[ConceptDog]

Box2d is amazing, and powers about 90% of physics flash games and now a good portion of iPhone games as well.

It's also a great example of a creator having buyers remorse about the licence used. At somepoint the creator decided to be altruistic and release it in a way that it could be used far and wide in applications across hundreds of platforms. Now people are using it in fabulous projects and very rightly, getting famous and wealthy through those creations.

That said, Angry Birds isn't successfull because of it's physics engine. In fact, there isn't one single element of the game that makes it successful. The Rovio guys studied their audience, listened to feedback, and invested everything in creating a killer app.

Box2d was one bolt in the process, and if the licence had prevented the developers from utilizing it, they would have swapped it out for another model. It wasn't the lynch pin to Angry Birds' success.

[bad_user]

Yeah, but how hard it is to give one guy credit for the free fish you got; and why did he had to ask for it?

That's why I've been saying it - a gift economy on the Internet does not work, except in very few instances / narrow niches. In the future, we'll get more DRM and more restrictive licenses, not less ; as most people are just leeches.