bug#28193: tome4 tiles are nonfree?

[Mark H Weaver]

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

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