: The issue isn't literally making duplicates of the Shapes and Sounds files,
: but distributing them with original Marathon content still in them; and
: further, Bungie long ago claimed copyright on the *headers* of the file
: formats - that is, the little bit of data which makes it a
: Marathon/AlephOne Shapes or Sounds file to begin with, regardless of the
: content - and even generating a new empty Shapes or Sounds file from
: scratch and filling it with original content would require generating a
: copy of that header data in order for the resulting file to be a Shapes or
: Sounds file at all.
So, (excuse my while I venture into complete lack of real knowledge town), the only way to avoid the legality debate altogether would be to develop a new style of shapes file, and have Aleph One also reflect those changes? I'm assuming it isn't jut a simple matter of developing a header as it'd end up pretty much the same as what Bungie had in their originally?
Again, excuse me if I'm asking really dumb questions. I'm just fascinated by all of this because I've always thought Marathon as an engine was a really great first dip into both level design and game story telling, with cross OS compatibility to boot. It's a shame that so much of it is either with a lack of current tools or legal drama :)
