Gentoo Websites Logo
Go to: Gentoo Home Documentation Forums Lists Bugs Planet Store Wiki Get Gentoo!
Bug 952812 - games-fps/gzdoom metadata includes licenses that do not apply to GZDoom due to game_support.pk3.
Summary: games-fps/gzdoom metadata includes licenses that do not apply to GZDoom due t...
Status: UNCONFIRMED
Alias: None
Product: Gentoo Linux
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Current packages (show other bugs)
Hardware: All Linux
: Low trivial
Assignee: Gentoo Games
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2025-03-27 20:56 UTC by Ben Schork
Modified: 2025-03-28 17:47 UTC (History)
1 user (show)

See Also:
Package list:
Runtime testing required: ---


Attachments
Terminal output showing licences associated with games-fps/gzdoom (emerge.txt,492 bytes, text/plain)
2025-03-27 20:56 UTC, Ben Schork
Details

Note You need to log in before you can comment on or make changes to this bug.
Description Ben Schork 2025-03-27 20:56:35 UTC
Created attachment 923137 [details]
Terminal output showing licences associated with games-fps/gzdoom

GZDoom is a game engine licensed under the GPL-3.0 (github.com/ZDoom/gzdoom). None of GZDoom's dependencies require proprietary software. It does also, not include any game files as those should be provided by the user. By the way, it really should be under games-engines/ not games-fps/.

   That being said, the ebuild repo for games-fps/gzdoom-4.14.1 has 12 licenses listed, 5 of which are non free (Activision, ChexQuest3, DOOM-COLLECTORS-EDITION freedist, and WidePix). The ebuild also has a use flag, "non-free", which will not allow game_support.pk3 and game_widescreen_gfx.pk3 to be downloaded. The former is necessary for GZDoom to function.

    The ebuild would suggest that those pk3 files have copyrighted content belonging to Activision, Id, etc. I'm not an Attorney, but I don't think that assumption is true. In the case of game_widescreen_gfx.pk3, it just has widescreen versions of doom engine games title screen art. I would argue that that is transformative but if not, this file isn't strictly necessary.

    However, game_support.pk3 is required for most doom engine games and has only original work (accept for Harmony's files but there is an explicit allowance in the credits). It has community made sprites, sounds, and text configs that are in no way owned by Id. 

    I have portage set to only accept @FREE licenses (which naturally gave an error), so what I did to fix this was just add "-non-free" to my make.conf, and place the two aforementioned files in /usr/share/doom/, which I got from downloading the windows version from zdoom.org.

    This "bug" is not that sever and can be addressed pretty easily by the user, it would just be a little more convenient if fixed. If you want to look at the contents of those two files, you can do so by downloading the windows zip of GZDoom from zdoom.org/downloads and getting a program called Slade 3, or you can just rename the .pk3 files to .zip.