@Foyer8754 law speech for official documents just works very differently. than normal speaech. If you ask me as an artist providing art-assets for indiegames, I wrote my own wording in the FAQ on top of the legal part. However I let my licence write by a professional NY lawyer. Not only to be absolutely sure the wording is correct, but also that it will hold up in case of a lawsuit. That's why this document got so huge in the first place, it is not my fault, but a problem with the US copyright system which needed to be addressed even for someone like me operating from Austria. Like always there is a huge difference between official documents/ contracts compared to casual agreements, but former might at some point may potentially be important and then the agreement better is very clear and waterproof.
The problem with a licence like this never is the intented audience who buys the assets and uses them to make a game, but malicious actors.
The existence of this paragraph you put in is in there, that somebody is not just making a minimal change, e.g. changing a pixel or a color or does other minimal changes and reuploads it. And that is what is meant with "derivative work is owned by the artist". It's literally the law protection for me for circumventing this malicious practice and have an easy way to step down on this should it ever happen.
Also the changes to the licence so far have been little additions for clarifications and things like usage for NFT or AI which weren't foreseeable at the time i made the assetpacks. For both of those things very clear amendments have been made and also it needs to be worded like that, because how the legal system works in those cases. However there is a changelog at the bottom, which outlines all the changes ever made as well, which is required.
From the legal side I am afraid that those things need to be written the way they are, at least that's what my lawyer told me and he is the professional in the field. On the other hand if you buy assets from me you can be sure that everything from the ground up, like having a solid licence in place, was handled professionally. And that's reflected in the price.
If it's different with other creators selling things on itch.io, probably it's because they did not consult and pay a lawyer for setting up their terms, which also for you as a client can mean that potentially there are a lot of legal loopholes with getting those assets. The licence does not only retain some expected rights for me as a seller, but it also grants you very clear rights as a purchaser, which is as soon as games become a more professional endeavour and you sell them, of huge importance.
If you feel insecure about my assets, you can always check out some of the games which use them. Amongst others: Vampire Survivors, Symphony of War, Gestalt Steam & Cinder, Tiny Thor, Pathway, Alterium shift... Those are some bigger titles and I am happy to have provided assets from my packs for them.
Sure thing, no problem. The agreement has to be clear for both sides, that's why I provide Q&A on it. I don't want that anyone gets into agreements they wouldn't like to have. In the first place I want to provide help with graphics for people developing their games, that was always the core idea behind those assetpacks.
I added another clarification in the FAQ, directly at the first point:
"Please be mindful of this:
The licence is written in terms of law-speech in a way which prevents for obvious business reasons editing and reuploading of assets of the packs / my asset packs on different store fronts. However if you edit my assetpack art and use those edits within the confinements of your video game, which is the intended use for my assetpacks, I totally don’t mind this.
-- I hope that this now clears up any feelings of insecurity from your side with the licencing.
the licence is linked online and the same for all assets and shouldn't change, except probably clarification on certain points. Since it very well can be that specific questions get clarified in the FAQ (which can happen especially If I release something which is kinda new, e.g. with the controller button packs and/or template sets) and then I'd have to reupload all assetpacks with a new file which simply takes a ton of time whenever this case happens.
If you want to have the licence, just copy paste it and save it from the googledocs. Thanks for your understanding.
Thanks, this will be useful. I'm currently attempting to extend this by adding some 22.5 degree slopes, whilst they don't look anywhere near as good as your 45 degree slopes, using yours as a starting point is a massive help for a non pixel artist like myself :)
Hey Leftnoodle, I added the requested graphics to the set, since this seems like an useful addition.
If you have some time and want to help me out as well, please consider to rate the sets, since this helps discoverability on itch and hopefully leads to more possible additions down the road.
Awesome thank you very much, your 2:1 slopes are so much better than mine (not surprising!) really appreciate you adding these. No worries, I'll rate all of my purchases from your store. Take it easy!
