I'm sure if a super weird corner case actually comes up, we'll update or clarify the site rules. (We did so with the Wikipedia CC-BY-SA case).
A suggestion for content makers: if you're going to put a lot of effort into a derivative work, it's a good idea to contact the original artist to double check the license before you distribute (or, before you even begin the effort).
A rare few open game artists see CC licenses as a "here are my terms, now please don't bother me". But, by far, most artists enjoy hearing about interesting derivatives. Especially because those derivatives may be useful in our original projects too.
MedicineStorm is right. I've been a copyright mod here for a long time, and I can't recall many times where the license was correct but the intention of the original artist did not allow the content.
Here's one case.
Most popular video games have Wikipedia articles. Images on wikipedia must be a free license, often CC-BY-SA -- obviously this is important for an encyclopedia for sharing knowledge.
Someone new to the site started uploading sprites ripped from Wikipfedia articles, of commercial proprietary games. Technically, the letter of the license on Wikipedia would allow that. Do you think the owners of those games intended for their encyclopedia images to be ripped and freely reused in other games? Of course not. We took down that content.
Being technically on the right side of the law isn't going far enough for us. Just because we (or our site's users) might win a copyright lawsuit over such a technicality, why would we want to leave our users open to lawsuits in the first place?
The copyright mods here have a love for open licenses, and a duty to our users to know what we're doing.
Absolutely, and here's why: this site aims to be a 100% trustworthy source for art as far as licenses go.
If the original artist has a problem with your upload, they would also have a problem with everyone who downloads and uses it. If we let that happen, our users could no longer trust the licenses shown.
There are other places to host "free" art that is less strict about licenses. But OpenGameArt is the place to go when CC licenses matter.
Thanks for this awesomely detailed feedback! The contributors that work on the Flare android port will find this very useful.
I admit that when I started Flare, I only had Keyboard + Mouse gameplay in mind. These contributors have had a tricky task to make all of that work on mobile.
Is there art you want to use where GPL is the only license offered? If an upload here on OpenGameArt shows multiple licenses, you can accept the terms of any one license shown. You don't have to fulfill every license shown.
Usually GPL art comes from GPL games, and is safest to put into other GPL games. GPL is a code license, not an art license, so there aren't clear answers in other situations.
If you treat it similarly to CC-SA, you will probably be okay. If in doubt, especially if doing something commercial or on a large scale, ask the original artist.
You may want to include art sources (e.g. original textures, or gimp/blender files, or unmixed audio tracks) to get closer to the spirit of the GPL.
Well, that's some of the best pixel art grass ever made. It's hard to explain when they make it look so easy.
Read up the pixel art tutorial this came from: http://opengameart.org/content/chapter-8-a-world-of-tiles
Here's a slightly simpler grass/leaves tutorial in stages, it might help you get a grasp of what goes into it: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CjeXkAIWYAEjHs1.png
That's not allowed here. I'll mark that entry. Thanks for the heads-up.
I started with these textures: http://opengameart.org/content/commission-medieval
Then Justin Nichol did a paint-over of the diffuse texture.
I posted a look at each step here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/5815750
Nicely done! These look pretty great at 16x16
I'm sure if a super weird corner case actually comes up, we'll update or clarify the site rules. (We did so with the Wikipedia CC-BY-SA case).
A suggestion for content makers: if you're going to put a lot of effort into a derivative work, it's a good idea to contact the original artist to double check the license before you distribute (or, before you even begin the effort).
A rare few open game artists see CC licenses as a "here are my terms, now please don't bother me". But, by far, most artists enjoy hearing about interesting derivatives. Especially because those derivatives may be useful in our original projects too.
MedicineStorm is right. I've been a copyright mod here for a long time, and I can't recall many times where the license was correct but the intention of the original artist did not allow the content.
Here's one case.
Most popular video games have Wikipedia articles. Images on wikipedia must be a free license, often CC-BY-SA -- obviously this is important for an encyclopedia for sharing knowledge.
Someone new to the site started uploading sprites ripped from Wikipfedia articles, of commercial proprietary games. Technically, the letter of the license on Wikipedia would allow that. Do you think the owners of those games intended for their encyclopedia images to be ripped and freely reused in other games? Of course not. We took down that content.
Being technically on the right side of the law isn't going far enough for us. Just because we (or our site's users) might win a copyright lawsuit over such a technicality, why would we want to leave our users open to lawsuits in the first place?
The copyright mods here have a love for open licenses, and a duty to our users to know what we're doing.
> Who made that site? Certainly not men.
Now you're just a troll. Bullshit masculinity is not welcome.
> Goodbye OGA!
I'll go ahead and lock your account and remove your blog link so we don't send you more traffic.
Absolutely, and here's why: this site aims to be a 100% trustworthy source for art as far as licenses go.
If the original artist has a problem with your upload, they would also have a problem with everyone who downloads and uses it. If we let that happen, our users could no longer trust the licenses shown.
There are other places to host "free" art that is less strict about licenses. But OpenGameArt is the place to go when CC licenses matter.
Thanks for this awesomely detailed feedback! The contributors that work on the Flare android port will find this very useful.
I admit that when I started Flare, I only had Keyboard + Mouse gameplay in mind. These contributors have had a tricky task to make all of that work on mobile.
Is there art you want to use where GPL is the only license offered? If an upload here on OpenGameArt shows multiple licenses, you can accept the terms of any one license shown. You don't have to fulfill every license shown.
Usually GPL art comes from GPL games, and is safest to put into other GPL games. GPL is a code license, not an art license, so there aren't clear answers in other situations.
If you treat it similarly to CC-SA, you will probably be okay. If in doubt, especially if doing something commercial or on a large scale, ask the original artist.
You may want to include art sources (e.g. original textures, or gimp/blender files, or unmixed audio tracks) to get closer to the spirit of the GPL.
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