Celestia costs money now??

ramprat · Post #1by **ramprat** » 23.04.2007, 06:59

http://cgi.ebay.com/CELESTIA-TURNS-A-CO ... dZViewItem

i didn't know we had to pay for Celestia now.. *sarcasm* isn't this illegal?

Post #2by **t00fri** » 23.04.2007, 07:47

...and the seller's reputation is 99.5% positive. ;-)

Shame on him! The point is that according to the GPL, he MUST indicate clearly that Celestia may be obtained FREE...

Bye Fridger

bh · Post #3by bh » 23.04.2007, 08:52

We've had this recently... I wonder if it's the same vendor?

Fightspit · Post #4by **Fightspit** » 23.04.2007, 15:58

t00fri wrote:...and the seller's reputation is 99.5% positive.

Shame on him! The point is that according to the GPL, he MUST indicate clearly that Celestia may be obtained FREE...

Bye Fridger

See also the feedbacks :wink:

rthorvald · Post #5by **rthorvald** » 23.04.2007, 16:08

Fightspit wrote:See also the feedbacks

Well, he is obviously selling quality products...

- rthorvald

Kolano · Post #6by **Kolano** » 23.04.2007, 23:50

I'm reading over the GPL...
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.txt
...and presuming they include the source code, and the GPL license in their packaging there seems to be nothing wrong with their actions, unless there is some fine point I'm missing.

Relevant portion...

3. You may copy and distribute the Program (or a work based on it,
under Section 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of
Sections 1 and 2 above provided that you also do one of the following:

a) Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable
source code, which must be distributed under the terms of Sections
1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange; or,

b) Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three
years, to give any third party, for a charge no more than your
cost of physically performing source distribution, a complete
machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code, to be
distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium
customarily used for software interchange;

To compare/contrast, here is a listing that more blatantly indicates Celestia's open source nature...
http://cgi.ebay.com/3D-COSMOS-Explorer- ... dZViewItem

I wonder if they ever live up to the "pass a portion of that profit back to the developers" comment?

Fightspit · Post #7by **Fightspit** » 25.04.2007, 19:35

Another software again ?

Take a look here:

http://www.bisque.com/help/Seeker/SeekerInfo.htm

Some screen here:
http://www.bisque.com/help/Seeker/SeekerInfo.htm

What do you think :?:

99$ is so expensive

Post #8by **selden** » 25.04.2007, 19:41

Software Bisque has been selling 3D astronomy software (TheSky) for years. It was what the NASA educational group was using before they switched to Celestia.

Post #9by **chris** » 25.04.2007, 20:30

selden wrote:Software Bisque has been selling 3D astronomy software (TheSky) for years. It was what the NASA educational group was using before they switched to Celestia.

Seeker 3D is a new program from Software Bisque, and a lot more like Celestia than TheSky is. It's purely a solar system simulator, though; it's not possible to visit other stars.

--Chris

bh · Post #10by bh » 25.04.2007, 21:13

It looks quite nice actually.

DonAVP · Post #11by **DonAVP** » 27.04.2007, 04:44

Did you see what he charges to ship a CD! That should be the charge for a stack of 25 or 50 CD's blanks. This is a total rip-off :evil:

IMO. Like the saying goes buyer beware.

Don

Paolo · Post #12by **Paolo** » 03.05.2007, 17:19

chris wrote:
selden wrote:Software Bisque has been selling 3D astronomy software (TheSky) for years. It was what the NASA educational group was using before they switched to Celestia.

Seeker 3D is a new program from Software Bisque, and a lot more like Celestia than TheSky is. It's purely a solar system simulator, though; it's not possible to visit other stars.

--Chris

[bastard mode on]
Screenshots are intriguing. Perhaps reverse engineering of the asm should evidence that is even more like Celestia than what already seems.
[/bastard mode off]

chrisr · Post #13by **chrisr** » 04.05.2007, 02:49

I told the guy selling celestia on ebay under the name apex software, that basically he was a jerk for selling celestia which is free.

This was his reply,"Celestia is GNU GPL licensed software. Apex Software is a legal and authorized distributor. Please do not send us any additional harassing emails.

Thank you,
Keith"

So, he can do this with NO PROBLEM??

Post #14by **t00fri** » 04.05.2007, 08:41

chrisr wrote:I told the guy selling celestia on ebay under the name apex software, that basically he was a jerk for selling celestia which is free.

This was his reply,"Celestia is GNU GPL licensed software. Apex Software is a legal and authorized distributor. Please do not send us any additional harassing emails.

Thank you,
Keith"

So, he can do this with NO PROBLEM??

While it is correct that GPL-licensed software may be sold, it must be made apparent in the ad that this software may also be obtained for free! That's where that guy violates the GPL.

Bye Fridger

Kolano · Post #15by **Kolano** » 05.05.2007, 21:46

t00fri wrote:While it is correct that GPL-licensed software may be sold, it must be made apparent in the ad that this software may also be obtained for free! That's where that guy violates the GPL.

Can you specify where in the GPL that clause is, as far as I can tell as long as the source code is included in the packaging (or an offer to provide the source code is given) his selling Celestia does not violate the GPL.

hank · Post #16by **hank** » 01.10.2007, 00:16

chris wrote:
selden wrote:Software Bisque has been selling 3D astronomy software (TheSky) for years. It was what the NASA educational group was using before they switched to Celestia.

Seeker 3D is a new program from Software Bisque, and a lot more like Celestia than TheSky is. It's purely a solar system simulator, though; it's not possible to visit other stars.

--Chris

Has anyone tried Seeker 3D yet? There's a review in the latest issue of S&T, and it does sound a lot like Celestia for solar system exploration. But I'd be interested if someone could give a more detailed comparison.

- Hank

Post #17by **ElChristou** » 01.10.2007, 01:59

hank wrote:Has anyone tried Seeker 3D yet? There's a review in the latest issue of S&T, and it does sound a lot like Celestia for solar system exploration. But I'd be interested if someone could give a more detailed comparison.

Recently I wanted to do a try, (unfortunately my config is not OGL2) so I dig a bit and went over this post; a comparison with Celestia by the lead dev of Seeker:

(It's an answer on Seeker's forum @ http://www.bisque.com/SC/forums/thread/11381.aspx to a question about what gives Seeker for 99$ compared to Celestia)

[quote]A fair and valid question. There is an old saying, ?€?You get what you pay for?€

Post #18by **dirkpitt** » 01.10.2007, 04:33

[quote]1. ?€?It is true that the renderings are beautiful, but they are not much different than on Celestia?€

hank · Post #19by **hank** » 01.10.2007, 04:52

I?€™m sure future versions of Celestia will address some of this, but we are not exactly asleep at the wheel either.

Sadly, I'm not even sure there will ever be any future versions of Celestia...

- Hank

Post #20by **t00fri** » 01.10.2007, 06:53

Now the real point to me seems this:

Does Seeker use a large part of Celestia's code? Since in this commercial product, noone gets to see that code, how can this be found out??

Seeker is only allowed to use Celestia's code, if it satisfies the GPL2 conditions!

So I ask myself, what is the latter worth in the commercial world, where people seem to have no scruples to snatch the code, do a few tunings and then lock the code away, when selling the result?

In other words, one my cynically ask whether the GPL2 is only the licence for the "loosers"? As soon as a GPL2 product becomes a "winner" => snatch its code and sell it ;-)

.

This sort of story does not look very motivating for contemplating other OpenSource ventures...

Bye Fridger

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Celestia costs money now??

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