bug#28193: tome4 tiles are nonfree?

[Christopher Allan Webber]

Mark H Weaver writes:

> Hi Chris,
>
> Christopher Allan Webber <address@hidden> writes:
>
>> I was excited to see tome4 packaged for Guix since that game is
>> *incredible*.  However, I'm not totally sure about the music, but as for
>> the tiles, there's this message in tome4's COPYING-MEDIA which says:
>>
>>   All the medias located in all the "/data/gfx" folders are granted to
>>   use with the Tales of Maj'Eyal game only.
>>
>>   Please contact address@hidden for more informations.
>>
>> It seems to me that we will have to strip these out.
>
> Thanks for bringing this to our attention.  The GNU FSDG requirements
> for non-functional data are relatively permissive:
>
>   Non-functional Data
>   
>   Data that isn't functional, that doesn't do a practical job, is more
>   of an adornment to the system's software than a part of it.  Thus, we
>   don't insist on the free license criteria for non-functional data.  It
>   can be included in a free system distribution as long as its license
>   gives you permission to copy and redistribute, both for commercial and
>   non-commercial purposes.  For example, some game engines released
>   under the GNU GPL have accompanying game information—a fictional world
>   map, game graphics, and so on—released under such a
>   verbatim-distribution license.  This kind of data can be part of a
>   free system distribution, even though its license does not qualify as
>   free, because it is non-functional.
>
>   
> https://www.gnu.org/distros/free-system-distribution-guidelines.html#non-functional-data

Oh, I didn't realize that.

> I cannot tell from the text above whether restricting the use of game
> graphics to a particular game is permitted by the GNU FSDG.  I think we
> should ask for clarification from the address@hidden mailing
> list.  Would you be willing to ask?
>
>       Mark

Sure, I can ask.