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sgtcrispy

Strife and Blasphemer on App store.

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I was taking a look at the Apple App store just now and saw that Strife was available for purchase and then a rather eye-brow lifting notice of Blasphemer being there as well.

Open Arena and Tremulous are there too.

o_O

A Mr. Javier Chavez is the seller, FYI.

Proper forum placement to mention this?

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Strife is a clear copyright violation, Apple probably has some form somewhere you can file it at.

The other games though, not so clear. Is he really violating their license terms (IIRC, both OpenArena and Tremulous are under the GNU GPL)?

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chungy said:

The other games though, not so clear. Is he really violating their license terms (IIRC, both OpenArena and Tremulous are under the GNU GPL)?


Yes, Apple store doesn't allow GPL

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Blasphemer in its current state has like three maps done and the enemies are tiny black squares with a :) smiley face.

That someone would sell it is so lame.

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chungy said:

Strife is a clear copyright violation,

I do not get it. Isn't Strife NOT freeware? Why would it be copyright violation?

Also why would you SELL Blasphemer? Isn't it free?

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printz said:

I do not get it. Isn't Strife NOT freeware? Why would it be copyright violation?

Indeed! Doom isn't freeware either, so I'm going to sell it on the app store. It really won't be a copyright violation! %)

printz said:

Also why would you SELL Blasphemer? Isn't it free?

It's so free it's also free to commercialize.

Why would you sell it? Because you're trying to make a buck of anything you can, i.e., you're a leech.

The real question is, why would you BUY it.

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It's just that it's sad that Strife got an opportunity to be distributed to the masses, but happens to still be illegal.

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So did they improve the Blasphemer? New sprites, maps, etc? Got any screenshots?

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Gez said:

The real question is, why would you BUY it.

It's obviously a ripoff for people who don't know that they could get it for free. As you probably know the topic has come up a couple times in the Freedoom forum already, because of people selling it on app stores.

[edit]
http://www.doomworld.com/vb/freedoom/56355-freedoom-being-sold-on-apples-app-store/
http://www.doomworld.com/vb/freedoom/55090-gloomy-dungeons/ (though that uses the resources only and some Wolf3d-ish engine; last time I checked it gave credit to Freedoom in-game)
http://www.doomworld.com/vb/freedoom/50461-freedoom-now-on-iphone/

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boris said:

It's obviously a ripoff for people who don't know that they could get it for free.

It's also obviously a ripoff given how unfinished Blasphemer is. Freedoom has still far to go, but it's complete enough to make a playable game from it. Not so much with Blasphemer.

printz said:

Why can't retail games be sold at app store?

They can be sold, by their rightful owners. Hence my remark about selling Doom -- obviously I wouldn't be allowed to, because I'm not the right holder. Since Strife is in legal limbo, nobody knows who is the right holder for it, if there even is any, and as a result nobody has the right to sell it.

Copyright laws really should take such circumstances into account and expedite transfer to public domain when that happens. I think we're going to have a lot of lost games because of legal short-sightedness; with many early gems only preserved in violation of the law. :( A shame IMO.

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I'd be really surprised if someone tried to sell Blasphemer in its current state without at least adding some missing resources. I don't have/use/want Apple products (or Microsoft for that matter), but am still very curious to know if and how they modded the game. Maybe the OP can provide a link to what he found?

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I shot an email to appstorenotices@apple.com about this. You ought to as well, especially if you're actually involved with Blasphemer development.

hex11 said:

I'd be really surprised if someone tried to sell Blasphemer in its current state without at least adding some missing resources. I don't have/use/want Apple products (or Microsoft for that matter), but am still very curious to know if and how they modded the game. Maybe the OP can provide a link to what he found?

Here's the store page (don't buy it though, obviously), it has screenshots. From the looks of things he just whacked Blasphemer/Strife and a source port together, submitted them and hoped the App Store Review Team didn't have a workable knowledge of obscure Doom-engine FPSes or open-source games.

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Looks like the same screenshots from the Blasphemer website, including the smiley placeholder and all. No shots of new monsters or anything... That's pretty damn lame, but it's BSD licensed so all he's required to do is give proper credit.

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I received a reply from Apple:

Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention. However, it appears that you are not the legal rights holder to the application(s) referenced in your email below. We cannot act until we receive such notice from the legal rights holder that their rights are being infringed. Please refer to our DMCA page <http://www.apple.com/legal/trademark/claimsofcopyright.html> for further information on how a legal rights holder may file a complete and valid notice of infringement.

Sincerely,

iTunes Legal

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Quasar said:

Is this Strife product using Chocolate Strife code?

Since it has widescreen screen shots I highly doubt it (they also have a green '+' crosshair). I think the screen shots show an OpenGL renderer, but it's hard to tell. My guess is that it's the Mac fork of GZDoom.

