Ehh... People, if you don't understand legal terms, why don't you listen to me - Business Management student(graduate in few months), 3D asset seller since few years - I've dealt with lot's of agreements and legal analysis, so I know what I'm saying and I say once again: it's not like they claim ownership of your game.
If you don't like the agreement terms, just don't put your product there, end of story.
itch.io might never answer, because it's so plain and easy, so maybe if you don't understand what you're signing up for, just don't it? If they do answer, I guarantee it will be just as I said.
This is not a personal offense towards anyone, but a general statement. Game dev is business.
And I'd reccomend to pack the files in game-engine archives, almost all engines have it, even Ren'Py. And reverse-engineering usually is not allowed by default, so even if they'd like to, they simply won't have access to source files.
Let's take a look and compare:
Unity Asset Store - the biggest asset marketplace -
https://unity3d.com/legal/as_provider - paragraph 6.1
Unreal Marketplace - also known asset shop -
https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/mark ... -agreement - paragraph 1, a&b
I can point a few more, but it's pointless, all are the same or very similar. Does anyone complains? Not really.
OK, let's do legal interpretation, so you guys could understand it and end it once for all. Source:
https://itch.io/docs/legal/terms - paragraph 4.
Publishers are solely responsible for the content they upload and distribute on itch.io. Publishers affirm, represent, and warrant that they own or have the rights, licenses, permissions and consents necessary to publish, duplicate, and distribute the submitted content.
You MUST have all necessary rights to use what you created - from engine to tiniest music or image piece. If license of it does not allow it - well, don't use it?
By submitting content to the Service for distribution, Publishers also grant a license to the Company for all patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights in and to the Content for publication on the Service, pursuant to this Agreement.
for publication on the Service - this is the important, self-explaining part. So they won't use files in any other way than to publish and promote. It just covers you that if they use copyrighted content, you're to blame, not them.
The Company does not endorse copyright infringing activities or other intellectual property infringing activities and violations of may result in the removal of content if the Company is notified of such violations. Removal and termination of accounts may occur without prior notice.
If you use something you don't have license or copyrights (rights to use), you will be removed - that's rather obvious, break the law and you're out.
AND HERE'S THE MOST IMPORTANT PART:
Publishers retain all ownership rights to the submitted content, and by submitting content to the Service, Publishers hereby grant the following:
Publishers retain all ownsership rights - Do I really have to explain it? They're not taking your hard work.
To the Company, a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform the content in connection with the Service, including without limitation for promoting, redistributing in any and all media formats. If you choose to remove your content from the Service, this license shall terminate within a commercially reasonable time after you remove your content from the Service.
OK, let's go step by step with this what each word means:
worldwide - no country limiatations
non-exclusive - you're free to distribute game on any other store
royalty-free - they don't pay you FOR JUST being there over time, it's way different than revenue royalty, don't mix those up
sublicensable - they can do a smaller
license for others (end users) - usually like "just play, don't resell it" in very summed up version
transferable - the can transfer this
license further (end users)
[...]license to:
reproduce - those are digital files, they need to be copied in order for customer to have them
distribute - well, that's why the platform exists, right?
prepare derivative works of - ok, this is where most of you go scared, but in reality it means like archiving it in some wrapper or other things that allows it to function within the store. And we need to differentiate "derviate work" of game and single asset. Of course, if license says you can't modify the song, you don't do it.
perform the content - just a legal word of "use and public display"
including without limitation for promoting, redistributing in any and all media formats
They can take your *.png and convert it *.jpg and crop it to fit their templates to show on the site. We want our work to be visible, after all.
The same goes with lower part, what Users can:
perpetual license - they can use it whenever they want, without time limitations
the rest is similar but take a look at this part
as permitted through the functionality of the Service
so users can't resell the work or do anything like that.
Uff... There, you have it.
You can also take a look at paragraphs 11, 12 and 16 - they are just to cover them in case there's any issue.
Everything is there to not have to deal with stuff like this:
https://www.solidsmack.com/cad-design-n ... r-designs/ ; they can't check every single game, so by accepting the agreement, you, personally, confirm that what you're doing is legal.
