[projectaon] Re: Licence for Lone Wolf
- From: James Durrant <james.durrant@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <mludvik@xxxxxxxxxxxx>, "projectaon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <projectaon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 24 Apr 2009 12:36:21 +0100
Only one company currently has a commercial games license for Lone Wolf that I
know of, and other than us mentioning them on our forums, there is no direct
connection with AON - they do not use any AON material.
It is unlikely that it would ever be possible to use any AON material in a
commercial product - AON is a not-for-profit organisation, and it is on that
basis that we are able to make the books available online.
For a commercial venture, you would definitely need to track Joe down directly,
and you would also not be able to use any AON content (appreciated, the book
text would be similar, but there are differences in the AON versions) without
explicit permission from both Joe and the AON team.
AON hosts many free software readers for books with game automation content.
The most advanced is Seventh Sense, which you can view from the forums. All of
these operate on a donation basis (mostly because users of the software wanted
to donate!) but also promote donations to AON. None of them require payment of
any kind, as to do so would contravene the license.
Supplying your own artwork in a commercial venture would probably also require
permission from Joe.
Sorry we are not able to directly help with commercial ventures at this time,
but we can certainly help with donation-based ventures.
> Date: Fri, 24 Apr 2009 04:28:13 -0600
> From: mludvik@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> To: james.durrant@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> CC: projectaon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: RE: [projectaon] Re: Licence for Lone Wolf
>
> I think that we are actually quite far along the way to the release.
> See the demonstration here:
> http://www.aethsoft.com/lw/demo.mp4
>
> The art-work is not professional yet, it can be improved a lot.
> Otherwise the game-engine and XML is 90% ready. We would like to
> finish this project as a commercial project. It would mean investing
> in professional artists and designers,however at the end, it would be
> really cool game. Is it possible to source commercial project on AON
> source at all? We could help with the XML metadata etc.
>
> Martin Ludvik
>
> Quoting James Durrant <james.durrant@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
>
> >
> > That sounds a lot like a number of projects we currently have ongoing here.
> >
> >
> > There are at least two iPhone projects along those lines underway,
> > but both are in very early stages and may well have stalled. I do
> > know that one was registered with iPhone though...
> >
> >
> >
> > If you are using AON files in any way, they absolutely have to be
> > sourced from the AON site. Even if you do manage to obtain a
> > distribution license from another source, that would not cover the
> > use of any AON files unless they are downloaded from the AON site by
> > the end user.
> >
> >
> >
> > It is perfectly acceptable for you to store your translated files on
> > the AON site - most of our gaming engine projects require the
> > creation of custom navigation files, loosly based on the AON
> > material. As long as these are hosted on the site, there is no
> > problem with this - you do not always have to refer back to the
> > original material (although by doing so, you would gain the benefit
> > of updates.)
> >
> >
> >
> > Please note that AON uses XML files in order to produce the HTML -
> > these are also publicly available, so please let me know if these
> > would be helpful to you. The AON team are open to adding more
> > information into these files - indeed, there is a slow-moving
> > project to investigate storing all of the navigation details into
> > the AON XML. If you would like to help this project by including
> > information in the XML, that would be very well received :)
> >
> >
> >
> > I believe that any rendition of the books which removed the section
> > numbers would be unlikely to be well received by anybody (including
> > your readers!) One of the main reasons for bringing LW back to life
> > is the joy of seeing the old medium of book section numbers, and
> > this is part of the buzz for many if not all of us involved! Yes,
> > it causes us some problems, but it also makes things like debugging
> > a lot easier - how would somebody say "There is a problem with
> > section 257" without section numbers? I'm not sure it would
> > actually contravene the license, but it certainly would not be
> > recommended.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >> Date: Fri, 24 Apr 2009 03:15:38 -0600
> >> From: mludvik@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> >> To: james.durrant@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >> CC: projectaon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >> Subject: RE: [projectaon] Re: Licence for Lone Wolf
> >>
> >> I believe it would be possible, although difficult.
