Majik 3D and Taika Technologies
July 24th, 2000 by CrusaderJari Saukkonen of the Majik 3D project, an effort to create a 3D RPG based around a singlemultiplayer server, wrote in to announce that they’ve securedemployment from Taika Technologies to continue development. Unfortunately:
Due to the proprietary nature of these technologies there will be no morepublic source code access, preventing the release of new Majik 3D versionsunder the GNU Public License (GPL). This will not cause a copyrightviolation as Majik 3D’s current code base doesn’t contain any code notdeveloped by the core members. Naturally the prior versions that have beenreleased under the GPL will remain open. Despite the proprietarytechnologies the game itself will always remain free of charge.
The entire press release can be read here; it goes on to state Majik will utilize the SurRender 3D library (which is being utilized in Win32 commercial game projects, such as Westwood’s FPS Command & Conquer: Renegade).
The version 0.4.0 Linux source code base is available for download at:
ftp://ftp.majik3d.org/majik3d/source/majik3d-0.4.0.tar.gz
November 30th, -0001 at 12:00 am
This post may actually answer a serious question
I had about the GPL. Is it acceptable to license
your own code under the GPL and then develop that
same code further WITHOUT having to make public your modifications. I hate legal crap, and I just
browsed (very quickly) over the text of the GPL and I can see no obvious statements which give the original authors of the code any more rights than anyone else. Anyone care to explain it to me?
November 30th, -0001 at 12:00 am
as long as you are the original copyright owner that gave the license in the first place. The license is only meant to specify what OTHER people can do with your source. You (as the owner/creator) can do with that source whatever you please. Even relicense it or make it private. Of course you cannot take away the license of the sources the people already have. But you can revoke the license for future versions.
Greetings,
November 30th, -0001 at 12:00 am
Majik 3D has languished for ages. There has been no traffic on their mailing lists for nearly a year, last time I looked. The source code is a train wreck. I don’t see the project going anywhere, regardless of their proprietary solution they seem to have found. Jorrit is correct about the GPL, they have to leave the current version’s licenses as they are.