Hello, I have some questions about licensing and copyright. If I wanted to make a game, and wanted to use item stat numbers (volume, weight, damage, etc.) and possibly crafting recipes similar to the ones presented in cataclysm, but none of the actual code, would that fall under the license? I ask because I’m making a game that I plan to sell later, and I would rather people not be able to freely distribute said game because of the CC license being applied.
It’s not as if I have any intention to steal, I would give proper attribution even if it didn’t fall under license because of how this game inspired me to create mine, I just want to do everything fairly with regards to the licensing, and not offend any of the creators.
In particular, it is the ‘Share-alike’ part of the license that concerns me.
I am OK with coming up with my own item statistics and crafting recipes if this doesn’t work out.
If you intend to try to subvert the license by using its contents without applying the license to the result, you need to talk to a lawyer, not people on a gaming forum.
My suggestion as a fellow developer:
Use the data from the game, but keep it separate from your code, and continue to provide the data under the CC license. License your game code however you want.
This fulfills both the spirit and (afaik) the letter of the license.
If your intention is to extract the data and then not even make that data available under the same license, you’re kind of being a jerk.
Gotcha, that sounds like a great way to do it. If I end up using the stats and recipes from cataclysm, i’ll put them into a separate file with the license and attributions included.
It is not about game mechanics, but the game data.
You can use image of demon in your game without violating any rights, but you shouldn’t use image of a demon from some other game violating that game’s license.
Well, he had already specified that he wasn’t going to use any code from the game, just the mechanics and a few item stats, so I’m sorry but I don’t see your point!
It is unclear from their post that if they’re going to use the game data or just reproduce the game mechanics. If it’s the former then it is required to release the borrowed data under CC-BY-SA.
I think it’s also worthwhile to point out that CC-BY-SA doesn’t guarantee the release of the source code, there’s no mention of alternate-forms (i.e. the source code), it only covers the final form. So even if the license is “Share-Alike” it doesn’t mean the licensor has to release the source-code under the license, just releasing the final form will suffice. See this: licensing - Why is CC BY-SA discouraged for code? - Open Source Stack Exchange for more information. I’m not a Lawyer but that’s what the folks at Creative-Commons recommend.
But since the OP is thinking of using the data, the SA part of the CC license applies because the data for the game cannot be released in any other medium (other than text), so if they use the data from the game (directly or with some modifications) then they’ll have to release it under CC-BY-SA; but if they use ideas, game mechanics, monsters, lore, crafting-recipes, etc they don’t have to release anything.