Confused about licensing

[Vaporo]

I recently made a skybox with the Space Engine program and am looking to make it available for others to download. However, even after reading about licensing on the internet and on the forums, I am still confused. I just want to know, in a simple step-by-step process, how to get a license and make this thing available to others on the forums.

Edited November 16, 2014 by Vaporo

[NathanKell]

Pick a license, include either the text of your license or (if it's a known license) its name inside your downloadable archive and in the post you make.

That's really it.

If you need help deciding *which* license to pick, that's a different question. As this is content rather than code, I'd suggest using the Creative Commons license selector; if you'd prefer to not allow people to reupload / share your work (even with credit and without changing anything), then you'll want something more restrictive like All Rights Reserved.

Does that cover it?

[Vaporo]

Seems to... but after a week or so of trying to figure this out being handed a generator tool makes it seem a bit too simple. I don't need a copyright, do I? (I've read several times that this was designed so that people could could protect their work without copyrights, but I'm still not sure I understand.)

[zekes]

Seems to... but after a week or so of trying to figure this out being handed a generator tool makes it seem a bit too simple. I don't need a copyright, do I? (I've read several times that this was designed so that people could could protect their work without copyrights, but I'm still not sure I understand.)

You need one, at least to post to the KSP forums - and a source document, to show it's yours. If not, you can chose to not put one, but that also means anyone can use/reproduce your program without your consent.

[Vaporo]

You need one, at least to post to the KSP forums - and a source document, to show it's yours. If not, you can chose to not put one, but that also means anyone can use/reproduce your program without your consent.

Ok. Well, I don't really want to mess around with copyrights, and I don't really care if someone else uses (or even copyrights it themselves, for that matter) my skybox. It only took me about five minutes to make.

[NathanKell]

To post an addon on the KSP forums, yes you need a license. The reason I suggested using that page is indeed because it makes things very simple; a great many of the addons released here use some variant of the Creative Commons license (there are many variants), it's a good (set of) licenses for content.

Licenses don't have to be complex or not-human-readable.

[Vaporo]

I think I get it now, but I'm not sure. Now that it exists, my skybox automatically has a copyright. I don't need to register it or anything, the copyright automatically exists so long as I can prove the date that I originally had it. Essentially, all I have to do is use the Creative Commons license generator to generate a license and include it with the download.

If I'm right, I will probably make a separate thread explaining all this. It was extremely confusing for me.

[LitaAlto]

The issue really boils down to this:

This is Squad's forum site.

By running this forum, they're legally obliged to make sure any code or content distributed on the forum is properly covered by licenses.

Even if the creator doesn't care one bit about what happens to their work, Squad has to care.

[Vaporo]

The issue really boils down to this:

This is Squad's forum site.

By running this forum, they're legally obliged to make sure any code or content distributed on the forum is properly covered by licenses.

Even if the creator doesn't care one bit about what happens to their work, Squad has to care.

I know that. I'm just confused about how the licensing works.

[GregA]

I know that. I'm just confused about how the licensing works.

Then you want a GPL 3 license.

paste this into your source files, and in the meta tag of any included files that don't happen to be source.

<one line to give the program's name and a brief idea of what it does.>

Copyright © <year> <name of author>

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify

it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by

the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or

(at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,

but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of

MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the

GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License

along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

Then grab a copy of the actual GPL from here: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.txt

Put it as a txt file in your zip folder along with your mod.

IT means... This is free software, anyone can copy it. You offer no warrant on the code. It is not your fault if someone uploads the code to a robot and robot freaks out and kills someone. Anyone who takes your code is allowed to do anything with it they want, include sell it, or change it, but you remain the owner of the code. IF they do decide to change the code, they are responsible for all those changes, and they can not attribute any failure of the code to you. They are required to distribute the GPL and list you as author if they decide to do that. If they decide to do that they can not make the license more restrictive than it already is with the GPL. You lose the right to retroactively change the license. So if someone makes a million bucks off your code, you can't go back and say "I want my cut!".

