I still have lot of unanswered questions about how I'd like to publish my game.

[bryanredeagle@beige.party]

@youen I don't think most open source games reach the level notoriety to have this problem.

If you, or a company you create, holds the sole copyright of the game, you are free to do what you want with it. That includes publishing it on Steam using their SDK that violates the GPL. You would effectively be giving Valve a different license to redistribute the game with Steamworks included. This is even if you also release the game under GPL. If you use other GPL code in your game, you cannot do that. Others wouldn't be able to publish your game on Steam either (unless you grant them a different license).

Another point to make is that if you use CC0 (public domain) assets, you can't re-license them under another creative commons license because you don't have copyright control. You would need to create, or commission, assets under your copyright.

[youen@mastodon.gamedev.place]

@bryanredeagle
"if you use CC0 (public domain) assets, you can't re-license them under another creative commons license [...]"

Do you mean if I integrate CC0 assets (as-is or modified by me) in something else, I can't apply any other license on the resulting work? I don't mean to remove the rights of others to use the original CC0 assets of course.

As an example, if I create a mesh and apply a CC0 texture on it, what can I do or not with the resulting work?

[bryanredeagle@beige.party]

@youen CC0 means public domain. No one has the rights to control it or give it a new license. If you create a mesh that uses a CC0 texture, then the mesh is under your copyright, but the texture is not. You would not be able to stop someone from using that texture in your game or anyone else's game. You would need to change it enough to make it a new work (of which there are no hard guidelines of how much to change).

[bryanredeagle@beige.party]

@youen I peeked at your profile. It gets even more complicated because the things I'm saying apply to the US. France is probably very similar, but there will be differences. Like, what is considered in the public domain. Because some things expire into public domain (each country has different rules), and others are put there on purpose (like SQLite).

[youen@mastodon.gamedev.place]

@bryanredeagle I feel that we agree on the principle (CC0 assets are public domain, and I don't want or could restrict others to use them).

I want to put my work on another license (like CC-BY-SA) but also use CC0 assets in that work. Is that even possible on a practical stand point?

Things are quickly going to be mixed up and intertwined. I may patchwork texture bits in the same image, aggregate assets in single pack files for performance, etc. How to specify what falls under which license?

[youen@mastodon.gamedev.place]

@bryanredeagle according to these charts, I would believe that it's allowed to remix CC0 and CC-BY-SA-NC works. And then to license the result under CC-BY-SA-NC (which they call "adapter's license"). Unless I don't understand what this all means?

Actually, I think only the second chart matters in this specific case (I'm remixing CC0 and my own work, and wish to publish the result under CC-BY-SA-NC)

(source: https://creativecommons.org/faq/#can-i-combine-material-under-different-creative-commons-licenses-in-my-work)

[youen@mastodon.gamedev.place]

@oblomov indeed, I didn't think about this case, but it would be quite limiting, and not my intent at all.

Why do legal stuff always end up being inextricable 😅

[aeva@mastodon.gamedev.place]

@youen if the game becomes popular, you will get scammers doing stuff like that, and it is a valid concern

[oblomov@sociale.network]

@youen I discovered this particular aspect while discussing licensing of assets with Luanti developers. It would have never occurred to me.

[youen@mastodon.gamedev.place]

@aeva not very reassuring 😉 but I suppose you're right. And of course none of this matters if the game *doesn't* become popular (in which case, and if I could know beforehand, I wouldn't be scratching my head 😅)