Re: [arch-general] [arch-dev-public] steam in our repos?

older
Re: [arch-general] LUKS, SD card...

Joakim Hernberg

15 Nov 2012 15 Nov '12

8 a.m.

On Thu, 15 Nov 2012 16:27:30 +1100 Gaetan Bisson wrote:

[2012-11-15 00:04:43 -0500] Daniel Wallace:

...
I read through the entire license. It seemed ok to me but as I am not a lawyer I emailed them to request permission first to redistribute the package in community/multilib.

I am not a lawyer either but I understand sentences such as:

"You may not, in whole or in part: copy, photocopy, reproduce, [...] the Program; [...] You may not [...] transfer reproductions of the Program to other parties in any way [...] without the prior written consent of Valve."

Note that there is a huge difference between written and express consent (the latter is what I believe you have obtained by email). So as best as I understand we do not have legal right to distribute this program.

Not to mention that the package seems to install a wine version of steam that is in closed beta, which makes it less than useful for the majority of us. -- Joakim

Show replies by date

Daniel Micay

15 Nov 15 Nov

8:06 a.m.

New subject: [arch-general] [arch-dev-public] steam in our repos?

On Thu, Nov 15, 2012 at 3:00 AM, Joakim Hernberg wrote:

...

On Thu, 15 Nov 2012 16:27:30 +1100 Gaetan Bisson wrote:

...
[2012-11-15 00:04:43 -0500] Daniel Wallace:

...
I read through the entire license. It seemed ok to me but as I am not a lawyer I emailed them to request permission first to redistribute the package in community/multilib.

I am not a lawyer either but I understand sentences such as:

"You may not, in whole or in part: copy, photocopy, reproduce, [...] the Program; [...] You may not [...] transfer reproductions of the Program to other parties in any way [...] without the prior written consent of Valve."

Note that there is a huge difference between written and express consent (the latter is what I believe you have obtained by email). So as best as I understand we do not have legal right to distribute this program.

Not to mention that the package seems to install a wine version of steam that is in closed beta, which makes it less than useful for the majority of us.

--

Joakim

It doesn't use Wine (it's native), and it works without being in the private beta (chat, installing a couple dozen indie games). You just can't play the native ports of big titles (tf2, serious sam 3, etc.) without being in the private beta.

Joakim Hernberg

8:30 a.m.

New subject: [arch-general] [arch-dev-public] steam in our repos?

On Thu, 15 Nov 2012 03:06:36 -0500 Daniel Micay wrote:

...

On Thu, Nov 15, 2012 at 3:00 AM, Joakim Hernberg wrote:

...
Not to mention that the package seems to install a wine version of steam that is in closed beta, which makes it less than useful for the majority of us.

It doesn't use Wine (it's native), and it works without being in the private beta (chat, installing a couple dozen indie games). You just can't play the native ports of big titles (tf2, serious sam 3, etc.) without being in the private beta.

Ah, sorry about the wine allegation, it looked just like running it in wine and is multiilb with lib32 stuff. My mistake, I should have verified before opening my mouth. When I try to login with my steam account I get told that: "This version of Steam is currently in closed beta. Login with an enrolled account to continue" http://dl.dropbox.com/u/879835/steam-beta.png -- Joakim

Bjørn Øivind Bjørnsen

8:33 a.m.

New subject: [arch-general] [arch-dev-public] steam in our repos?

On 15/11/12 09:30, Joakim Hernberg wrote:

...

On Thu, 15 Nov 2012 03:06:36 -0500 Daniel Micay wrote:

...
On Thu, Nov 15, 2012 at 3:00 AM, Joakim Hernberg wrote:

...
Not to mention that the package seems to install a wine version of steam that is in closed beta, which makes it less than useful for the majority of us.

It doesn't use Wine (it's native), and it works without being in the private beta (chat, installing a couple dozen indie games). You just can't play the native ports of big titles (tf2, serious sam 3, etc.) without being in the private beta.

Ah, sorry about the wine allegation, it looked just like running it in wine and is multiilb with lib32 stuff. My mistake, I should have verified before opening my mouth.

When I try to login with my steam account I get told that: "This version of Steam is currently in closed beta. Login with an enrolled account to continue" http://dl.dropbox.com/u/879835/steam-beta.png

There is a way around this by opening specific steam URLs. Not the same as proper beta participation, but it allowed me to install and run Amnesia at least. Try running "steam steam://open/games" :) Regards, Bjørn Øivind

Daniel Micay

8:40 a.m.

New subject: [arch-general] [arch-dev-public] steam in our repos?

On Thu, Nov 15, 2012 at 3:30 AM, Joakim Hernberg wrote:

...

On Thu, 15 Nov 2012 03:06:36 -0500 Daniel Micay wrote:

...
On Thu, Nov 15, 2012 at 3:00 AM, Joakim Hernberg wrote:

...
Not to mention that the package seems to install a wine version of steam that is in closed beta, which makes it less than useful for the majority of us.

It doesn't use Wine (it's native), and it works without being in the private beta (chat, installing a couple dozen indie games). You just can't play the native ports of big titles (tf2, serious sam 3, etc.) without being in the private beta.

Ah, sorry about the wine allegation, it looked just like running it in wine and is multiilb with lib32 stuff. My mistake, I should have verified before opening my mouth.

When I try to login with my steam account I get told that: "This version of Steam is currently in closed beta. Login with an enrolled account to continue" http://dl.dropbox.com/u/879835/steam-beta.png

--

Joakim

If you aren't in the beta, you can start it by running `steam steam://open/games' (or another steam page), or by clicking a steam link from your browser. As far as I can tell, they made it easy to work around the "private" part intentionally, but it makes it clear that you shouldn't expect support yet.

