Android port and Bethesda

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lysol
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Android port and Bethesda

Post by lysol »

So, it seems the development of the android port is so steady that we can soon offically call OpenMW a mobile engine too, wether we like it or not.

This will inevitably lead to a few concequenses:

While we will never officially show screenshots with Morrowind running on Android, other's will, especially youtubers, blogs and gaming "journalists", also known as the ones that will spread the word the fastest. The PR will be totally out of our control and everyone will accociate our project as the "android port of Morrowind". This is at least what I predict.

How will we handle this? While we will always stay with the deal made with Bethesda, they might change their mind when other's kind of brake the deal for us. I feel like we need to be clear that we take no responsibility for other's that upload youtube clips of Morrowind on Android. My suggestion is that we should add more info about the Android port in the FAQ, saying something like:
Can I run OpenMW in Android?
Yes, but we only recommend running custom content (the example-suite for example) in the Android version of OpenMW due to legal reasons. Bethesda asked us to not show Morrowind content running on Android, so if you do load Morrowind in Android using OpenMW, you will do so at your own risk.
The way I phrased the above was just an example. How do you others feel about this? Psi?

Maybe this would have been more appropriate in the Organisation and Planning section, but I guess it doesn't matter that much...
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psi29a
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Re: Android port and Bethesda

Post by psi29a »

Not our problem, really.

The cat was out of the bag a long time ago, we've already been in contact with Bethesda, they know where to reach us and we've been holding up our end of the agreement.

If you want to update the FAQ, please do. However I would remove the bit about legality issues, because that is bullshit. There is nothing illegal about it.

I would prefer:
Can I run OpenMW in Android?
TLDR; Yes! OpenMW can run on any platform you can compile it on.

Long Answer: You may have read that Bethesda has an issue with Morrowind (not really OpenMW) on Android. This has been resolved and we'll not show Morrowind running on Android on openmw.org, but we can show our example-suite off. That's was everything that Bethesda wanted from us. There is nothing illegal about running your Morrowind on any platform you want with our without OpenMW.
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lysol
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Re: Android port and Bethesda

Post by lysol »

I do agree really that this isn't our problem in theory, but I'm just afraid that Bethesda, when the word gets out, will go like "This got a bit bigger than we expected when we made that agreement. Let's sue these guys to oblivion morrowind".

I won't update the FAQ without anyone else wanting it to be updated, I just wanted to hear all the opinions on the matter.
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psi29a
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Re: Android port and Bethesda

Post by psi29a »

lysol wrote: 29 Jan 2018, 10:43 I do agree really that this isn't our problem in theory, but I'm just afraid that Bethesda, when the word gets out, will go like "This got a bit bigger than we expected when we made that agreement. Let's sue these guys to oblivion morrowind".
That is not how contracts work, but in the end, what we had was an agreement. If they renege on the agreement, then they are acting in bad-faith. I still have my contacts with the lawyers over softwarefreedom.org and with the people at github itself. So long as our their IP and our IP are seperated, we're safe from any cease and desist letter.

Otherwise they would have to go after other projects like Wine that is now enabling windows apps/games to be played directly on Android:
https://www.lifehacker.com.au/2018/01/y ... h-wine-30/
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lysol
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Re: Android port and Bethesda

Post by lysol »

psi29a wrote: 29 Jan 2018, 10:53 That is not how contracts work, but in the end, what we had was an agreement. If they renege on the agreement, then they are acting in bad-faith.
That was my worry, that it was just an agreement and not a real contract.
psi29a wrote: I still have my contacts with the lawyers over softwarefreedom.org and with the people at github itself. So long as our their IP and our IP are seperated, we're safe from any cease and desist letter.

Otherwise they would have to go after other projects like Wine that is now enabling windows apps/games to be played directly on Android:
https://www.lifehacker.com.au/2018/01/y ... h-wine-30/
This is what I wanted to hear. Nice.

End of discussion in other words I guess.
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psi29a
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Re: Android port and Bethesda

Post by psi29a »

A C&D can still come though, they can always ask us to stop. :)

We just have to be prepared to answer. Thankfully most of the developers are in Germany where Bethesda would have to send an Abmahnung[1]. The interesting thing here is that if a C&D is in English, then it has absolutely ZERO weight in a country where English is not a recognized legal language.


[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abmahnung
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AnyOldName3
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Re: Android port and Bethesda

Post by AnyOldName3 »

Psi, you'll probably want to mention having to own Morrowind legally if you go ahead with that FAQ edit just in case someone misunderstands it.
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Re: Android port and Bethesda

Post by psi29a »

AnyOldName3 wrote: 29 Jan 2018, 13:37 Psi, you'll probably want to mention having to own Morrowind legally if you go ahead with that FAQ edit just in case someone misunderstands it.
That is the requirement to be able to play Morrowind with or without OpenMW.

I added 'your' to the entry to imply that it is your Morrowind that you are running.
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