Licensing
by Shon Gale · in Torque Game Engine · 01/29/2006 (12:31 pm) · 4 replies
Just read the license agreement carefully. By my understanding a good number of us on the forums are breaking the agreements. If we have a two man team we have to have 2 licenses. Something we misunderstood.
www.garagegames.com/pg/product/eula.php?id=1
from the license page itself. It looks like we have to buy another copy of everything for us to continue our work. I don't believe in breaking the law, but we were under the impression that we could have a single license for each team and the restriction was to only have one programmer for the source code on that team. Having to buy a separate license for every artist, modeller and level designer can get restrictive in cost for an indie. We just figured this out and are a little freaked, we see a whole years worth of work going down the drain, all of our .dif and .dts work along with the special Torque only scripting.
I personally own 6 Torque products at a total cost of $410.00, my artist associate owns some others at a cost of $150.00 so according to the agreement we will have to spend another $560.00 to be able to legally work together, even though I am the programmer and my associate is the artist.
So as a company we are breaking the license? We are beginning to find this to be very restrictive. How does this relate to all of the people on the forum trading source code and art to each other. ARE we breaking the agreement?
How does this work together? This is where we got the assumption of one programmer for the license. To me this is a contradiction to the above and confuses the hell out of me. What about people that donate art work or other resources to our project. Do they need all our licenses?
If this is so we are out of business before we even start. How can we put together a prototype game and have it ready to distribute as indies? Isn't the idea to promote and create INDIE Teams and Companies? We need help on this subject because we love this community but are too poor to buy more licenses right now. We can afford to buy a commercial license only after we are a commercial reality with cash flow. I know we can't afford the $1000.00 for a commercial license yet, but had planned too once we decided we were a commercial company and we decided to follow the Garage Games guidelines on this.
Which we understand according to the above to be one (1) programmer. We want too work with this community and our only desire is to create badarse games.
We are pretty sure that this will all work out and have the confidence that this wasn't GG's intention to create a restrictive licensing agreement, and that they intend to help blossom creativity with those who have so much to give and share.
Shon Gale
Maylock Stanbury AKA DeathTwister
www.theatomizer.com
Quote:2. LICENSE GRANT.
Licensor grants Licensee a single seat to an individual, a limited non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use the Torque Game Engine (Engine) for the purposes of making source code and object code for an unlimited number of electronic single or multi-user Games ("Games").
www.garagegames.com/pg/product/eula.php?id=1
from the license page itself. It looks like we have to buy another copy of everything for us to continue our work. I don't believe in breaking the law, but we were under the impression that we could have a single license for each team and the restriction was to only have one programmer for the source code on that team. Having to buy a separate license for every artist, modeller and level designer can get restrictive in cost for an indie. We just figured this out and are a little freaked, we see a whole years worth of work going down the drain, all of our .dif and .dts work along with the special Torque only scripting.
I personally own 6 Torque products at a total cost of $410.00, my artist associate owns some others at a cost of $150.00 so according to the agreement we will have to spend another $560.00 to be able to legally work together, even though I am the programmer and my associate is the artist.
Quote:3. RESTRICTIONS.
The following restrictions apply to the use of this Engine:
(a) This license is granted to individuals only, and cannot be owned by corporate or business entities.
So as a company we are breaking the license? We are beginning to find this to be very restrictive. How does this relate to all of the people on the forum trading source code and art to each other. ARE we breaking the agreement?
Quote:4. FEES.
(a) The TGE Indie Game License fee for the Engine is $100 per each programmer using or accessing the source code to the Game(s) There are no additional royalties. Licensee does not have to show the Games or publish the Games with GarageGames.
How does this work together? This is where we got the assumption of one programmer for the license. To me this is a contradiction to the above and confuses the hell out of me. What about people that donate art work or other resources to our project. Do they need all our licenses?
If this is so we are out of business before we even start. How can we put together a prototype game and have it ready to distribute as indies? Isn't the idea to promote and create INDIE Teams and Companies? We need help on this subject because we love this community but are too poor to buy more licenses right now. We can afford to buy a commercial license only after we are a commercial reality with cash flow. I know we can't afford the $1000.00 for a commercial license yet, but had planned too once we decided we were a commercial company and we decided to follow the Garage Games guidelines on this.
Quote:(b) Licensee may not use the Indie License if the annual revenue of the Company employing, partnering, or affiliated in any way with the Licensee is greater than $250,000 annually. Companies that grow to greater than $250,000 annually must upgrade to the Torque Commercial Product License for each seat of the Torque.
Which we understand according to the above to be one (1) programmer. We want too work with this community and our only desire is to create badarse games.
We are pretty sure that this will all work out and have the confidence that this wasn't GG's intention to create a restrictive licensing agreement, and that they intend to help blossom creativity with those who have so much to give and share.
Shon Gale
Maylock Stanbury AKA DeathTwister
www.theatomizer.com
About the author
#2
Thanks from Shon
01/30/2006 (10:21 am)
Thanks Niko, I think we need some real GG employee input on this one. Because the way I have been hearing it in some of the provate forums we are breaking the agreement.Thanks from Shon
#3
That's why sharing of account logins is not appropriate--it gives those that don't have a license access to places where source code is available.
Artists, scripters, etc. do not require licenses, unless they require access to the private forums.
01/30/2006 (10:52 am)
The above is correct, but if you want your artist to have access to the private forums (where source code can be available) then they must have their own license.That's why sharing of account logins is not appropriate--it gives those that don't have a license access to places where source code is available.
Artists, scripters, etc. do not require licenses, unless they require access to the private forums.
Torque Owner N
If you are affiliated with or working for a company that makes over 250,000 anually, or you make over 250,000 anually, you must upgrade.
Hope that clears it up a bit.