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I'm really horrible with understanding licenses so can anyone help me with this, I\'ve found some music online that I want to use in my game and it\'s licensed with GPL3 you can check the page HERE cam I use this in my game? If so, do I have to credit it to the person who wrote it?
edit: HERE's the license
edit2: just noticed "Attribution Instructions:
Johan Brodd" does this mean that I can use it but have to credit it to Johan Brodd? If so, do I have to credit him in game, or can I credit him in the description on the app store that I distribute it on?

Is there any way for you to contact Johan Brodd and ask him directly - I would do that...

Cheers,
AgentSam

This is a strange license to use for music. The GPL is designed to be used on programs, not media.


GPL licensed programs are open source. The user may view, modify and redistribute the source code. The only thing they cannot do is use the source code in a closed source program. The user must release their modifications under GPL as well. There is an exception given if you use the program for private use only.

This is where things get complicated. The music is not code, or a program. The point of GPL is to stop people using code in open source code to build proprietary software.


I'm assuming here that your code is not released under the GPL. Which means that we will need to see if things licensed under GPL can be distributed along side proprietary software.

Wikipedia has done some of the work for us: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_General_Public_License


That says you can distribute it alongside proprietary software. Obviously, if you modify the music, your modifications to the music must be released under the GPL too.


However... The author probably used the GPL because he was thinking that it would prevent his work from being distributed with proprietary software (In the same way you cannot use GPL code in proprietary software). But this is music and it isn't compiled into the software. The above quote from Wikipedia says you can distribute GPL code with non GPL software. So in theory the answer is yes, you can use in in your game. But you should get clarification from the author before proceeding as this may have not been his intention. Also, to prevent future confusion, ask him to release it under one of the Creative Commons licenses which are designed for media and what you can and cannot do with it is clearer.


Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer. I don't have any qualifications in law. I'm someone on the internet with a bit of knowledge about open source licensing. But please do not take anything that I wrote in this post seriously.

I believe a copy of the GPL is suppose to be distributed with the files as well.

In terms of music, I think releasing some kind of master copy of the song, like a program file containing the individual tracks in the song, would be like the 'source code'.

Wow, I just discovered that the person who wrote this music is actually a member on this forum. But I'm not sure if he goes on very often though.