Skip to main content
Licenses
General Discussion
Licenses
RedEagle_MGN
Sunday, January 3, 2016 - 22:32
Hi guys,
About licenses, if it says GPL does that mostly mean free commercial use, no attribution?
(The following is not legal advice, I am not a lawyer)
No, that's a big (and dangerous) shortcut to make.
The GPL allows nearly all commercial use (including "pure" selling), but under certain conditions. Attribution is not one of them, but you will still need:
- to include a copyright notice somewhere (in a text file shipped with the game for example),
- to include a copy of the GPL version the work is using,
- to keep the derived work under the same conditions (same license),
- and probably many more requirements (read the full license)
However, (I've read your other thread about iOS game publishing, I'll assume it is related), Apple is never too keen on GPL usage, and may reject games using GPL code or artwork from the App Store. The reason is probably that the copies they distribute violate the GPL, due to their own App Store terms. So, you need to get a licensing exception of the GPL, which allows Apple to "violate" the license legally. You can get such an exception from the copyright holder.