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FPSC Classic Product Chat / Game Store Asset - Separate Written Licence Agreement?

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Jack Attack
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Posted: 17th Jan 2009 22:24
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I previously posted about the Game Store Assets and their use in commercial games. I thought I'd found my answer in the license after the agreement ticky boxes, but actually I'm still not totally clear. It states in the license that you can't use any asset (which I understand to being anything downloaded from the Game Store)"until You have entered into a separate written licence agreement with the Asset supplier permitting the use of the Asset in a Commercial Game" How do I go about contacting the asset author to ask their permission and if the author is TGC, do I need to contact a Mod or TGC Technical Support? I downloaded the Wire fence free segment to see if it came with some kind of readme/ license but no luck there either. Searches on this and other boards have proved fruitless and I can't find anything in either of the guides. Can anyone clarify this for me. Thanks.
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Robert F
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Posted: 17th Jan 2009 23:31
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Anything that you download from the store you can use in a commercial game. At least that's what I think.

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Jack Attack
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Posted: 17th Jan 2009 23:53
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Not according to the legal stuff copied and pasted from the license agreement above. Mods are quiet tonight?
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Dave J
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Posted: 18th Jan 2009 00:08 Edited at: 18th Jan 2009 00:09
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I'd imagine the only person who could possibly answer this would be Rick Vanner - rick@thegamecreators.com. It is probably something they didn't account for considering the rarity of commercial games coming out of indie development.


"Computers are useless, they can only give you answers."
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Jack Attack
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Posted: 18th Jan 2009 00:17
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I'll email him and post the reply, presumably he doesn't read the forum? Thanks Dave.
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Thraxas
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Posted: 18th Jan 2009 02:05 Edited at: 18th Jan 2009 02:09
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If you go to Help -> View Item Licenses from within FPSC it will open a folder with a license for each file you have downloaded from the store...

If you open the license which is in HTML format it tells you how to accept the commercial license for the item in question...

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Errant AI
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Posted: 18th Jan 2009 06:24 Edited at: 18th Jan 2009 06:28
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Quote: "Anything that you download from the store you can use in a commercial game."


100% Incorrect.

It is not automatic and you must accept the licenses to use commercially. However anything purchased from GSC has an open, irrevocable offer to be used commercially if the developer formally accepts said offer.

Quote: "If you open the license which is in HTML format it tells you how to accept the commercial license for the item in question..."


100% Correct.

It's a very simple process which is outlined in the license document. I believe the separate license agreements (different than with modelpacks which are automatic) is to release TGC from certain liabilities.

Personally, I have had ZERO commercial licenses accepted out of nearly 1000 paid downloads. So, something leads me to believe that TGC should do something to make the acceptance procedure more clear/streamlined.
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Conjured Entertainment
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Posted: 18th Jan 2009 07:12 Edited at: 18th Jan 2009 07:31
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Quote: "If you go to Help -> View Item Licenses from within FPSC it will open a folder with a license for each file you have downloaded from the store..."


They are right there in the licenses folder placed in the main FPSC folder along side the Files folder...

C:/Program Files/The Game Creators/FPS Creator/licenses

Just in case you want to navigate there without opening FPSC.

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Thraxas
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Posted: 18th Jan 2009 08:01
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Quote: "Personally, I have had ZERO commercial licenses accepted out of nearly 1000 paid downloads. So, something leads me to believe that TGC should do something to make the acceptance procedure more clear/streamlined. "


I only realised you had to accept the license offer after I opened a license to get the creator's email to fix a problem and read it properly... Seeing as I'm not looking to create anything commercially I haven't emailed any of the authors to accept the agreement...

I imagine that plenty of users never open the license files and read them...

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Cyborg ART
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Posted: 18th Jan 2009 14:13
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Just so I get it right, we have to contact each author if we want to use the assets we bought from the store in a commercial game?

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Errant AI
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Posted: 18th Jan 2009 14:54 Edited at: 18th Jan 2009 14:55
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Quote: "Just so I get it right, we have to contact each author if we want to use the assets we bought from the store in a commercial game?"


Yes.

So, say you purchased a copy of Bond1's wizard staff and want to use it in a commercial game. You open the license and see:

Quote: "This offer is irrevocable and may be accepted at any time by the Customer notifying the Seller of its acceptance of the offer. Notification may be made by sending an email to the email address below with the full name of the Customer in the subject line followed by the words "accepts the commercial licence terms for wizard_staff".

The email address is: mark.tgcstore@[omitted].com"


To accept the license, simply send Mr. Blosser a email with the subject title:

"[YOUR FULL/REAL NAME HERE] accepts the commercial licence terms for wizard_staff"

No need to write anything in the email body itself.


