ReactOS based game

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Rosh
Posts: 97
Joined: Thu May 03, 2018 12:44 am

ReactOS based game

Post by Rosh »

Hi. A friend wants to write a GPL licence game that use ReactOS logo and wallpapers.
Are there any permisions concerns or trademarks about ReactOS logo and wallpapers?
Can we use them without asking permission to ReactOS Foundation?

And what tips can you give concerning Direct2D or Direct3D or ReactX use. And the game in general.
bobbykennedy
Posts: 18
Joined: Mon Apr 09, 2018 10:21 pm

Re: ReactOS based game

Post by bobbykennedy »

Rosh wrote:Are there any permisions concerns or trademarks about ReactOS logo and wallpapers?
reactos is a registered trademark. the logo and art are made by volunteers. assume GPL by default. to be safe make a disclaimer somewhere that you are not affiliated with ReactOS Foundation.
Rosh wrote:And what tips can you give concerning Direct2D or Direct3D or ReactX use.
direct2d is unsupported, that requires DX10/11 api support. your best bet is either opengl (any version) or direct3d (9 or older) as those seem to have the best compatibility with wine, the codebase which reactos relies on. don't expect sound to work.

instead of making some gpl game, you can do some games or application testing for ROS if you're interested
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Adcock
Posts: 241
Joined: Thu Jul 07, 2016 5:37 pm

Re: ReactOS based game

Post by Adcock »

I think your friend should obtain official permission or copyright/Trademark holder can sue your friend if they want. [ For legal reasons. ]

As a game creator your friend can't take any risk relying on benevolent act of other people.
[ Even if those people are really benevolent. ]
However, what your friend can do is take help from a lawyer or someone who will understand the risk perfectly.
[ ReactOS forum moderators should be able to help. ]

What I mean is that, just make sure that your friend is not violating any laws and therefore no one will be able to take any legal action against your friend!
ThFabba
Developer
Posts: 293
Joined: Sun Jul 11, 2010 11:39 am

Re: ReactOS based game

Post by ThFabba »

Disclaimer: IANAL, nor do I speak for the copyright holders of the graphics or for the trademark owners.

Many of the wallpapers have their sources/licenses stated in readme.txt or wallpapers.txt. If there is ambiguity, either contact the author or avoid using them outside of ROS. (Arguably even ROS doesn't have a bulletproof license for some, as they were provided to the project with no explicit license specified)

The various versions of the ReactOS logo are somewhat complicated to deal with, as their license (and sometimes authorship) is not always clear, and (as already mentioned) there may be trademarks involved. As a rule, I would recommend to use the logo only when you're referring to ReactOS and not for other purposes. That can include e.g. offering a "ReactOS" theme for your software, in which the logo is used. On the other hand, simply using a logo with no reference to ROS does not seem advisable. A good practice may be to evaluate it from a "does this use benefit ReactOS" standpoint.

Some examples: If your friend's game uses the logos of various OSes as team designations, including ROS in the mix seems fair, and people will likely see the advertisement in a positive light. If your card game allows various images for the backs of the cards, including a "ReactOS" option (preferably with the name included) similarly seems okay. On the other hand, if you use the logo for the "Nuclear Fission" item in a civilization's research tree with no connection to ROS, that would not seem like a good idea. Also note that if any parts of the game could be considered objectionable or distasteful, people may object to the use.

Finally, if you intend to make money by selling this game and/or not to publish it under an open source license, see Adcock's advice -- get a lawyer, and a bulletproof license for every piece of code/graphics you use.
Rosh
Posts: 97
Joined: Thu May 03, 2018 12:44 am

Re: ReactOS based game

Post by Rosh »

He wants to write a game (as a volunteer) to be included in ReactOS, as winemine and cards are included.

Obviously he will consult and contact .

How to contact to ReactOS Foundation authorities?
ThFabba
Developer
Posts: 293
Joined: Sun Jul 11, 2010 11:39 am

Re: ReactOS based game

Post by ThFabba »

ReactOS is not a collection of random Windows software. It aims to provide a basic operating system that can run Windows software.
So the goal of getting anything outside the core OS "included in ReactOS" should be viewed with a lot of skepticism.

That said, new open source games are always appreciated. And of course there's the Application Manager, which _is_ a collection of random Windows software.

To suggest inclusion in rapps, simply submit a pull request to the rapps-db repository on GitHub. To talk about inclusion into the ReactOS source base (any one dev is able to do this), I'd suggest starting a thread on the ros-dev mailing list, or, once you're at that point, simply submitting a PR to the ReactOS repository. To talk about usage rights for files with unclear licensing, contact the author. If the author is unknown or to talk about trademark issues, ros-dev or deutschland at reactos.org might be worth a shot... not sure if there's a contact for the Russian foundation, but the German one manages most practical things these days.
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