Question on licensing
Hello Polycounters,
Up till now, I've really only modeled as a hobby. I did some high poly subsurface modeling for fun while learning Blender and currently do all low poly work for an Android game I'm developing.
I had never planned on ever selling any of my work, but I was actually offered some money for a couple of models I did and posted on another forum. The question came in about what license they were currently under, and the answer is, unfortunately, none... as I know nothing about this part of the business.
How does one go about licensing and selling their work? Google has not been a friend so far...
All the best,
die Kröte
Up till now, I've really only modeled as a hobby. I did some high poly subsurface modeling for fun while learning Blender and currently do all low poly work for an Android game I'm developing.
I had never planned on ever selling any of my work, but I was actually offered some money for a couple of models I did and posted on another forum. The question came in about what license they were currently under, and the answer is, unfortunately, none... as I know nothing about this part of the business.
How does one go about licensing and selling their work? Google has not been a friend so far...
All the best,
die Kröte
Replies
Hey, this is actually a really good question to ask! I would perhaps get in contact with the developer of Blender and ask them perhaps directly? I know the way UDK works is that it is free to work with, but if you sell a game you have to give Epic a portion of the profits(it is very reasonable from what I heard)
But for the smaller game software, I would definitely get in touch with whoever makes it..just tell them who you are and show them your work, maybe they will like it so much they won't care. But chances are you may have to pay them something.
I think if you are just 'selling' models on a by model basis you probably don't need to do anything as most likely the models you will be giving them the MA or Studio max file/w tga's as necessary.
But good question! hope some more people comment so I know for myself!
EDIT: also- are you talking about models strictly in Blender, or models built in programs like Maya or 3ds max/ and then textured in Photoshop?
The license of the assets you create is entirely up to you and nothing to do with the blender foundation as it is only the actual source code and executable files that are under GPL and not anything created with it
So if you wanted to sell a model, then you are free to do as under any terms that you see fit.
The assets you create are automatically copyrighted to yourself (at least in the UK but im sure the USA has a similar law) unless you create the asset under contract for someone else, in which case you are being compensated by them to create the asset which would then belong to them. (depending on the contracts terms of course)
If you make an asset (say a model with textures) in your own time, you are free to sell it for as much or as little as you wish
Hope that helps
Basically with anything you make..you own the copyright. As long as, you know, you are not violating someone else copyright.
A license agreement is what you agree to provide to the licensee. Usually email correspondence pertaining to the work is binding legally. You can declare a work to be under a license like creative commons where it's open for use by just about everyone without many restrictions. Scary lawyers can write some complicated ones with many clauses and conditions.
So you communicate to them what they can and can't do with the work. If you sell them ownership of the work then they can decide what they want to do with it. The licensee needs to have sense enough not to assume they have any rights to the work not specifically communicated by you. Otherwise you will have grounds for an IP infringement lawsuit.