Limited Run Games violated GPL releasing Tomba game

17 points by weird_trousers 5 months ago | 10 comments
  • LucidLynx 5 months ago
    As they are linking with proprietary SDK they seem to have violated the GPL indeed. I would be interested to see if this game is part of their "Carbon Engine" solution to release old games (with extra price)...
    • dismalaf 5 months ago
      > As they are linking with proprietary SDK they seem to have violated the GPL indeed.

      What do you mean? Putting GPL software on proprietary platforms isn't a violation of the GPL. Tons of GPL software exists on Windows for example and needs to interact with Windows APIs.

      • deng 5 months ago
        You are correct that there's an exception for "system libraries", see https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.en.html#SystemLibraryEx....

        However, I'm pretty sure that the Switch SDK would not fall under this exception.

        • DrillShopper 5 months ago
          This is what GPL v2 says about system libraries:

          > However, as a special exception, the source code distributed need not include anything that is normally distributed (in either source or binary form) with the major components (compiler, kernel, and so on) of the operating system on which the executable runs, unless that component itself accompanies the executable.

          Seems like the Nintendo SDK would count here.

          • dismalaf 5 months ago
            > However, I'm pretty sure that the Switch SDK would not fall under this exception.

            And why are you sure? How are Switch system libraries different than Windows or Linux?

        • deng 5 months ago
          Yes, this is almost certainly a violation. Technically, you cannot be sure yet, because in some alternate universe, Nintendo might have re-licensed their SDK under GPL as well, and if you ask Limited Run Games for the source of Tomba, they might give everything to you, thereby complying with the license. In reality though, these SDKs are of course not only proprietary but also under a NDA.

          Alternatively, they might have found a way to run PCSX without using the Nintendo SDKs, but I don't think this is possible.

          It's pretty crazy that they officially credit PCSX and didn't even realize that this is a problem.