Quote:
Originally Posted by Megalomaniac
The distinction between Public Domain and Freeware, as I understand it, is that Freeware software can be modified, or redistributed in part (eg without any readme files) whereas Public Domain software can't - which would make most 'Public Domain' games a distinct entity from 'open source'. Either way, nobody should be making a profit from it, unlike shareware and licenseware. Can 'homebrew' as an umbrella term be applied, making PD / freeware / shareware (and maybe licenseware, though that was exclusively licensed to a few specific PD companies, which perhaps makes it distinct?) potentially all subsets of homebrew?
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Freeware (as opposed to "free software") generally means all rights are reserved but a license to copy freely has been granted. Public Domain means just that -- nobody owns it, it belongs to everyone. Stuff like cultural heritage from over a century ago, or in some countries anything that the government makes (since it was made by/for "the people"). You can do absolutely anything with it.
In many countries nowadays copyright is automatic and cannot be extinguished (except by time -- close to a century in the US), so you cannot actually place anything in the public domain, merely give a perpetual, completely permissive license to the public. For instance you could hand out your software with a blanket license but if nobody actually copied it you could turn around and enforce your copyright again on any future copies you made (but not any copies already in the wild with the permissive license). The reason I think people started calling these software libraries "public domain" is because public domain movie/music libraries of early-mid 20th century works were very popular, as stuff from not terribly long ago had entered public domain due to things like registration requirements (something modern copyright treaties eliminated). Computer software was so new it wasn't really eligible for that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by hitm4n
Lets not worry too much about what we're calling these releases. I just want a list (or suggestions for one please) of games from the last 10 years that are widely regarded as "great" and have been released for free. We can call them PD, Freeware, ItchIO releases, Freemium, Homebrew etc. If its free it can go on the list.
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Gotcha. Shareware versions count I guess then (though I'd argue that Licenseware shouldn't since that was essentially just commercial software that was sold by so-called PD companies)