Doom Legacy is Illegal

[RestlessRodent]

WildWeasel said:

The most legal issue that could be found is the use of the name "Doom", which probably would not stand in court. Then again, I am not a lawyer.

Oh no, you guys must shut down DoomWorld right now due to name violation. In reality, it really depends. Hey, if a company wants to destroy a loyal fan base for making a [mostly but not really] free clone of their game, so be it.

[Graf Zahl]

WildWeasel said:

The most legal issue that could be found is the use of the name "Doom", which probably would not stand in court. Then again, I am not a lawyer.

I see the bigger problem in the fact that many resources in there are made to resemble the ones from the original games. Textures using the same name and looking similar, for example. Despite all claims to the contrary the originals clearly served as a guideline for creation here.

Of course this will never go to court but if it did I don't think the Freedoom team would stand a chance.

[Spleen]

Graf Zahl said:

I see the bigger problem in the fact that many resources in there are made to resemble the ones from the original games. Textures using the same name and looking similar, for example. Despite all claims to the contrary the originals clearly served as a guideline for creation here.

Of course this will never go to court but if it did I don't think the Freedoom team would stand a chance.

Interesting perspective. Is anyone here a lawyer? I would like to know a lawyer's opinion on this.

[fraggle]

Graf Zahl said:

Freedoom's legality is fishy at best, too. It tries too hard to replicate copyrighted stuff from the original to be completely on the safe side.

Oh boy, you've opened the floodgates now.

[Maes]

Spleen said:

Interesting perspective. Is anyone here a lawyer? I would like to know a lawyer's opinion on this.

Ehm...myk? ;-)

[Colusio]

The crime of stealing the source happened in 1997 or 1998.
I'm no lawyer but I think the time limit on legal action is passed some time ago. (Statute of limitation)

Btw:
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In 1996, the source code for Quake was leaked. Someone used it to port the game to Linux, and sent the patches to John Carmack. John Carmack, who has always been an open source advocate, used these to create an official Linux version.
source:Theodore Lauppert

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[andrewj]

Coldfusio said:

The crime of stealing the source happened in 1997 or 1998.
I'm no lawyer but I think the time limit on legal action is passed some time ago. (Statute of limitation)

Well that's nice for the people who leaked the code.

But I think what makes using it today illegal is the fact that the code is copyrighted by Id Software and Id Software has not granted anybody a license to use that copyrighted code. And of course the statute of limitations doesn't apply to copyright issues.

[iori]

Coldfusio said:

Theodore Lauppert

Awesome site, thanks for the link!