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NCommander writes:
"ArsTechnica reports that Unreal Engine 4 is being re-released under a subscription basis which provides full access to the source code, and a flat 5 percent gross royalty for use. Comments from EPIC show that Unreal Engine 4 is being ported to Linux and SteamOS as well as a variety of other platforms, and that you can cancel the subscription at any time. For educational usage, as well as free (as in beer) games, no costs beyond the subscription fee are incurred."
Ed Note: Updated title to be less misleading.
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Unreal Engine 4 Relicensed Under Subscription Basis
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The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Air pollution is really making us pay through the nose.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Zyx Abacab on Thursday March 20 2014, @01:15AM
Call me pedantic, but this kind of open-source isn't free (in either sense of the word). Epic may be giving you access, for a price, but that will lapse as soon as your payments do.
This reminds me of UNIX in the old days, when you could get the source and documentation for an extra fee - except you got to keep the source, even if your money ran out later.
Having the source will be very useful for developers, but this is not 'open' in the same way Linux is open.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Skarjak on Thursday March 20 2014, @01:56AM
Completely agree. It's not really open source until you can fork it. And it's not "free" open source until all forks can be forked as well.
This model is still an improvement though, cause having access to the code means you can gain a deeper understanding of why things work the way they do. This will be good for the people working on games that use this engine.
(Score: 5, Informative) by clone141166 on Thursday March 20 2014, @02:39AM
https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 20 2014, @07:26AM
Unreal Engine 4 has become neither open source nor free software. It remains proprietary, only difference now being that they're giving you a chance to see the source. If you're developing any true Free/Open Source projects that are in any way close to what Unreal Engine 4 does, stay away. It will do you no good, and it may cause irreparable harm as it could lead to you getting sued for allegedly cribbing some code from it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 20 2014, @08:04AM
No you're not pedantic but the submitter and editors are very sloppy.
This is not open source!
The license shall not restrict any party from selling or giving away the software as a component of an aggregate software distribution containing programs from several different sources. The license shall not require a royalty or other fee for such sale.
-- http://opensource.org/docs/definition.php [opensource.org]
Goddamn, this is like M$ FUD...
NCommander--
Don't they teach you the basics at Ubuntu?
(Score: 2) by NCommander on Thursday March 20 2014, @10:47AM
Mostly I had a brain fart when writing it up and submitting it, and I forgot the actual definition of open source as set by the OSS.
Still always moving
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 20 2014, @11:48AM
Sorry for losing my cool and for the lowly ad hominem... glad you handled this much better.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by mechanicjay on Friday March 21 2014, @04:44AM
We've honestly come so far with respect to source code access with the OSS movement, it warms the heart.
My VMS box beat up your Windows box.