Creative Commons - Share Alike

Posted By: Error014

Creative Commons - Share Alike - 12/28/11 14:35

Here's a link to Creative Commons "Human-readable" CC BY-SA-license:

Link!

It says, among other things:

Quote:
Share Alike — If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one.


This has always been a bit confusing for me.
Consider you use a graphic, or texture, or sound, or song, or whatever licensed under this, then does the above imply that:

a) The game has to be distributed under this license (or a similar one) as well?
b) Only if the texture/graphic/sound/song is modified, that this modified texture/graphic/sound/song has to be distributed under that license, effectively meaning that "game" and this part of the game are distributed on two different terms?

Personally, I'd think that "b" is the case, but I'd rather hear more opinions on this.
The official german translation implies the same.


Of course, we're all not lawyers, I know. Still I'd like to hear your thoughts. laugh



It has been quiet here this christmas.
Posted By: Quad

Re: Creative Commons - Share Alike - 12/28/11 14:54

Quote:

You are free:

to Share — to copy, distribute and transmit the work
to Remix — to adapt the work
to make commercial use of the work


as long as you credit the author.

So yes, b.
Posted By: HeelX

Re: Creative Commons - Share Alike - 12/28/11 14:58

The term that is for me a bit hard to understand is the term "or build upon this work". Other than that, it talks about the "resulting work", which means the result of the "alteration" or "transformation".

I would especially argue that a computer program is sort of a "data transformation application" in one sense or another. I mean, if you loosely couple the game with the assets, one could replace the asset with one's own, of course, to e.g. use other images or music.

It is just important, that you say for which file which credits are given and which license is applied.
Posted By: Error014

Re: Creative Commons - Share Alike - 12/28/11 15:15

Yes, it's true that you have to state the license anyhow. Maybe then it isn't too far-fetched to believe that graphic/texture/sound/song and game are distributed under different conditions as well.

I feel that this term was added with derivative works that don't stray too far from the original in mind - say a remix of a song, or perhaps a texture made out of a photo, but not necessarily a game that can hardly be said is "based" upon the original photo/texture/graphic/sound/song. However, "build upon this work" sounds awfully ill-defined to me as well.


Quadraxas, have you, uh, read the post? You see, there's this, the CC BY license. That does exactly what you said.
We're talking about the CC BY-SA license, that adds the condition I've cited in the OP. I'm asking how it affects the usage of it in the context of games, mostly because I'm unsure on how to interpret "build opon this work". laugh

EDIT: To clarify, here's another quote:

Quote:
if you’re using content available under a licence that includes the Share
Alike element you must release your new work under a Creative Commons Attribution-
Noncommercial-Share Alike licence too


The question is, if I use a ressource licensed under CC BY-SA, then must I also distribute the game under CC BY-SA?

(the quote is from here)
Posted By: HeelX

Re: Creative Commons - Share Alike - 12/28/11 15:50

Quote:
However, "build upon this work" sounds awfully ill-defined to me as well.[/true] - true, true smile

[quote]The question is, if I use a ressource licensed under CC BY-SA, then must I also distribute the game under CC BY-SA?


I talked once in a while with some guys from that foundation, but our topic was if the Creative Commons license(s) are suited for whole games and the result of our correspondence was like that: "theoretically - yes, but...ehr, no!, - better use others that are especially designed for software".

In my humble oppinion, as long as your game is not commercial (or is it?), one could turn a blind eye on this. Even though the BY-SA license allows also commercial usage, it looks OK for me if you use CC work under a BY-SA in, e.g. a game that is licensed under MIT or something, loosely coupled to the assets (no ressourcing!).

But here are some interesting bits from the CC site:

Use of CC work in a video game

This is the question you are asking, and one of the users that replied says: "To be safe, you should really just contact the creators of the music and ask them if they mind. It sounds like you are using the music in the spirit of the license, so they'll probably say that they don't mind."; which is also my oppinion.

Massively Multiplayer Game Ryzom Released as Free Culture and Free Software

This is a MMORPG, that is distributed under GNU AGPLv3 for the code and under CC BY-SA for the artistic assets. This could be a nice model of how to distribute free games. Maybe you could talk with them, maybe they have investigated everything already a bit more.

Other than that, I have more a feeling that people that put their works under a less-restrictive license (like BY-SA!) just want A) their name credited for the original work and B) that the (modified) resource is still freely available. It is more a spirit thing.

But if you are doing a commercial thing, I would ask them all, if possible. And if you can't contact them for some reasons, I would risk it to just use it, give credits and let is be freely accessible in your game.
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