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Trasher][ said:
I received a reply from Apple:

Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention. However, it appears that you are not the legal rights holder to the application(s) referenced in your email below. We cannot act until we receive such notice from the legal rights holder that their rights are being infringed. Please refer to our DMCA page <http://www.apple.com/legal/trademar...fcopyright.html> for further information on how a legal rights holder may file a complete and valid notice of infringement.

Sincerely,

iTunes Legal

Hahahahhahahaha. Good luck with Strife then! Let's see how the copyright law works in practice when a product's rightful owner is there but is unidentified, while someone else profits!

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Blzut3 said:

Since it has widescreen screen shots I highly doubt it (they also have a green '+' crosshair). I think the screen shots show an OpenGL renderer, but it's hard to tell. My guess is that it's the Mac fork of GZDoom.



Can someone verify?

Then I can complain about my rights to GZDoom being infringed by this ass. ;)

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Looks like it's also using the same decals.
As a side note, has anybody considered telling Leileilol that Open Arena is being 'sold' by this guy, too?

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Edward850 said:

Looks like it's also using the same decals.
As a side note, has anybody considered telling Leileilol that Open Arena is being 'sold' by this guy, too?

I mentioned that and Tremulous in the same email as Strife. Leileilol knows but hates doing legal stuff :/

Graf Zahl said:

Can someone verify?

Then I can complain about my rights to GZDoom being infringed by this ass. ;)

Because I'm enough of an idiot to actually buy pirated games in the name of science, I decided to go ahead and look into this.

Screenshot (330kb PNG), I don't know why the renderer was spazzing out.
It appears to be a SVN build of GZDoom for OSX, with references to "GZDoom" replaced with "Strife" (gzdoom.pk3 is now strife.pk3, for example)

So I'd say you have a case.

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I just noticed the dynamic lighting in the blasphemer last screen shot. He's most likely using GZDoom for that as well.

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Graf Zahl said:

Ok, but an analysis of the binary, pointing to specific sections of code would be so much better...

I'll see about shooting you the binary on the ZDoom forums.

EDIT: Sent, check your PMs there.

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Graf Zahl said:

Ok, but an analysis of the binary, pointing to specific sections of code would be so much better...

You're probably referring to my Blasphemer comment, but just in case: For Strife I think "1.5.6 (r1280) / ZDoom 2.5.0 (r3333)" is plenty to go on.

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Not only that. It also contains the entire FraggleScript command table and that code comes unambiguously with a 'must release source' clause as does the GL renderer in this version.

I also spotted some signatures from the OPL synth and that code has a 'no commercial use' clause attached to it.

So it clearly violates both of the main restrictions GZDoom comes with.

Now what should be done? Since I'm not a native English speaker i feel a bit uncomfortable to write a report myself. I'd post it but I wouldn't want to write it.

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Your English is good enough to be taken as if you were a native speaker of it, I'd think, but it might not hurt to duplicate your message in German as well just in case; I'm sure Apple has people that can read and understand German as well.

(Quite honestly I've wondered if you came from the UK or somewhere and moved to Germany, since your style never seems to indicate any uncomfortableness/unfamiliarity in the English language)

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Judging by the page on the Apple website you want to send something like:

I am Christoph Oelckers, the author of GZDoom, an open source program that is a port of the Doom source code. Portions of this program are my individual copyrighted work, and I distribute them under a license which forbids their commercial use or exploitation.

I have recently become aware that you are distributing a program derived from my copyrighted work via the app store, as seen at the following link:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/strife/id430142043?mt=12

I have confirmed through analysis of the app that it contains computer program code of which I am the author and copyright owner, and which I have not licensed for commercial use or distribution. The commercial sale of my work constitutes copyright infringement and I request that you cease distributing it.

I have a good faith belief that I have not authorized the infringing program code for commercial use.

I assert, under penalty of perjury, that the above information is accurate and that I am the author and copyright owner of the infringing program code.

Signed,

Christoph Oelckers

Address: (your full address)
Phone number: (your phone number)
Email address: (your email address)

You should only do this if you can find code in the app that (1) you are the author / copyright holder of and (2) you have not distributed under the BSD license (which much of ZDoom is released under).

Alternatively, if you're not comfortable about sending it, if it contains FraggleScript code, that's my work and I could send a takedown notice.

I am not a lawyer and this post is not legal advice.

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Understood.

My own code is all under BSD license, with the sole exception of the GL renderer which has added the 'must release source' clause. Of course large portions are also under the Doom license which prohibits commercial use.


Concerning FraggleScript, I looked at the binary in a hex viewer and found the entire FS command list in there as well as all error messages occuring in that code.

This guy clearly took the project as-is, just made it compile on iPhone without removing any code and released it.

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Graf Zahl said:

This guy clearly took the project as-is, just made it compile on iPhone without removing any code and released it.

That's giving Mr. Javier Chavez too much credit - it's actually the Mac App Store, not the mobile one. Making it work on iOS is likely far beyond his capabilities.

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