FreeSpace 2 EULA
From FreeSpace Wiki
From a post by Inquisitor, one of the leaders of the Source Code Project.
Freespace 2 EULA Issues
People are fond of quoting the EULA in the FS2 installer from 8 years ago, believing it gives them carte blanche to give away FS2 to anyone who meets the dictionary definition of "acquaintance".
This is the one they refer to, its in the clickthrough on the installer itself, from the retail CDs:
This software product, FreeSpace 2 (the "Software"), is intended solely for your personal noncommercial home entertainment use. You may not decompile, reverse engineer, or disassemble the Software, except as permitted by law. Interplay Productions and Volition, Inc. retain all rights and title in the Software including all intellectual property rights embodied therein and derivatives thereof. You are granted a revocable, nonassignable limited license to create derivative works of this Software solely for your own personal noncommercial home entertainment use and may publicly display such derivative works to the extent specifically authorized by Interplay in writing. A copy of this authorization, if any, will be provided on Interplay's World Wide Web site, located at http://www.interplay.com, or by contacting the legal department of Interplay Productions in the US at (949) 553-6655. The Software, including, without limitation, all code, data structures, characters, images, sounds, text, screens, game play, derivative works and all other elements of the Software may not be copied (except as provided below), resold, rented, leased, distributed (electronically or otherwise), used on pay-per-play, coin-op or other for-charge basis, or for any commercial purpose. You may make copies of the Software for your personal noncommercial home entertainment use and to give to friends and acquaintances on a no cost noncommercial basis. This limited right to copy the Software expressly excludes any copying or distribution of the Software on a commercial basis, including, without limitation, bundling the product with any other product or service and any give away of the Software in connection with another product or service. Any permissions granted herein are provided on a temporary basis and can be withdrawn by Interplay Productions at any time. All rights not expressly granted are reserved. Modem and Network Play. If the Software contains modem or network play, you may play the Software via modem transmission with another person or persons directly without transmission through a third party service or indirectly through a third party service only if such service is an authorized licensee of Interplay. For the purposes of this license, a third party service refers to any third party service which provides a connection between two or more users of the Software, manages, organizes, or facilitates game play, translates protocols, or otherwise provides a service which commercially exploits the Software, but does not include a third party service which merely provides a telephonic connection (and nothing more) for modem or network play. Authorized licensee services are listed on the Interplay Productions World Wide Web Site located at http://www.interplay.com. This limited right to transmit the Software expressly excludes any transmission of the Software or any data streams thereof on a commercial basis, including, without limitation, transmitting the Software by way of a commercial service (excepting those specific commercial services licensed by Interplay) which translates the protocols or manages or organizes game play sessions. If you would like information about obtaining a pay-for-play or commercial license to the Software, please contact Interplay Productions in the US at +(949) 553-6655. Nothing in this paragraph is intended to prevent you from downloading the Software from Interplay's Web site or from commercial service providers authorized by Interplay to provide the Software to you. Acceptance of License Terms. By downloading or acquiring and then retaining this Software, you assent to the terms and restrictions of this limited license. If you acquired the Software and do not accept the terms of this limited license, you must return the Software together with all packaging, manuals and other material contained therein to the store where you acquired the Software for a full refund and if you downloaded the Software, you must delete it. Trademark and copyright (c) 1999 Volition, Inc. All rights reserved.
However, this EULA below gets installed from the retail CDs (mine are 8 years old). There was a big deal (tm) a number of years ago when they realized the "old" EULA was in a click through on the retail installers and the new one was actually installed after the fact. But this in fact, the actual EULA. The Gametap installer and readme also have this EULA.
Please note the "friends" clause is absent from this version. They realized their mistake, and they rescinded that authorization almost immediately.
SOFTWARE USE LIMITATIONS AND LIMITED LICENSE General Product License. This copy of FreeSpace 2 (the "Software") is intended solely for your personal non-commercial home entertainment use. You may not decompile, reverse engineer, or disassemble the Software, except as permitted by law. Interplay Entertainment Corp. and its licensors retain all right, title and interest in the Software including all intellectual property rights embodied therein and derivatives thereof. The Software, including, without limitation, all code, data structures, characters, images, sounds, text, screens, game play, derivative works and all other elements of the Software may not be copied, resold, rented, leased, distributed (electronically or otherwise), used on a pay-per-play, coin-op or other for-charge basis, or for any commercial purpose. Any permissions granted herein are provided on a temporary basis and can be withdrawn by Interplay Productions at any time. All rights not expressly granted are reserved. Modem and Network Play. If the Software contains modem or network play, you may play the Software via modem transmission with another person or persons directly without transmission through a third party service or indirectly through a third party service only if such service is an authorized licensee of Interplay. For the purpose of this license, a "third party service" refers to any third party service which provides a connection between two or more users of the Software, manages, organizes, or facilitates game play, translates protocols, or otherwise provides a service which commercially exploits the Software, but does not include a third party service which merely provides a telephonic connection (and nothing more) for modem or network play. Authorized licensee services are listed on the Interplay Entertainment Corp. World Wide Web Site located at http://www.interplay.com. This limited right to transmit the Software expressly excludes any transmission of the Software of any data streams thereof on a commercial basis, including, without limitation, transmitting the Software by way of a commercial service (excepting those specific commercial services licensed by Interplay) which translates the protocols or manages or organizes game play sessions. Acceptance of License Terms. By downloading or acquiring and then retaining this Software, you assent to the terms and restrictions of this limited license. If you acquired the Software and do not accept the terms of this limited license, you must return the Software together with all packaging, manuals and other material contained therein to the store where you acquired the Software for a full refund and if you downloaded the Software, you must delete it.
This is not a discussion of copyright law, but I am darn tired of people justifying the "I can give it to anyone I like" stance.
Granted, Interplay is defunct, and you are unlikely to get into any material trouble, but that doesn't make you all armchair lawyers. If you provide the original Interplay VPs for download, you do so at your own risk. And while EULAs themselves have all sorts of legal issues that people can ponitificate on, just because EULAs may generally be invalid doesn't mean they can't get you on other grounds. The US law is a fickle thing, and as things like the DMCA have shown, the law tends to favor the business, rather than the individual.
Please stop telling people here that its perfectly legal unless you can back it up with a law degree and some case law.
