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It's important that an OSS project be as clear and transparent as possible about how, where, and why contributions made by members of the community might be used by the project owners.
This post explains the project's somewhat non-standard needs and plans as it relates to the disposition and assignment of community contributions, usage, etc. of the project's code and content assets.
Because each type of potential contribution has different needs that must be addressed, I'll separate the discussion into two parts
Creative assets
This category includes just about anything in the game that isn't code. This includes assets such as:
Models
Textures
SoundFx and music
Images, fonts, etc.
One way that we can use the generous work of artists in a moral, ethical fashion is to require that all assets in this category have a Creative Commons license that allows adaptation/modification as well as commercial use. The reason for allowing commercial use isn't necessarily because Space-Truckers: The Video Game will cost money to play (it will not if at all humanly possible, the source will always be freely available however), but because people wishing to fork or reuse the game itself might wish to do so.
An example of a CC license that does NOT meet these guidelines is the Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (BY-NC-ND).
Attribution credits for assets will be displayed in at least three places in the project: in-game credits, a text file in the web site hosting the game, and a text file in the root of the repository.
Code Licensing
Anything that is committed to the repository that isn't a content asset (as described in the accompanying paragraph) can be considered a part of this category for purposes of licensing discussions.
The license that provides the best mixture of freedom of use with protections for project contributors and owners is the BSD 3-Clause license. The third clause of this license is the primary justification for using it because it prevents the usage of this project's brand "image" or the usage of any project member's persona for their derivative work without express consent:
Neither the name of the copyright holder nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.
Where we are with licensing
It's a truth in OSS as much as it is anywhere in the world that the best ideas are worthless without associated action, but action requires resources along with timing. This project is intended to be and will freely serve for the benefit of the community, but it wouldn't have come about if there hadn't been a commercial catalyst that helped to bring this project from an idea to a building reality.
In order to help protect our embryonic project while in these early incubation stages the project adopt will adopt - for a strictly definite period of time - a much more stringent form of OSS licensing to both code and content that curtails allowed usage to be only non-commercial or educational, with no redistribution of modifications. The specifics of this will be forthcoming (suggestions are welcomed).
**The reason for this is simple: **
Even in today's modern era, it takes time to put out a high-quality, professional piece of technical literature, and it would potentially be the cause of grievous damage to the producers of such a work if other folks decide to use Space-Truckers commercially prior to the work's public availability.
timeline to transition
Right now, the target date for making the change in licensing is going to be around mid-third quarter 2021. As the project and time evolve, this will be refined and expanded on to reflect the most current information.
Thanks for being a part of this project and for your feedback!
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The End-Goal for Licensing Space-Truckers
It's important that an OSS project be as clear and transparent as possible about how, where, and why contributions made by members of the community might be used by the project owners.
This post explains the project's somewhat non-standard needs and plans as it relates to the disposition and assignment of community contributions, usage, etc. of the project's code and content assets.
Because each type of potential contribution has different needs that must be addressed, I'll separate the discussion into two parts
Creative assets
This category includes just about anything in the game that isn't code. This includes assets such as:
One way that we can use the generous work of artists in a moral, ethical fashion is to require that all assets in this category have a Creative Commons license that allows adaptation/modification as well as commercial use. The reason for allowing commercial use isn't necessarily because Space-Truckers: The Video Game will cost money to play (it will not if at all humanly possible, the source will always be freely available however), but because people wishing to fork or reuse the game itself might wish to do so.
An example of a CC license that does NOT meet these guidelines is the Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (BY-NC-ND).
Attribution credits for assets will be displayed in at least three places in the project: in-game credits, a text file in the web site hosting the game, and a text file in the root of the repository.
Code Licensing
Anything that is committed to the repository that isn't a content asset (as described in the accompanying paragraph) can be considered a part of this category for purposes of licensing discussions.
The license that provides the best mixture of freedom of use with protections for project contributors and owners is the BSD 3-Clause license. The third clause of this license is the primary justification for using it because it prevents the usage of this project's brand "image" or the usage of any project member's persona for their derivative work without express consent:
Where we are with licensing
It's a truth in OSS as much as it is anywhere in the world that the best ideas are worthless without associated action, but action requires resources along with timing. This project is intended to be and will freely serve for the benefit of the community, but it wouldn't have come about if there hadn't been a commercial catalyst that helped to bring this project from an idea to a building reality.
In order to help protect our embryonic project while in these early incubation stages the project adopt will adopt - for a strictly definite period of time - a much more stringent form of OSS licensing to both code and content that curtails allowed usage to be only non-commercial or educational, with no redistribution of modifications. The specifics of this will be forthcoming (suggestions are welcomed).
**The reason for this is simple: **
Even in today's modern era, it takes time to put out a high-quality, professional piece of technical literature, and it would potentially be the cause of grievous damage to the producers of such a work if other folks decide to use Space-Truckers commercially prior to the work's public availability.
timeline to transition
Right now, the target date for making the change in licensing is going to be around mid-third quarter 2021. As the project and time evolve, this will be refined and expanded on to reflect the most current information.
Thanks for being a part of this project and for your feedback!
Josh
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