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CaesarIA Now On Steam, A Re-make Of Caesar III, But It Might Not Be Legal

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CaesarIA is now on steam! The Caesar III re-make was just released in early access and has been in Steam Greenlight since April 16, 2014. The Steam page can be found here.

The legalities of it are a little iffy, as it seems even by default it uses content from Caesar III. It is supposed to have new art, and opt-in to use Caesar III resources if you have them available.

We have checked, and some of the music is the same as in Caesar III, so it does look like it's illegally supplying copyrighted content like that directly in the download, eek.

About the Game
CaesarIA is a remake of an old-school economic strategy game, Caesar III which is a masterpiece among the games of this genre for us. There are different economic strategy games and they can be broken down to subtypes but from my viewpoint Caesar encompasses planning, constructing, diplomacy and military campaigns.

You can actually find it on Sourceforge too, so you don't need Steam. The engine is open source which is nice, but we do hope they remove the copyrighted content, and fast.

Thanks for letting us know coryrj19951. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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11 comments
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nbieter Jan 22, 2015
Caeser 3 was my first PC gaming experience and the nostagia is real here. I like that someone is trying to do a remake.

As to the legality; this 'disclaimer' is beneath the system requirements on the store.

QuoteAny names, symbols or other materials solely belong to the corresponding owners.
We are not responsible if this mod damages software or/and hardware.
We suppose that you (end user/player) have a licensed copy of Caesar III ©, otherwise you should buy the game before using the remake. Non-compliance with this requirement is considered a violation of license contract.

Do you think thats enough? Also, they aren't charging for it; and I have purchased Caeser 3 on GoG and have played it in Wine; so I should be in the clear legality-wise if thier disclaimer is all that is necessary.
SXX Jan 22, 2015
As far as I see music that was mentioned as part of original game assets was already removed, but maps not yet.

There is also issue with Steamworks SDK that really break GPL (posted topic about that, but still I think developer did that unintentionally and will fix it. After all it's just his hobby and he may make some mistakes because of that.
MrTennessee17 Jan 22, 2015
Having that I have the GOG editions of the game, I wish that they would put a wine wrapper of Caesar III, Pharaoh, Zeus and Roller Coaster Tycoon.
Beamboom Jan 22, 2015
Quoting: nbieterDo you think thats enough?

Not unless it's cleared with the owners, something it does not seem to be.

This disclaimer is like me saying, "here, I ripped these MP3s if you want them for free - just make sure you already own the album first!" and believe that changes anything in regards to legality.
abelthorne Jan 22, 2015
QuoteDo you think thats enough? Also, they aren't charging for it; and I have purchased Caeser 3 on GoG and have played it in Wine; so I should be in the clear legality-wise if thier disclaimer is all that is necessary.
Nope, that's not. In fact, it doesn't matter, the situation would be the same without the disclaimer: even if you own Caesar 3, their distribution of the data files (graphics, music, maps...) by the developers is illegal unless they have a licence for it, which they clearly don't.

The only way to make this legal would be to distribute the engine and the player would have to extract the files from the original Caeasr 3 (CD, GOG version...) to put them in the right place. I don't think Valve would accept engines only that need files to be installed manually on Steam, that may be why the devs decided to release it that way and put the disclaimer.

This kind of mess already happened with a game (don't remember its name) which used content from other games during the developement as temporary stuff. The devs pretended it was a mistake that they forgot to fix for release but the game had to be removed from sale until this was cleared.

In the cas of CaesarIA, it's not a big deal as the game is free to play but expect it to disappear from Steam when this disclaimer will be seen by the rightholders of the original game (if they still exist and care).
SXX Jan 22, 2015
Quoting: abelthorneI don't think Valve would accept engines only that need files to be installed manually on Steam, that may be why the devs decided to release it that way and put the disclaimer.
This project does have own assets and there is only few files from original game packed as far as I understand: some maps and one music track (removed already as far as I get). I don't think developers intentionally wanted to break copyright there, but likely just wanted to put it on Steam as fast as they can and forgot about few things.

This does happen with guys who live in countries where nobody care about copyright. It's not to say it's normal, but give them some time and issue likely will be solved.
Blob Jan 22, 2015
Wouldn't it be ok if they use their own content with the possibility to add OC just like OpenTTD, CorsixTH, OpenMV, OpenAge
Sslaxx Jan 22, 2015
Quoting: abelthorne
QuoteDo you think thats enough? Also, they aren't charging for it; and I have purchased Caeser 3 on GoG and have played it in Wine; so I should be in the clear legality-wise if thier disclaimer is all that is necessary.
In the cas of CaesarIA, it's not a big deal as the game is free to play but expect it to disappear from Steam when this disclaimer will be seen by the rightholders of the original game (if they still exist and care).
That's (now) Activision (formerly Sierra), so yes they do.
Rattlehead Jan 22, 2015
Rough translation from the russian gamedev site:

Necrys 2.oct.2014:
You probably tired from this question, but ... And how are things from a legal point of view? You can just link to the post if it was before.

KpeHDeJIb 2.oct.2014:
Necrys
http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/discussion/249746982/540739319666091276/

dalerank 2.oct.2014:
The situation is this: until it is open source and is not profitable (companies are not interested in the amount of 5,000 - 20,000$), and does not interfere with the sales of original, (rightholders) will be indifferent.
In Steam game will be distributed like usual (?) (you must have resources, of course), it will not run without the original files (Steam will have a separate closed build, because there used their api). This is it. Wait and see. Developer account was gifted to me. I'm not very eager to go there (on Steam), on the other hand, it is also one of the mechanisms to promote the game IMHO.

...

divol13 9.nov.2014:
And for what purpose implemented HaikuOS support?
And as I understand that if a new graphics is drawn, it probably will be soon possible to decouple the game from the pack with the original assets?

dalerank 9.nov.2014:
1. From 2002 to 2008 I worked with BeOS (needed for work), good OS - why is compiled under Haiku? it was interesting to test the functionality.
2. That's right, the graphics\sound is making to deflect possible claims of rights holders and to update the look (brains (gaming logic) remains).
JSVRamirez Jan 22, 2015
Quoting: SXXThis project does have own assets and there is only few files from original game packed as far as I understand: some maps and one music track

As far as I can tell, the maps are currently in the process of being remade, an addition to the source today allows for new map files to be used. This just leaves the music...
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