Several other provisions with regards to cell phone, iPods and gateway routers, that probably do not apply to you.

Something about software patents that I am sure is not relevant.

I am not a lawyer this is not offered as legal advice. This is just a very free license, that also indemnifies both you and Rogue if someone uses the code and hurts people or themselves.

[Streetwind]

The thing that used to confuse me the most, years ago when I first learned about licenses like these, was the question of "isn't this a matter of authority"? Like, don't you have to apply somewere to get a license to use? Join some sort of organization? Put down a few bucks to receive a certificate? It just comes with the kind of word that "license" is. It implies a lot and commands respect.

The thing is though: you don't.

If you have created something unique through your own work, that is yours. You are the authority that creates the license. Nobody else has a right to arbitrate over what happens with your creation, until you grant it. You implicitly have this right both by convention and (in most countries in the world) formalized by local law.

So when it comes down to it, you can literally make up something on the spot. Just write a freeform text about who you allow to do what - and that can be anywhere between "this is public domain, do whatever you want" and "this is mine, you can look but don't touch". This statement you give about what rights you, the creator, grant third parties is really what the word "license" describes.

Now, freeform texts are all fine and dandy for things like a simple image and such. But the more valuable and effort-consuming your creation is, the more you want something that can actually stand up to a lawyer's attempts to find loopholes in the wording. For that purpose, there are certain keywords that you can use that let you describe your intent in a law-binding way without having to think about how to word it. Things like "all rights reserved" are unambiguously defined, they cannot be squirmed around no matter how someone might try. "Public domain" is another such keyword, and there are more.

Things like the Creative Commons license are also like that. They let you put a single line of text and a nice representative icon under your creation as a proxy. It tells a lawyer who is looking to suss out exactly what you allow to go look at the Creative Commons website instead. It says "My license is in wording and intent exactly as defined by that standard". You defer it to the CC organization to draft up a license wording that is unambiguous and holds up in court.

[Rich]

Then you want a GPL 3 license.

paste this into your source files, and in the meta tag of any included files that don't happen to be source.

<one line to give the program's name and a brief idea of what it does.>

Copyright © <year> <name of author>

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify

it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by

the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or

(at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,

but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of

MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the

GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License

along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

Then grab a copy of the actual GPL from here: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.txt

Put it as a txt file in your zip folder along with your mod.

IT means... This is free software, anyone can copy it. You offer no warrant on the code. It is not your fault if someone uploads the code to a robot and robot freaks out and kills someone. Anyone who takes your code is allowed to do anything with it they want, include sell it, or change it, but you remain the owner of the code. IF they do decide to change the code, they are responsible for all those changes, and they can not attribute any failure of the code to you. They are required to distribute the GPL and list you as author if they decide to do that. If they decide to do that they can not make the license more restrictive than it already is with the GPL. You lose the right to retroactively change the license. So if someone makes a million bucks off your code, you can't go back and say "I want my cut!".

Several other provisions with regards to cell phone, iPods and gateway routers, that probably do not apply to you.

Something about software patents that I am sure is not relevant.

I am not a lawyer this is not offered as legal advice. This is just a very free license, that also indemnifies both you and Rogue if someone uses the code and hurts people or themselves.

It sounds like the OP has non source code assets to distribute, in which case using a licence primarily for source code makes no sense. As a result of this, a creative commons licence is probably the way forwards.

[Vaporo]

Then you want a GPL 3 license.

paste this into your source files, and in the meta tag of any included files that don't happen to be source.

<one line to give the program's name and a brief idea of what it does.>

Copyright © <year> <name of author>

...

I am not a lawyer this is not offered as legal advice. This is just a very free license, that also indemnifies both you and Rogue if someone uses the code and hurts people or themselves.

I'm going to do this, except with the Creative Commons license. My biggest hurdle here was realizing that you don't have to register to be protected by copyright law. I now know this, so it seems to make a lot more sense now.