

Free Open Source Software and the 2048 Problem - rudd
http://pastebin.com/skq0TytM

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tbirdz
Isn't this kind of the point of free software? To provide software that is
equivalent (or better than) proprietary alternatives, and allow users the
freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software?

Are gnu coreutils "unethical" because they reproduce the proprietary unix
command line tools with a free software equivalent? Is Linus responsible for
informing everyone how Linux was originally inspired from Minix?

If I want to study how Threes was implemented, I can't. I can't modify the
source code to implement new mechanics, I can't port it to new platforms. The
only platforms Threes supports is iOS and Android. I don't have any devices
with either OS, so I would not even be able to play the game. On the other
hand, the free software 2048 has been ported to work in many more
environments, such as the Web and even the Atari 2600! Threes would have never
done that, not in a 1000 years.

Also just look at the burst of creativity, and inventiveness 2048 spawned. Now
there are tons of derivative projects, each created by someone to tweak the
mechanics and provide a new spin on the idea, ranging from simple tweaks, to
full blown AIs, and even more advanced projects. And the source code is
available to all to study and learn from. Threes inspired none of that. If
Threes' developers had had their way, 2048 would never have even existed.
Everyone who was interested would have to play the game Threes exactly as it
was, and would not be allowed to change it, to experiment, or to express their
creativity. They want to lock the user down.

None of this would have been possible from Threes, but it is possible from
2048.

If no-one buys Threes anymore, and instead uses 2048, that is not 2048's
fault. It is not the job of free software developers to promote and support
proprietary software. Should LibreOffice be required to do marketing for
Microsoft Office, and give all users a link where they can purchase it?

Requiring everyone to reference Threes in each derivative is ridiculous. There
is a reason why no one uses the original 3-clause BSD license anymore.

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protez
The little tiny games topping the free chart may not earn as much as they
seem, unless they are played again and again for a long time. They should
depend on clicks of mobile ads and mobile games have poor CPI ratios. Yeah.
Flappy Bird has been downloaded more than a few million times and is known to
garner $50,000 a day. Nice. But that would be a grand outlier and I don't
think the game sustains that amount of revenue now.

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Arzh
Last I checked 2048 states that it is inspired by threes. I know this because
the bombcast would talk about threes with reverence and I remember having a
moment of understanding why when I read it on the 2048 page. Anyway this guy
seems to be against what open is for, if threes was open from the beginning
would they be in place of 2048? Who knows, but I love the fact that
Numberwang2048 and doge2048 now exist, which wouldn't have existed without
2048.

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cottonseed
This isn't just a free software problem. Assigning credit is hard. Mathematics
arguably has this problem, too. Important problems take decades or centuries,
and a long series of discoveries are necessary to put us in a place where the
final step is in reach for a single person or team. Perelman rejected the Clay
math prize for exactly this reason. And this is in a field where citation and
attribution are carefully recorded in the literature.

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voltagex_
>First, 2048 should never have been MIT licensed. If Cirulli didn’t feel he
had the ethical standing to make money off of it, I don’t understand why he
felt he had the ethical standing to tell others they could.

What now? If I release something under MIT (or even GPL to some extent), I'm
waiving the right to tell other people how to behave with whatever I released.

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KVFinn
>>First, 2048 should never have been MIT licensed. If Cirulli didn’t feel he
had the ethical standing to make money off of it, I don’t understand why he
felt he had the ethical standing to tell others they could.

>What now? If I release something under MIT (or even GPL to some extent), I'm
waiving the right to tell other people how to behave with whatever I released.

Cirulli didn't feel comfortable enough selling the game itself because someone
else had spent years coming up with the basic design. I couldn't clone tetris
in 1989 and sell it under an MIT license without drawing potential lawsuits,
even though no code was shared.

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bsimpson
Are CC licenses software-compatible now? When CC launched 10+ years ago, they
were very careful to state that CC licenses are only designed to cover media
and that software should be released under GNU/MIT/BSD. They even had CC-style
overviews of some of the popular FOSS software licenses.

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M2Ys4U
That's still the position of Creative Commons:

"Can I apply a Creative Commons license to software?

We recommend against using Creative Commons licenses for software. Instead, we
strongly encourage you to use one of the very good software licenses which are
already available. We recommend considering licenses made available by the
Free Software Foundation or listed as “open source” by the Open Source
Initiative. Unlike our licenses, which do not make mention of source or object
code, these existing licenses were designed specifically for use with
software. Furthermore, most of our licenses are currently not compatible with
the GPL, the most frequently used free software license. (We are looking into
compatibility of BY-SA with GPL in the future; for more detail, see the
compatibility page.)

CC licenses may be used for software documentation, as well as separate
artistic elements such as game art or music.

Note that the CC0 Public Domain Dedication is GPL-compatible and acceptable
for software. For details, see the relevant CC0 FAQ entry. "

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dpweb
The whole ethical/unethical thing makes me shake my head. It's not ethics that
keeps people in line, it's laws.

License your software appropriately. If you get wronged, take action. But DO
NOT complain about people not doing the "ethical" thing.