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@Foyer8754 law speech for official documents just works very differently. than normal speaech. If you ask me as an artist providing art-assets for indiegames, I wrote my own wording in the FAQ on top of the legal part.
However I let my licence write by a professional NY lawyer. Not only to be absolutely sure the wording is correct, but also that it will hold up in case of a lawsuit. That's why this document got so huge in the first place, it is not my fault, but a problem with the US copyright system which needed to be addressed even for someone like me operating from Austria. Like always there is a huge difference between official documents/ contracts compared to casual agreements, but former might at some point may potentially be important and then the agreement better is very clear and waterproof.
The problem with a licence like this never is the intented audience who buys the assets and uses them to make a game, but malicious actors.
The existence of this paragraph you put in is in there, that somebody is not just making a minimal change, e.g. changing a pixel or a color or does other minimal changes and reuploads it. And that is what is meant with "derivative work is owned by the artist". It's literally the law protection for me for circumventing this malicious practice and have an easy way to step down on this should it ever happen.
Also the changes to the licence so far have been little additions for clarifications and things like usage for NFT or AI which weren't foreseeable at the time i made the assetpacks. For both of those things very clear amendments have been made and also it needs to be worded like that, because how the legal system works in those cases. However there is a changelog at the bottom, which outlines all the changes ever made as well, which is required.
From the legal side I am afraid that those things need to be written the way they are, at least that's what my lawyer told me and he is the professional in the field.
On the other hand if you buy assets from me you can be sure that everything from the ground up, like having a solid licence in place, was handled professionally. And that's reflected in the price.
If it's different with other creators selling things on itch.io, probably it's because they did not consult and pay a lawyer for setting up their terms, which also for you as a client can mean that potentially there are a lot of legal loopholes with getting those assets. The licence does not only retain some expected rights for me as a seller, but it also grants you very clear rights as a purchaser, which is as soon as games become a more professional endeavour and you sell them, of huge importance.
If you feel insecure about my assets, you can always check out some of the games which use them.
Amongst others: Vampire Survivors, Symphony of War, Gestalt Steam & Cinder, Tiny Thor, Pathway, Alterium shift...
Those are some bigger titles and I am happy to have provided assets from my packs for them.
Sure thing, no problem.
The agreement has to be clear for both sides, that's why I provide Q&A on it. I don't want that anyone gets into agreements they wouldn't like to have.
In the first place I want to provide help with graphics for people developing their games, that was always the core idea behind those assetpacks.
I added another clarification in the FAQ, directly at the first point:
"Please be mindful of this:
The licence is written in terms of law-speech in a way which prevents for obvious business reasons editing and reuploading of assets of the packs / my asset packs on different store fronts. However if you edit my assetpack art and use those edits within the confinements of your video game, which is the intended use for my assetpacks, I totally don’t mind this.
--
I hope that this now clears up any feelings of insecurity from your side with the licencing.
Please.
I am glad that I've been able to help you.
You should include a license file in the zip files.
the licence is linked online and the same for all assets and shouldn't change, except probably clarification on certain points.
Since it very well can be that specific questions get clarified in the FAQ (which can happen especially If I release something which is kinda new, e.g. with the controller button packs and/or template sets) and then I'd have to reupload all assetpacks with a new file which simply takes a ton of time whenever this case happens.
If you want to have the licence, just copy paste it and save it from the googledocs.
Thanks for your understanding.
Thanks, this will be useful. I'm currently attempting to extend this by adding some 22.5 degree slopes, whilst they don't look anywhere near as good as your 45 degree slopes, using yours as a starting point is a massive help for a non pixel artist like myself :)
Hey Leftnoodle,
I added the requested graphics to the set, since this seems like an useful addition.
If you have some time and want to help me out as well, please consider to rate the sets, since this helps discoverability on itch and hopefully leads to more possible additions down the road.
Have a great day =)
Awesome thank you very much, your 2:1 slopes are so much better than mine (not surprising!) really appreciate you adding these. No worries, I'll rate all of my purchases from your store. Take it easy!