the console version of Nexuiz is a bad idea in general and we are not in general against Lee Vermeulen, LordHavoc and other parcticipating developers making a little profit out of Nexuiz. They have done great work for the community in the past and still today and Nexuiz would not be what it is without their achievements. We admire them and want to express our respect about their fantastic work.
// FOSS again referred to slightly incorrectly as "open source"
// Goddamnit, please read the comment above ("Open Source" just means that
// technically...). For details, see the Wikipedia article about "Free Software".
We are just disappointed and sad about the way things were handled. On one side, you, the Nexuiz developers (PC & Console), emphasize the community and the Free, Open Source roots you are all coming from, even including Kedhrin Gonzalez, and speculate about respect for all the members, fans and freaks around the Nexuiz scene, and in the end you show little to no respect for what this community established over all the years. Effectivley hijacking its fine label for a commercial console port without telling a single word, until it was all set.
We just want to suggest that both games don't share exact the same title. This would only result in total confusion and would definitely not only harm the community, but also the "commercial Nexuiz" (or FeeNex , as it is now referred to ), since customers don't like confusing things ("What? There are 2 games sharing this name? What is this I don't even--"). Also we want to suggest to establish a kind of portal site on nexuiz.com where both games are represented in an equal way. It only had to be a single page giving the visitor the choice to visit either the commercial console port or the original Free, Open Source Nexuiz. This would solve all the problems which seem to arise like a dark shadow in the sky at the moment.
On behalf of the Nexuiz Community.
The signers ...
eL_Bart0, Hypnosekroete, Droggelbecher, Evil_mercenary, HeddiZ, Edi, 337, Zenyatta, Fjant, Estelle, pimpampum, M@X, Black-Dragon131, Lee_Stricklin, God, Aleator, Sardine, Slup/Haku, Essiance, Master, Sven, Apo, Predator, Peacemaker, PSs 777, Nosferatu, Lord, Andy, Blacktail, Wytry, XaDoR, ArgeadGER, Oxyd, Shadowstrike, Smithy. Kolum_Amabo, MrIceblock, narayan, Nameless, McGyver, Player1 Germany, Cannibal, Paul, CommanderSick, DeadWalker, Bulletproof, Artemon, Paperclips, Duelist (Shawn K. Quinn), stingray300k, J3r3my (Jeremy G), bones_was_here, C.Brutail (Ruszkai Ákos), aurix, Cortez666, Mirio, -maniac|Su-, BrechtvanBommel, Chuck_Norris, FruitieX, -z-, tZork, Samual "Ares" Lenks, charlie bravo, Hillis, BOnZa, SoulKeeper_p, AckeFIN, quadratic, narvik86 , kuniu, Dhraakellian, Cribozai<<< SIGN HERE!
Signed Clans or Communities:
http://monksofnexuiz.info/ Monks of Nexuiz
http://legion-of-caps.tk/ - Legion of Caps
http://DieTunichtguten.org - Die Tunichtguten
http://nfc.forumo.com - Nexuiz Fun Clan / Nexuiz Fun Squad
http://www.aussienexers.com - Australian Nexuiz Community
http://lzr.aussienexers.com/ - lzr clan
http://www.bot-nexuiz.de.tl/ - BOT
http://prophets.aforumfree.com/ - Prophets Minsta Clan
http://www.nexuizninjaz.com - Nexuiz Ninjaz
http://playerkiller.forumotion.com/forum.htm - Playerkiller Minstagib Clan
http://peacebrothers.de.tl/ - The Peace Brothers
http://akion.planetnexuiz.de LaidBack
http://xeno.planetnexuiz.com/ - {X}_community - {X} Community
http://mit.nexuizclans.com/ - Men In Tux (MiT)
http://nexrun.co.cc/ - Nexrun community
################################################################################
Nexuiz and all related material is Copyright/Trademark of their respective owners,
#############################################################################
Alternative Texts/Ideas here or in the Forum(maybe better :O):
//Another option, that we, as a community, are considering, is dumping AlienTrap, that many of us don't trust anymore due to its ambiguous relationship with IllFonic, and establishing a new project altogether. This would severely damage IllFonic's image and those members of the Nexuiz project that participate in their affair. This is a no-choice measure with its own dangers to the community, and therefore should not be taken lightly. But it is certainly an option and should be considered by both the community and IllFonic.
//imho this would make the worst impact on our community. I don't approve merging / forking Nexuiz.
// Still, there are many proponents of this measure, thus it deserves to be presented.
/true... so, who's havin' a Bud?
//Please, this is not commenting... take the debating to the forums or IRC
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There is another opinion that is not represented here. Namely: we should not rush ahead to dissipate the news in the media. Here are the arguments:
1. Doing that would make permanent damage to IllFonic AND the Nexuiz project members that are involved with them. Namely: morfar, LordHavoc and Vermeullen.
2. It would also deny the project possible benefits that commercial development of Darkplaces may provide.
3. The threat to dissipate the news is a weapon that we have against IllFonic. We may have a better chance of settling the issue to our benefit with this letter remaining a threat than after it is made reality.
4. The message should be well-considered before it is sent. We should wait for the remaining community leaders to consolidate an opinion that would represent them and the core of the community. They should negotiate with IllFonic and decide upon what steps should be taken.
5. Sending the letter prematurely may convey a wrong message and lead to fragmentation of the community.
Above bullets are not to meaningfull IF this document is authored in a fairly neutral view, and in a civilaized manner. Somthign i think was the intent all along. (yes indeed, to say the least)
This opinion is supported by some prominent members of the community (not necessarily moderate). For those of you RPG fans out there, this is Order vs Chaos choice.
//Well, this is meant as a draft. People are still working on this, so nothing is set in stone. NOBODY IS SENDING SHIT ANYWHERE.
//I cant stress this enough. There has still been no feedback from involved parties. This can not be rushed through, then this collaboration effort is wasted.
//This draft is also a means of putting pressure on AND let involved parties be heard. To show that, we got our "guns locked and loaded". If more disrespectful tones, then this is met by "gunfire".
//illFonic is able to lead us than if we take benifits from them .. Hypno
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// Wish by FruitieX and Paperclips ( :> ) to the person who will make the "final" version, even though we almost assume (s)he will do it, just making sure: Post it to the forums and ask around for opinions, many aren't signing due to the fact that this document can change in any way. // surely i will do so - signed eL_Bart0 and btw: YES, this is NOT final yet! xD
// I would say that any signature attached is only really valid for the revision signed, and resigning the final document would be necessary. Yes a signature here AND in the official thread, would do the trick.
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The text doesn't address the critical legal issue. That is, that some of the devs didn't give explicit permission for relicensing their code. The missing section must elaborate. There are two separate issues: the engine and the QuakeC code. It has been established that the console version is going to use [a lot of] the original QC code, which in large part was contributed by developers that haven't signed it off to IllFonic.
There is also an unclear issue with content licensing. Some say it is covered by GPL, but even FSF claims that it's inappropriate to do that. It is unclear as of now, how much of the content will be used by FeeNex.
This piece is critical, because it will cut straight to the heart of the Slashdot audience (and many others). Keep in mind that there's nothing illegal going on, while FeeNex is still unreleased.
// a grue wrote this, but I am not going to maintain this section, and anyone is free to edit it just like me | |
|
![cook!e [NK]](https://2img.net/u/4211/82/25/55/avatars/11-42.jpg)
.... I do not think to totally "sell" the source code but only change the source code to the graphic engine unreal3 for our original Nexuiz game for better looks ![Lucy [NK]](https://2img.net/u/4211/82/25/55/avatars/74-37.jpg)
