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Picking the license for my software.

Started by
6 comments, last by fleabay 8Β years ago

I have created a game using XNA framework and want to release it to the public. So I should pick a license. After spending a day reading on many sites about many licenses, all I know now is that my head hurts. So I'm asking more experienced ITs which license should I pick if I considerate following statements:

  • I have no problems if others will use/teach/learn/modify/distribute my code as long as it is not for commercial use and they mention the original author (that's me).
  • It should contain "as is" / "no guaranties" clause.
  • If I change my mind in future I wish to have the possibilty to change the license even to the most closed one.

Also keep in mind that this game contains third party sprites and fonts. The sprites are licensed by CC0 so I belive there are no problems with them. The fonts are under CC BY 4.0 so there should be no problems including them either.

Also I have made few sprites by myself - what should I do with them?

Since I used the XNA framework, is there anything I should be aware of if it comes to licensing etc?

So far I have considered the CC-BY-NC license but I am still not sure if it covers everything I mentioned here.

tl;dr - What license should I pick?

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I would choose cc-by-nc.

If you are the only contributor to the project you can change the license whenever you like, to any license you like.

Note that this doesn't give you the right to rescind previous rights given by cc-by-nc, so if version 1 is creative commons and you decide to close source version 2, this doesn't prevent anyone from still creating forks of version 1 so long as they comply with the cc-by-nc license.

If you really are unsure (or its good practice anyway if you can afford it) get a lawyer to advise you on it, one that specialises in contract law preferably and licensing issues.

Good luck!

Nobody wants to use a non-commercial claused software. When I say nobody I mean nobody. So good luck with that.

πŸ™‚πŸ™‚πŸ™‚πŸ™‚πŸ™‚<←The tone posse, ready for action.

Nobody wants to use a non-commercial claused software. When I say nobody I mean nobody. So good luck with that.


...and where do you get these unsubstantiated claims?

There are tons of non commercial assets on opengameart.org and they're all quite heavily used. Given time I could find many popular non commercial (not GPL) libraries and programs too, which are popular.

I would choose cc-by-nc.

If you are the only contributor to the project you can change the license whenever you like, to any license you like.

Note that this doesn't give you the right to rescind previous rights given by cc-by-nc, so if version 1 is creative commons and you decide to close source version 2, this doesn't prevent anyone from still creating forks of version 1 so long as they comply with the cc-by-nc license.

If you really are unsure (or its good practice anyway if you can afford it) get a lawyer to advise you on it, one that specialises in contract law preferably and licensing issues.

Good luck!

Thank you, probably will go with that.

Nobody wants to use a non-commercial claused software. When I say nobody I mean nobody. So good luck with that.


...and where do you get these unsubstantiated claims?

There are tons of non commercial assets on opengameart.org and they're all quite heavily used. Given time I could find many popular non commercial (not GPL) libraries and programs too, which are popular.

Tell me what the #1 non-commercial claused software in use today is and we can go from there.

And maybe I can get my negative votes back when you don't have a good answer.

πŸ™‚πŸ™‚πŸ™‚πŸ™‚πŸ™‚<←The tone posse, ready for action.

How about Microsoft office home and student edition.

It isn't creative commons but is clearly popular and clearly Noncommercial (it even says so in the title bar if you have that edition)...

Edit: here's a screenshot from a previous version of ms outlook:

[attachment=32227:download.jpg]

How about Microsoft office home and student edition.

It isn't creative commons but is clearly popular and clearly Noncommercial (it even says so in the title bar if you have that edition)...

Oh god, I can't even...

πŸ™‚πŸ™‚πŸ™‚πŸ™‚πŸ™‚<←The tone posse, ready for action.

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