> >> We do start with AON html source at the moment, we have semantic
> >> recognition module which translates HTML into XML. This XML is input
> >> into our game engine. There are two problems with fully automatic
> >> translation I can see at the moment:
> >> 1) It is not just book, is has to have game part in it as well, such
> >> as proper combat, inventory screen with items (not writing notes on
> >> paper etc.) The only way how to figure out who the enemies are, how
> >> strong they are, what represents an item in the book is to put in some
> >> metadata. The metadata can be e.g. enclosing tag, id or class of the
> >> tag. Some metadata are in the book already, others are not. We could
> >> either put the metadata into the original HTML source (not that the
> >> book would not change at all visually), or we could have bunch of
> >> patches which would replace particular places in the book after the
> >> user downloads the contents from AON. Is any or both of these options
> >> possible without breaching AON licence?
> >> 2) The book is designed for paper & pencil. It would be very
> >> appropriate to adjust it for mobile device. E.g. numbers of sections
> >> could be omitted, choice such as "If you wish to continue east, turn
> >> to 86" could be changed to "I wish to continue east."
> >> I understand that it could breach the AON licence.
> >>
> >> The best option for us is to negotiate the licence with the licence holder.
> >> If it is not possible, we would still be interested, even though it
> >> would mean much more work, provided that at least one of the proposed
> >> options is viable.
> >>
> >> Regards,
> >> Martin Ludvik
> >>
> >> Quoting James Durrant <james.durrant@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
> >>
> >> >
> >> > We have had several discussions with people who are interested in
> >> > writing LW for iPhone - one question we always get stuck on - is
> >> > there not a way to source the content for your books from AON - it
> >> > only has to be downloaded from here the first time the user gets a
> >> > copy?
> >> >
> >> >> Date: Thu, 23 Apr 2009 11:14:41 -0600
> >> >> From: mludvik@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> >> >> To: james.durrant@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >> >> CC: projectaon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >> >> Subject: [projectaon] Re: Licence for Lone Wolf
> >> >>
> >> >> Thank you for quick response. I understand that project AON does not
> >> >> allow any form of re-distribution.
> >> >> I will try to contact Mongoose Publishing.
> >> >> I would like to go straight to the source, but it is not easy to get
> >> >> contact to Joe Dever. Which is a pity, we actually have working
> >> >> prototype we would like to show him, he might be interested.
> >> >>
> >> >> Regards,
> >> >> Martin Ludvik
> >> >>
> >> >> Quoting James Durrant <james.durrant@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
> >> >>
> >> >> >
> >> >> > I would probably suggest trying Mongoose first -
> >> >> > http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/ - as they have the most up to
> >> >> > date distributable (i.e. they are selling them) copies, so are most
> >> >> > likely to know about such licenses. If they are not able to help,
> >> >> > hopefully they can point you in the right direction.
> >> >> >
> >> >> >
> >> >> >
> >> >> > As I imagine you are aware, the AON license does not permit any form
> >> >> > of distribution so in general we are unable to help unfortunately.
> >> >> >
> >> >> >
> >> >> >
> >> >> > Failing that, going straight to the source would be an option.
> >> >> >
> >> >> >
> >> >> >
> >> >> > Hope this helps
> >> >> >
> >> >> >
> >> >> >
> >> >> > James
> >> >> >
> >> >> >
> >> >> >
> >> >> > James Durrant
> >> >> >
> >> >> > Project AON software support
> >> >> >
> >> >> >> From: pamail.cgi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >> >> >> To: projectaon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >> >> >> CC: mludvik@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> >> >> >> Subject: [projectaon] Licence for Lone Wolf
> >> >> >> Date: Tue, 21 Apr 2009 06:36:06 -0700
> >> >> >>
> >> >> >> The following was sent from the Project Aon contact form
> >> >> >> From: Martin Ludvik mludvik@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> >> >> >> Date: 13:36:06 on Tuesday, April 21, 2009
> >> >> >> Subject: Licence for Lone Wolf
> >> >> >> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> >> >> >>
> >> >> >> Hello,
> >> >> >>
> >> >> >> I have question regarding licence for Lone Wolf. We would like to
> >> >> >> publish Lone Wolf gamebooks on iPhone. Could you direct me to the
> >> >> >> right person to talk to?
> >> >> >>
> >> >> >> Best regards,
> >> >> >> Martin Ludvik
> >> >> >>
> >> >> >> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> >> >> >>
> >> >> >> NOTE: Please remember to "Reply to All" recipients. Thank you.
> >> >> >>
> >> >> >> ~~~~~~
> >> >> >> Manage your subscription at http://www.freelists.org/list/projectaon
> >> >> >>
> >> >> >>
> >> >> >
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >> ~~~~~~
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> >> >>
> >> >
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
>
>
>
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