[tiled-user] Plug-in Licensing Issue

[Adam Turk]

You can simply write a TMX loader for your engine that links to 
tiled-core.jar. This jar specifically contains the necessary classes to 
load a TMX map, then you can convert from a Tiled Map object to your 
engine, and save it again. We have allowed this jar to be used under 
LGPL before. Unfortunately the 0.6.x release version does not package 
correctly; however, if you use the version from SVN HEAD, it will work.

I'm excited to see your game, Joseph!

Adam

Matt Hopkins wrote:
> No problem at all.  Thanks for the quick responses.  I'll either use 
> an intermediate format or manually create files in the format that the 
> automatic persistence within the engine expects rather than using the 
> engine persistence libs + map classes to create the output files.  It 
> isn't quite as elegant and will take a bit more time and maintenance, 
> but it eliminates the license creep.
>
> Sorry I'm not as giving with my projects.  Possibly in the future 
> (depending on how things go).  Thanks again for all the work you've 
> contributed to this project!
>
> --Matt
>
> On 2/6/07, *Bjørn Lindeijer* <bjorn at lindeijer.nl 
> <mailto:bjorn at lindeijer.nl>> wrote:
>
>     Hello Matt,
>
>     I think what you could do is to dual license the necessary data
>     classes and reflection functionality, and include it in your plugin as
>     GPL but in your engine under a different license. Would this be a
>     problem for you?
>
>     If we don't require you to license your plugins under GPL, you could
>     undermine part of the freedom of Tiled users.
>
>     Kind regards,
>     Bjørn
>
>     On 2/6/07, Matt Hopkins < matt at nulch.com <mailto:matt at nulch.com>>
>     wrote:
>     > Hi,
>     >
>     > I've been looking around for a tilemap editor for the engine I'm
>     working on
>     > and so far it looks like Tiled is the perfect choice.  It does a
>     good job of
>     > keeping the Tilemap and Tileset separate so they can be used
>     independently,
>     > which is something I found missing in other editors.  The only
>     potential
>     > problem I see is with the GPL.
>     >
>     > Currently, my engine is closed source (this may or may not
>     change as it
>     > matures).  The problem occurs because my engine handles the
>     persistence of
>     > all game data automatically via reflection (including
>     tilemaps/tilesets), so
>     > the best way to write the exporter/importer would be to link to
>     my engine
>     > jar files, fill my engine's map and tileset objects up with data
>     from Tiled,
>     > then use the engine's automatic persistence handler to do the actual
>     > saving/loading.
>     >
>     > The problem with this is that it would require me to link my
>     engine to my
>     > Tiled plug-in, therefore forcing me to accept the terms of the
>     GPL within my
>     > entire engine.
>     >
>     > Would it be allowable for me to use Tiled under the terms of the
>     LGPL
>     > instead?  As I understand it, that would allow Tiled to link to
>     other JARs
>     > (such as my exporter plugin, and indirectly, my engine) without
>     having to
>     > make the linked JARS open source.
>     >
>     > Thanks for the great work that's been done on Tiled so far and I
>     look
>     > forward to future releases!
>     >
>     > --Matt
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