GPLv2 license on closed platforms (consoles, mobile devices)

[RalphEgas]

Hi all,

We've recently been asked to take old but well known ScummVM based content and remaster it for consoles and mobile devices. We'll be up-res-ing the graphics and sound assets and adding achievements and all that. But of course we'd also need to use a run-time that interprets the Scumm game files.

Obviously using ScummVM makes the most sense but I'm worried that releasing content based on (parts of) ScummVM would be in violation of GPLv2. Whereas I'd be happy to distribute adapted source code pertaining to ScummVM, there's really no way of doing so on a closed system. There's simply no way for users to retrieve files even if we'd pack the source code as superfluous data with the gold masters.

Any advice appreciated!

If there's no way around violating GPL2 we'd simply have to write our own Scumm script run-time in a similar fashion to how we once built our own for GameMaker (a closed source game authoring system) projects like "Hotline Miami" for PS4, PS Vita, Mac and back to Windows. Doable but of course more expensive for our client.

Cheers,

Ralph

[sev]

It depends on which games you need to support. In some cases we were dual-licensing the engines.

Also, if the sources could be released, you may put them online.

Please contact me via sev@scummvm.org for further discussion.


Eugene

[Reckless]

Pretty sure the stipulation about source code allows for provision using clear instructions on how to get it. So, a page in the game menu that is clear on what code has been used and where you can get that code from.