Open Age
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There seems to be an Age of Empires 2 clone with GPLv3 licensing all around. Except for the video/audio/images from the original game, Open Age doesn't ship these, and you have to use Wine or Steam-linux to get the files from the a copy already purchased. I happen to own Age of Empires 2 from steam that I bought years ago.
Are these audio/images/videos software or art? What freedoms would copying the files and running open age impose upon? How would it reduce the user's freedom, if at all?
Thanks!
Obviously, Microsoft or Valve won't release the assets under free/libre licenses. So the developers simply cannot just purchase the latest expansion set from Steam, extract all assets, and then make a complete Open Age release. The copyright laws forbid them to re-distribute.
But as long as the players who purchased the latest expansion set of Age of Empires II HD from Steam have access to non-encrypted (non-DRM encumbered) assets, they can always make copies of them and stealthily share them. Copyright law enforcement would be difficult (without DRM).
BTW, I have "pirated" (cracked) version of Age of Empires II HD too, but not the latest expansion set. So there may be certain missing contents (newly added materials).
Thanks. I believe I have the DRM encumbered version since it is from steam and not GOG. However as a user would this take away any freedom from the software? (besides, obviously, that the microsoft assets cannot be shared)
Free Software ≠ Free Culture.
Even RMS himself doesn't use Copyleft licensing in his published writings. The FSF endorsed MMORPG Ryzom is a free software game using copyrighted artwork. Just the same as the project you listed being free software with commercial artwork.
Does it take any freedom away from the software? No, it's still free software. Is it free culture? No, you cannot freely modify and redistribute the assets.
Thanks! I assumed that this was the case, I agree that artworks should not prevent software from being free.
I was more so wondering about the fact that I have to install non-free Age of Empires II from steam to be able to then take the artwork and play Open Age. Would this compromise my system since non-free software would be installed, but not run?
> I was more so wondering about the fact that I have to install non-free
> Age of Empires II from steam to be able to then take the artwork and
> play Open Age. Would this compromise my system since non-free software
> would be installed, but not run?
If you download and extract information from but don't execute non-free
software then it's not a freedom issue in my opinion. However, it
sounds like the way you plan to download the game is by running Steam,
is is also proprietary. Is Steam the only way to acquire a copy of the
game?
I would've re-bought from gog, but I can't find it there. I'm guessing Microsoft doesn't want to release it DRM-free.
The copy that I own is from steam, but I haven't installed steam on my computer. Would there be anyway to run steam in a sandbox? I'm not too familiar with how firejail works however.
I get what you mean. Usually I'll boot up a VM and install through there to get data from Steam games. Since you HAVE to go through Steam, that's probably the best option. Or use someone else's computer running Windows temporarily with their permission. Since Steam is a service, there's really no way around not-installing it *but* once you have the files, keep them backed up somewhere and you won't have to go through the same process in the future.
You could do it through WINE as well, but then you'd be compromising your system with non-free software.
Thanks. I'll probably use my brother's computer to install the game and rip the files. Wine seems icky just in general because it creates a whole bunch of windows directories and even some system files.
I think so. Since the release of Steam, many single-player games were distributed exclusively via Steam. According to the game developing companies, Steam-based version is much harder to crack. They say that "piracy" is destroying the game industry. But instead, Steam (or more generally, DRM) is the real destroyer.
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