Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums
Question about sharing personal builds. - Printable Version

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+--- Thread: Question about sharing personal builds. (/Thread-question-about-sharing-personal-builds)



Question about sharing personal builds. - stizzo - 10-16-2018

If I were a smart guy and a private citizen who self-builds any build of the Dolphin, with the improvements I could possibly add and with any bugfixes, I could share it here on the forum, just for the happiness of everyone who is passionate about Retrogaming and without this, be accused of not following the regulation?

A simple and clear answer, the mouths that make air are abstained.

Thank you.


RE: Question about sharing personal builds. - ExtremeDude2 - 10-16-2018

Well, any changes you make to code you would be required to post as well.


RE: Question about sharing personal builds. - stizzo - 10-16-2018

Thank you for your kind reply.

Another question;

if instead I wanted to contact directly the creator of the Dolphin project and ask only him, the possibility to post the link and give it to him in private, the code I modified, because, for example, I do not want my code to be made public , could it be accepted as a job, without this, going against the regulation?

The creator should only make sure that the code is clean and then give the consent for the post i/you want to share.

But only the creator, would have the source code, nobody else.

Thank you.


RE: Question about sharing personal builds. - AnyOldName3 - 10-16-2018

Dolphin is licenced under the GPL2+, which means that if you give anyone access to a compiled build, you also need to give them access to the source code.


RE: Question about sharing personal builds. - JosJuice - 10-16-2018

No, everyone who gets an executable containing your changes has to be able to get the source code containing your changes as well. Granting any exception to this would require you to contact hundreds of copyright holders of Dolphin code, not just one person, and there is no chance that all of them would grant an exception for you.


RE: Question about sharing personal builds. - Shonumi - 10-16-2018

Assuming we are talking strictly about source code and not executable binary files, if you wanted to share code you modified with only one person, you can do that, no problem. But Dolphin is Free/Libre Open Source Software. If you made changes and shared them with one person, he or she can share those changes with the world if they wanted to. That's the way the GPL works.

Basically, the only way you can guarantee that your changes are never shared with the public is to not share them at all. As soon as you give your changes to anyone else, they can do whatever they want (including putting it online for everyone else).


RE: Question about sharing personal builds. - stizzo - 10-17-2018

Thanks for your answers.

Yes, I know what the GPL says about it, I have at least forty years of experience.

What I would like to point out, however, is the way of approaching, the way to share anything, which is not just a software.

I'll explain; assuming that I have created the X project, with lots of GPL rules, having over time, created a small staff, of as many generous users, who are doing their best to improve this X project.

One day, I creator of the project X, I come across one or more people, who are smart, I try the project modified by them and I like it.

I would try to contact that boy or boys and ask them to share their knowledge with mine.

Or, as in this case, if you are a citizen xyz and you would like to point out your modified project, you could contact me and ask me if it is possible that your project can have visibility among the people of this forum. (people, who first of all, are passionate about Retrogaming)

I could decide whether to make it public or not.

For example, in the case of the shy developer, who for the moment does not want (for any reason) to share the code he created, I can decide, following a peaceful and friendly discussion, to create a special space in the forum itself, where give value to those interesting projects (of course, after I have taken possession of the original source code of the private project and of which, I will take full responsibility for ensuring the privacy of the subject, even with regard to the code, so I would not divulge it to nobody, if not myself) and supported by me, then advertised, next to the original project.

The young developer, could then decide, in turn, to ask to join the staff of the willing, who offer their help in exchange for nothing and open their own code, to improve the original X project.

From my point of view, the following results would be obtained:

Code as clean as possible;

Improvements and Bugfixes more numerous and in shorter times;

Optimization for different platforms: Windows, Linux, MAC, iOS, Android;

People most encouraged to help and help each other;

Increased number of users, increased technical quality, increased professional quality.

This Forum, as a real point of reference, in which to convey all the most intelligent minds in the world (without any distinction of religion, race, sex and culture), with the common passion that distinguishes us all.

In our specific case, we would have a project optimized for the Android platform, better implementations and bugfixes, more welcoming people, kinder, more willing to share.

After all, if we all think about it, it is the happiness of the fans, that we are looking for, in proposing the various projects of the network, this project can be a Dolphin-emu, as any emulation software can be.

The rest will come by itself.

My Lords, Open Source, in my humble experience, is not just a printed / typed word on a spreadsheet / paper.

For me, Open Source must first of all be well impressed on our minds and how we behave with others, others will reflexively, will behave well with us.

And we will see great things, on the horizon.

Thanks for your patience. (and sorry for some translation errors)


RE: Question about sharing personal builds. - JosJuice - 10-17-2018

Sorry, but there is no single creator of Dolphin who is able to bypass the rules of the GPL. You are very welcome to share your changes to Dolphin, but you do have to provide the source code – there is no legal way to avoid that.


RE: Question about sharing personal builds. - stizzo - 10-17-2018

The creator of the original project is only one.

Willing is power, but still needs an open and creative mind.

Thanks anyway, for the answer.