First off, I would like to say: Hi!
I know I'm not around in the game too much any more, but I've always got a watchful eye on the security system, and help out from time if things go south on the servers. Over the many years I have been working on Allegiance (usually with long breaks in between), I have seen many efforts to expand, market and distribute blocked by the license that was attached to the original source code distribution. This license (the MS-SSLA) explicitly prohibits anyone from distributing Allegiance for profit of any kind. Because of this, we have been barred from hosting Allegiance on Steam, from displaying marketing nearby "profitable" locations, run in a gray area for donations to cover server costs, and generally been unable to expand.
No longer.
Thanks to the efforts of Fishbone we have been able to make contact with Rick Rashid, who, along with Joel Dehlin was one of the project leaders for Microsoft Research when Allegiance was first built. Mr. Rashid has retired from Microsoft, but still retains contact with Microsoft Research. Through Mr. Rashid's kind generosity of his time, and the current Director of Microsoft's research's very fast action with Microsoft legal, the license for Allegiance has now been converted to an MIT license, which includes the right for any and all to use any part or parcel of the Allegiance code base for any use. Which includes the explicit permission to distribute Allegiance.
For profit. On Steam.
Yes, you read that correctly. Allegiance is now, truly, 100%, without a doubt: Free Allegiance.
Microsoft has given me personal rights to perform this license modification on the source code for Allegiance that is currently housed in the Free Allegiance GitHub. I will make this modification tomorrow, and after that point, any branches made from this location will carry the new MIT license forward.
Now, we have a great opportunity in front of us. Steam has recently retired the Steam Greenlight program, and replaced it with a new program called Steam Direct. My intention is to create a Steam Direct developer agreement, and move Allegiance through Steam's release channels. I intend to start working on Steam client integration beginning this week. The Steam client will replace ACSS in it's entirety. This will require modifications to the Game client and the Lobby, however, due to the way ACSS was integrated to these locations, I believe this will be a straight forward operation.
This will not be a Two Weeks effort however. There is much work to be done, and some paperwork to fill out for Steam. The other operators and myself will be meeting to discuss many options of what to do next.
This is a major step forward for us as a community. For the first time, in quite a long time, I am again excited for the prospects of my favorite game!
Here is the new license:
Code: Select all
Copyright Microsoft Corporation
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software
and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction,
including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense,
and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so,
subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial
portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT
LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.
IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY,
WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE
OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWAWho knows, we might actually get some new people to shoot at around here.
