Game Licensing ?

[jhay2]

hi i have read some article about different software license ,

is license required also for games ? especially a non-free games ?

just a noob question ..

i really love game programming .. and i want to earn money with my talent ..

but because opensource wants our source code available to download i dont think that i can earn with opensource ,

and my last choice is to create a non-free games ,

is license required too for games ?

[ofnuts]

Licence and code openness are two different things. Professionally I use a lot of open source software, but before I'm allowed to use it our legal eagles read the license carefully, in case there are strings attached. So I cannot use a software that has no license whatsoever. But in practice most open source software has one... which usually allows one to use/duplicate/modify/redistribute the code freely.

[jhay2]

thanks for the reply ,


how about in game ? do i need to have a license for games ?

[ofnuts]

What makes games different from other software?

[Bucky Ball]

Entirely up to you. If you don't want a license, don't have one. How were you looking at licensing it and why??? These are questions you should be asking.

Perhaps start HERE and HERE.

[jhay2]

thank for reply .

so meaning licensing is a choice ? even the game is free or non-free ?

i already read the gnu gpl

and upon reading it . i saw some of terms that i don't want

GNU allow us to sell the binary application and the source code, GNU wants the source code available to download with charge or for free , but the price of the source code must not be greater than its binary

if i will sell my game program , example the binary cost 10$ and the source code is free ?
heres the question . why costumer buy the binary which is cost 10$ when he/she can download the source code for free and compile it .. , selling the program would be non sense .


if i will sell my game program ,example the binary cost 10$ and the source code is 5$?

heres the question . why will the customer buy the binary when he/she can buy the source code which is much cheaper than its binary ? and he/she has a power to modify the source code and make it available for free ? the original creator earnings have a possibility to stop . because other customer will download the modified games that is free instead to its original source , selling the program would be non-sense under the gnu license .



the question that need to be answer is , can i sell a program without licensing it ? is this possible ? because we all know that buying own license is very expensive .


sorry for my bad english ..

[The Cog]

If you are copying someone else's software (perhaps modifying it or adding to it), you have to abide by the copyright holder's license. For instance, you cannot modify and redistribute Windows without an encounter with Microsoft's lawyers because they don't allow copying at all. You can modify and redistribute Linux as long as you abide by the GPL which requires that you also pass on the source code and the right for other people to do the same as you are doing.

If you are writing entirely your own code, you are the copyright owner and you can choose the license you release it under (if any).

[ofnuts]

If you are the author of the software author, you don' t need to but a license for it, since you create the licence... You may want to make sure you have a proper license for the software tools you used to produce it but this is another story...

Of course, if you sell the software for $10 in binary, and the source is free, some people will recompile it instead of purchasing the binary. But recompiling code needs tools and some knowledge, well beyond the abilities the average game user. And your license for the source code may explicitly forbid redistributing it in source (modified or not) or binary form.

But.... if you don't want people to play with your source, why are you publishing it? The purpose of open-source is to allow sharing the work/ideas with other developers. Why would anyone contribute to your code if you are the only one to achieve financial gain with it? This is the other reason why open-source software is free... no financial gains, no afterthoughts...