Legal opinion : partly non free graphics

[John Arntz]

--- On Mon, 1/4/10, Xavier Bachelot <xavier at bachelot.org> wrote:

> From: Xavier Bachelot <xavier at bachelot.org>
> Subject: Legal opinion : partly non free graphics
> To: "RPM Fusion developers discussion list" <rpmfusion-developers at lists.rpmfusion.org>
> Cc: "Tom Callaway" <spot at fedoraproject.org>
> Date: Monday, January 4, 2010, 7:36 PM
> Hi,
> 
> I'm reviewing a package that is a re-implementation of a
> proprietary
> game. The code is written from scratch, but some of the
> artwork
> (graphics) is still taken from the original game. All of
> the graphics
> are going to be replaced but it's not finished yet. Roughly
> half of it
> has been replaced. Would that be allowed in RPM Fusion or
> not ?
> My feeling is the game is not acceptable until all the
> graphics have
> been replaced, but I'd like more educated opinions.
> Actually, it would
> then be eligible for Fedora, imo.
> 
> http://bugzilla.rpmfusion.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1024
> http://pushover.sf.net
> 
> Regards,
> Xavier

I'm not a Lawyer or anything, but I would pose this question: Are the non-free graphics allowed to be redistributed? If the license states that they are, but can't be altered, or used for commercial purposes then I would be inclined to say they are permissible as a non-free package, but if it says they cannot be redistributed at all, then we can't use them. If you do intend to clean it up by substituting free artwork, audio, etc. and that would make it Fedora eligible, the Fedora Artwork team may be able to help with making free replacements.

Regards,
John