In case anyone missed it, I too am in favor of closed source. Or at least keeping the sensitive parts closed source. We could maybe have some "modules" like the field rendering engine and the game mechanics as open source, but I'm definitely thinking we should keep the actual "core" closed. More specifically, enough of the important code so that someone can't just take all of the open source code, write a tiny .cpp with a main() function and then have their own "FF7 engine".
Since we're already talking about legality here, I have one question:
If an engine is able to run custom content, too, is it then "more illegal" than an engine that runs only the original game content?
If yes, then why?
In my non-lawyer opinion, I'm suggesting that it is
probably "more illegal", but it is
definitely more offensive. It means that not only are we altering the presentation (new engine), but also the content. Even if we do not do any content modification ourselves, the fact that we made it a whole lot easier will probably make us a hotter target.
Say what you want, but even with the current state of FF7 hacking going on here, it is far from easy to do any form of large-scale modification of FF7 that actually alters its "essence" to any significant degree (except perhaps the translation projects). The new engine, if it allows (or is easy to modify to allow) custom data, will make it easy. This is problematic, since Square-Enix won't like if someone turned one of their best-selling games ever into a mod-able game, without their permission.
And no, I seriously doubt we would get permission to do this if we asked. To them, we
say we're making an application that can run FF7 like the original .exe, but are they supposed to simply
trust us on that? They won't accept that someone else's copyrighted engine
claims to run their game, and they won't accept any attempt to circumvent this, such as us granting them ownership, since they certainly won't accept responsibility for it either.
Our best shot is probably to use every means to try and stay below the provocation radar, and maybe we'll actually get somewhere before the proverbial fecal matter collides with the equally proverbial oscillatory ventilation device.
And now that I've done so much to lower everyone's morale on this, let me clarify that I to am very much in favor of the project, and I'll do my best to help out where I can. I put forth my above points simply because I don't want the project to be found out, found offensive and then found dead because we did it in too provocative a fashion.
