License
A license is a type of permission. The license of a work of interactive fiction is set of statements or a document that sets the terms on how the work may be used, permitting some types of usage, and denying or restricting other types. The license of the work is granted from the work's owner (the author or the publisher) to the work's user.
Licenses are legal agreements. If the user breaks the terms of the license, often this means that the license is terminated, and the user no longer has permission to use the work in any way. A user who ignores the terms of a license might also be sued by the owner.
A work's license should not be confused with a work's copyright.
Permissions and restrictions
For example, a license may grant, restrict, or deny the right to:
- run or execute the work (that is, play the game),
- make a backup copy of the work,
- have copies of the work on multiple machines,
- make a copy of the work for someone else,
- upload the work to an archive or similar repository,
- offer the work for on-line play,
- distribute the work with or without full attributions and associated files,
- edit or patch the work,
- make a derivative version of the work,
- sell copies of the work.
Types of licenses
Freeware is a work that is available without needing to pay a fee. A work of IF without an explicit license is assumed to be freeware. Freeware licenses are generally very permissive about how often and to where the work can be copied. Freeware games are still subject to copyright, however. You cannot, for example, claim a freeware game as your own or assume you can sell it (even if it's just for the cost of the CD itself).
Shareware is a type of license where the user is initially granted the use of the software without charge, but later expected to make a payment.
Former shareware simply means that the work used to be shareware, but now isn't.
Creative Commons refers to a set of more formal and specific licenses especially drafted for use by laypeople in their software products.
Free Software is different than Freeware. In Freeware the "free" refers to price, but in Free Software, the "free" refers to liberty, not price. (See GPL for more information) The software is still subject to copyright, but you are allowed to modify it, distribute it, see how it works, sell a copy if you want to, etc.
See also
- Abandonware
- Copyright
- Creative Commons
- GNU GPL (GNU General Public License)
Links
- License and Software license at Wikipedia.