Regarding the shareware quake EULA and my bundling of one file of it's contents in with quake epsilon main:
It is possible, though messy, to include all files from the quake shareware bundle in quake epsilon.
This, I believe would satisfy the end user agreement which states that the software may only be distributed in compressed for and may not be dismantled.
This has certainly been done many, many times with various versions of winquake. One such package exists on the quakeone.com servers.
However...
The problem of this is for the main users ie. windows users, who may, in their ignorance, attempt to run quake.exe rather than darkplaces.exe (or one of the included batch/bash files in the new version coming up), and, seeing that it does not work (or looks like crap if it does), give up, or get confused.
A lesser danger is the messiness that the extra files produce, which will increase uncertaincy and confusion as to what-does-what.
The letter of the EULA states that the end user may not split up the package.
However the primary intent of the EULA is to protect the software and it's authors, such that they may earn money from All end users buying the full commercial version, and it is my contention that messing up the distribution I am providing by including All of the files in the original package - and providing confusion to the user by doing so - will detract from that particular purpose;
the purpose being, the end user being able to easily-and-without-confusion-or-frustration experience Quake in all it's glory, and so be pushed towards wanting to purchase the full product via steam or other sites, in other words, the shareware version of quake is intended to be a hassle-free advertisement for the main product.
I have thought about this long and hard and decided to follow the spirit of the law rather than the letter of the law.
Cheers,
Matt 16-03-2012
ps. I have contacted ID on this matter, they have not gotten back to me (1 month later). People who have done similar things in the past (eg. Quakeworld.nu) have been contacted by ID staff to say that ID is fine with it.
I support your decision and think that your cause is just. You provide a great all-in-one package for Quake and it would be a shame if some nit-pickers would block such a great project or make it less accessible.
Id has previously shown to be very lenient and have actually endorsed it in multiple situations, so I would not fear that they suddenly change their opinion.
I can advice everyone to buy Quake and play it with this compilation.
Thanks dude-
m