If you release your game, you agree to credit the artist (in this example, Bond1/Mark Blosser) on your credits screen or similar:

Quote: "Copyright Notice
7. It is a condition of the licence above that the Customer shall ensure that any Commercial Game which includes the Asset shall display the following notice in a prominent place easily accessible by the end user of the Commercial Game (such as the credits section) and on any packaging for the Commercial Game if distributed on or in any physical media:
Some or all of the game assets used in this game are (c) Mark Blosser.
All Rights Reserved."
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Jack Attack
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Posted: 18th Jan 2009 16:25
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In respnse to Errant AI: I just checked the HTML license were talking about in Help > View Item Licenses which I didn't realise was there until now. I'm not sure where your getting you license details from, or why mine appears to be different, but my license shows they can be used in commercial games:

Quote: " "In consideration of the Customer's promises herein (including without limitation the Customer's obligations in clause 7 of this Licence Agreement) the Seller hereby grants the Customer a personal, non exclusive, perpetual, non transferable, royalty free licence to:
modify Assets and integrate Assets in "Commercial Games" (as defined below) created using FPS Creator, FPS Creator X10, Dark Basic Professional, Dark GDK or in other Games; and
issue copies of such Commercial Games (and permit others to issue copies of such Games) to the public for commercial purposes.
A "Commercial Game" is a Game which is either: (i) commercially exploited by any person (including, by way of example only, a Game which is distributed in return for payment or any other benefit); or (ii) reproduced in more than 100 copies."

So long as you include the asset author in the credits as per clause 7:

"
"It is a condition of the licence above that the Customer shall ensure that any Commercial Game which includes the Asset shall display the following notice in a prominent place easily accessible by the end user of the Commercial Game (such as the credits section) and on any packaging for the Commercial Game if distributed on or in any physical media:
"

I only downloaded 2 assets a couple of days ago (one TGC and a.n. other author to compare), and they both have the same license details above. Maybe the license has been updated since you downloaded your assets??

Attached is the license for the wire fence. Author TGC.
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Jack Attack
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Posted: 18th Jan 2009 16:28
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Sorry, no attachment.
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Avid
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Posted: 18th Jan 2009 16:51
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It's a silly system, it should say that "by downloading this item, you agree to following commercial license".

Visit my site http://www.fpsmodels.com for models and media for fps creator.
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Errant AI
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Posted: 18th Jan 2009 17:02 Edited at: 18th Jan 2009 17:13
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Jack Attack, We are reading the same thing just quoting different parts...

What you are quoting is what the license will allow you to do IF you choose to accept the terms of the agreement.


What I am quoting are the instructions for how to accept the the terms of the agreement and what you are expected to do when you release your game.

See the difference?

The document you are reading gives you no commercial usage rights unless you accept the terms and conditions and indicate acceptance of such by sending the required email.

This process of sending an email as the equivalent of saying "yes" is really poorly thought IMO as it takes something users are accustomed to doing by simply clicking an "I agree" button when installing something and makes it a lot more complicated.

Quote: "It's a silly system, it should say that "by downloading this item, you agree to following commercial license"."


I think users should have the right to remain anon. if they only want personal use. Remember, it's the author being notified and not TGC. I think a better solution would be to have a button that shows on the item after purchase (same as the rating option) which allows the user to say they accept the commercial license terms and then the store system automatically sends the author the notification email/info for their record keeping. I personally don't need/want the emails and names of everyone who buys my stuff and I realize there is no inherent privacy policy to make the user feel safe about sending their info. There's also no way to determine from random emails if someone really paid money for the item or just looted it and has the balls to register it. Likewise, if someone emails me about an item I have no clue if they have a legit copy or not.
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Jack Attack
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Posted: 18th Jan 2009 21:02 Edited at: 18th Jan 2009 22:13
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Errant AI: There it is!

Quote: ""This offer is irrevocable and may be accepted at any time by the Customer notifying the Seller of its acceptance of the offer. Notification may be made by sending an email to the email address below with the full name of the Customer in the subject line followed by the words "accepts the commercial licence terms for Fence Wire"."


That'll teach me to skip through the text!

But going from your previous experiences with contacting authors though, it's a waste of time as they say No anyway. Seems a bit rich to charge you for things you can only use to show your mates. I want to use the software to build a bespoke commercial game, but this is a real problem.

I'm only going to be getting my Entities/ Segments from the free sites where there is a license clearly stating it's free for use with commercial games.

Thanks for all your help with this,

Avid, thanks for the link, nice assets! (no pun intended)
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Jack Attack
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Posted: 18th Jan 2009 21:04
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Sorry, thought I'd mastered the quotes. Maybe in the next post...
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Dar13
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Posted: 18th Jan 2009 22:11 Edited at: 18th Jan 2009 22:26
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The artist can't say no Jack Attack. All you have to do is accept their terms and you can use them commercially.

I know not with what weapons WWIII will be fought but WWIV will be fought with sticks and stones-Albert Einstein
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Nickydude
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Posted: 18th Jan 2009 22:12 Edited at: 18th Jan 2009 22:12
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Quote: "Sorry, thought I'd mastered the quotes. Maybe in the next post... "


Nothing stopping you editing your post is there?

THE ANSWER TO ALL FPSC QUESTIONS!
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Errant AI
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Posted: 19th Jan 2009 18:52
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Quote: "The artist can't say no Jack Attack. All you have to do is accept their terms and you can use them commercially."


Exactly. No need to worry about being turned down by the media author. This is what is meant by:

Quote: "This offer is irrevocable and may be accepted at any time by the Customer"


Sending the notification is little more than a formality. You need not await a confirmation from the artist and really they don't even need to reply to your email. Just keep a copy in your sent items folder or something.
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