Joakim Hernberg

8:55 a.m.

New subject: [arch-general] [arch-dev-public] steam in our repos?

On Thu, 15 Nov 2012 03:40:47 -0500 Daniel Micay wrote:

...

steam://open/games

Wow, this is all that clawsmail managed to quote from your msg...:) Indeed, it does work somewhat when started as "steam steam://open/games", even though I don't find a single game to play :( Thanks for the package, I guess it might become more useful at some later date. -- Joakim

Leonidas Spyropoulos

9:23 a.m.

New subject: [arch-general] [arch-dev-public] steam in our repos?

On 15 Nov 2012 08:55, "Joakim Hernberg" wrote:

...

On Thu, 15 Nov 2012 03:40:47 -0500 Daniel Micay wrote:

...
steam://open/games

Wow, this is all that clawsmail managed to quote from your msg...:)

Indeed, it does work somewhat when started as "steam steam://open/games", even though I don't find a single game to play :( Thanks for the package, I guess it might become more useful at some later date.

--

Joakim

It is not clear to me if we can distribute the package or not. I think the package was in AUR until a couple of days ago. As for the legal parts, if we get permission we should be fine, right [1]? And written permission should be the emails, thus I believe we are fine. [1]: […] without the prior written consent of Valve. […]

Gaetan Bisson

10:14 a.m.

New subject: [arch-general] [arch-dev-public] steam in our repos?

[2012-11-15 09:23:43 +0000] Leonidas Spyropoulos:

...

And written permission should be the emails, thus I believe we are fine.

Written permission should be a legally binding document. An email stating the personal opinion of somebody who is neither a lawyer nor official representative of the copyright holder (the company) has no legal value. Of course nobody cares; people just want to throw more and more binary blobs in [community] because it's cool and the AUR is for losers... -- Gaetan

Leonidas Spyropoulos

11:35 a.m.

New subject: [arch-general] [arch-dev-public] steam in our repos?

On 15 Nov 2012 10:15, "Gaetan Bisson" wrote:

...

[2012-11-15 09:23:43 +0000] Leonidas Spyropoulos:

...
And written permission should be the emails, thus I believe we are fine.

Written permission should be a legally binding document. An email stating the personal opinion of somebody who is neither a lawyer nor official representative of the copyright holder (the company) has no legal value.

Of course nobody cares; people just want to throw more and more binary blobs in [community] because it's cool and the AUR is for losers...

Fair enough I can understand that, so having it in the AUR instead will save us from all that discussion since it's not binary, it's just a link for fetching and unzipping it, right?

...

-- Gaetan

Gaetan Bisson

11:57 a.m.

New subject: [arch-general] [arch-dev-public] steam in our repos?

[2012-11-15 11:35:06 +0000] Leonidas Spyropoulos:

...

On 15 Nov 2012 10:15, "Gaetan Bisson" wrote:

...
[2012-11-15 09:23:43 +0000] Leonidas Spyropoulos:

...
And written permission should be the emails, thus I believe we are fine.

Written permission should be a legally binding document. An email stating the personal opinion of somebody who is neither a lawyer nor official representative of the copyright holder (the company) has no legal value.

Of course nobody cares; people just want to throw more and more binary blobs in [community] because it's cool and the AUR is for losers...

Fair enough I can understand that, so having it in the AUR instead will save us from all that discussion since it's not binary, it's just a link for fetching and unzipping it, right?

Roughly yes: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arch_User_Repository Use the AUR - you will love it. I don't know when people started thinking the AUR wasn't good enough for their packages anymore... -- Gaetan

Alexander Rødseth

11:59 a.m.

New subject: [arch-general] [arch-dev-public] steam in our repos?

...

Of course nobody cares; people just want to throw more and more binary blobs in [community] because it's cool and the AUR is for losers...

Supporting packages that meet the conditions for being eligible for moving from AUR surely is a good thing, though? Also, steam is not just any old app. Getting this level of support for gaming on Linux, for the first time, is a big deal. -- Sincerely, Alexander Rødseth xyproto / TU

Gaetan Bisson

12:17 p.m.

New subject: [arch-general] [arch-dev-public] steam in our repos?

[2012-11-15 12:59:23 +0100] Alexander Rødseth:

...

Supporting packages that meet the conditions for being eligible for moving from AUR surely is a good thing, though?

Not really: those conditions are way too permissive - they would allow, I don't know, like 30% of the AUR to be moved to [community]. They are here to prevent moving blatantly useless packages to our repos, not to be understood as sufficient conditions for moving.

...

Also, steam is not just any old app. Getting this level of support for gaming on Linux, for the first time, is a big deal.

If you say so. But that does not balance out the legal issues. -- Gaetan

Marti Raudsepp

9:37 a.m.

New subject: [arch-general] [arch-dev-public] steam in our repos?

...

steam steam://open/games

Awesome! On Thu, Nov 15, 2012 at 10:06 AM, Daniel Micay wrote:

...

and it works without being in the private beta (chat, installing a couple dozen indie games).

Did you try installing and running the games? I can tell Steam to install games; it tells me they're downloaded immediately, but it doesn't actually download anything. When I try to run the games, I get "Failed to start game (missing executable)." Regards, Marti

4207

Age (days ago)

4207

Last active (days ago)

List overview

Download

12 comments

7 participants

participants (7)

Alexander Rødseth
Bjørn Øivind Bjørnsen
Daniel Micay
Gaetan Bisson
Joakim Hernberg
Leonidas Spyropoulos
Marti Raudsepp