Copyright free definition?

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Ayanosan
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Copyright free definition?

#1 Post by Ayanosan »

Hey, I'm new to the forum and as follows and being as though I wanted a short resume for being a great visual novel creator. I went to go and purchase some copyright free assets, and than the thought crossed my mind, can copyright free assets be used in comercial projects? I don't want to use them and then later be sued or my game has to be taken down. The assets are on dlsite and are from BUBU-K, need a link and I'll post it. I hope my money hasn't been wasted, well it wouldn't have been wasted I'll ptobably use it for a free game but I want to use them for a commercial project. Thanks you!

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PyTom
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Re: Copyright free definition?

#2 Post by PyTom »

Do you mean royalty-free rather than "copyright free"? The former is a thing. The latter is usually called "public domain".

For royalty-free work, there should be a license associated with them, and you need to read it. The point of royalty-free is that you can use it, but you might need to archive it for distribution or something like that.
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Ayanosan
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Re: Copyright free definition?

#3 Post by Ayanosan »

Oh thank you that was very helpful, I'll go read it and see what it says. I think it was royalty free maybe I'll go see anyway!

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Re: Copyright free definition?

#4 Post by Mammon »

If you see a CC label somewhere, that usually defines whether the creator is okay with their work being used in commercial projects or not. I don't know if the things you want to use have such a Creative Common label but if they do then that's an easy answer.
ImageImageImage

Want some CC sprites?

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LateWhiteRabbit
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Re: Copyright free definition?

#5 Post by LateWhiteRabbit »

Mammon wrote:If you see a CC label somewhere, that usually defines whether the creator is okay with their work being used in commercial projects or not. I don't know if the things you want to use have such a Creative Common label but if they do then that's an easy answer.
You need to be careful with the Creative Commons label. There are different types of requirements associated with each one. Some do not allow commercial use, some require that you attribute the work to the original creator, some don't allow modification, some require you to include the work or asset in a shareable form.

There have also been a few cases where the person putting something out under the Creative Commons license did not have all the rights to do so. So just be extra careful and do a lot of homework if you decide to use Creative Commons assets.
Last edited by LateWhiteRabbit on Fri Jun 16, 2017 12:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Copyright free definition?

#6 Post by Ayanosan »

Thanks everyone, in the end it is allowed to be used commercially as long as I credit. I had to go to the english part of the website to figure that out, so now that I've got the character's I better get to work on a Visual novel!

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Re: Copyright free definition?

#7 Post by papillon »

PyTom wrote:Do you mean royalty-free rather than "copyright free"? The former is a thing. The latter is usually called "public domain".
Japanese works are often listed as "copyright free" when they mean something more along the lines of royalty-free or CC. Not sure if it's a mistranslation into english or if they use the english loanwords in japanese with a slightly different meaning in the first place.

They do usually explain the specific license terms somewhere though.

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