Matt Grandstaff and Android Development

[Okulo]

Maybe it would be better to stop doing something in openmw for android
and write on the main page that create ports openmw for other platforms like android illegally?And then there will be no any problems with legal side ,Personally, I would prefer this option

Calm down. Porting OpenMW to Android is not illegal, no matter what some random troll told you in a PM.

[Greendogo]

Sandstranger, I understand your point and the position you're in and I know that this is stressing you out. And believe me, no one here wants you to get into any kind of legal trouble - and we don't think you are in danger of this happening.

However, understand the position of the OpenMW Engine team. It's a completely FOSS game engine with a very active and diverse developer community. It isn't just for Morrowind, either, as new games can be made using it. It is a separate entity from Bethesda's Morrowind and has the potential to be used for bigger and better games in the long run.

If you want us to agree that we will never put OpenMW on Android (or iOS/Windows Phone for that matter), I don't think that promise will happen. Sorry. There's too much potential in OpenMW for great future FOSS games on mobile platforms.

Anyway, we really need to wait for a reply from Gstaff before we go making any policy decisions (like banning Android builds). If, in the end, Gstaff can make a compelling argument for Bethesda's concerns, maybe we can just add a measure to the launcher to prevent vanilla-Morrowind game files from being loaded on Android? (name check, hash check, etc.)

More than likely, however, your fears are unfounded and Gstaff simply doesn't understand what OpenMW is yet.

[Okulo]

More than likely, however, your fears are unfounded and Gstaff simply doesn't understand what OpenMW is yet.

More than likely it's not a Bethesda employee anyway. Nothing in all of this looks real. Either this is a complete asshole or Bethesda has got some horrible legal channels. I'm banking on the former.

[psi29a]

This whole thing is suspicious, I think this troll is just tormenting sandstranger and playing on their anxiety.

I'm filing this away as a none-event/troll.

[psi29a]

Oh, fun fact... OpenMW is officially in the Debian repo. We've passed the DFSG (DebianFreeSoftwareGuidelines), which means that we are free of any restrictive IP, otherwise we wouldn't have been included.

So... if (big if here) Bethesda has any problems with OpenMW then they have a problem with Debian.

Debian has lawyers too, meet 'debian-legal'.
https://www.debian.org/legal/

Fight.

[Zini]

I tried to contact the guy on twitter. No reply. He might have missed it though. If someone else wants to take over that is fine with me. Otherwise tomorrow I will write him an email to see, if the message was real. Sorry for delayed response. RL stuff got in the way. Poor timing.

[sirherrbatka]

This really looks just like trolling.

[WeirdSexy]

sandstranger,

Regardless of all this potential legal/trolling business and regardless of the fact that I don't really care about Android support, I'm sorry that working on this project is no longer enjoyable for you and I'd like to thank you for your hard work up until this point.

[raevol]

I tried to contact the guy on twitter. No reply. He might have missed it though. If someone else wants to take over that is fine with me. Otherwise tomorrow I will write him an email to see, if the message was real. Sorry for delayed response. RL stuff got in the way. Poor timing.

I got a reply from my PM to Matt, he said that he would send you an email. Not sure how long it will take, but looking forward to seeing what it says!

[corristo]

@sandstranger

Just take a deep breath and calm down. As far as I remember from your screenshots, you're from Russia (or another russian-speaking country). I'd be really surprised if Bethesda could create any legal issues for you since you're not under jurisdiction of US or EU.