Making a commercial game with the Minetest engine

[LoseTheGame]

Hi,

Are there any conditions that would allow someone to make a game with Minetest and then sell that game or would that be against the licensing? For example, if it included "Minetest Engine" on the menu page or something along those lines?

Thanks,

Jonty

[Wuzzy]

Minetest is free software, which means (among other things) you can legally sell copies of Minetest, even modified ones. As long you follow the license.
According to README.txt, the conditions are written in the GNU Lesser General Public License, version 2.1 (or later, you can choose). You can find the license text here:
https://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licens ... .1.en.html

If you follow all conditions of the license, you are free to use, study, modify, share, share the modifications, distribute Minetest, even if you attach a fee to it. The usual copyright restrictions which come with non-free software are very much relaxed under LGPLv2.1.
Note that Minetest Game has a different license as far I know, but Minetest Game is free software, too.

PS: I am not a lawyer.

[LoseTheGame]

Thanks Wuzzy, I'll have a read through that information.

[Wuzzy]

Note that your OWN game/subgame which depends on Minetest is a complete different topic. I am not 100% sure what to say about this, so I better say notihing about this.

[LoseTheGame]

Ah okay, yes, I guess what I'm asking is whether it's possible to sell a mod?

[red-001]

Well you can sell a subgame, but for a mod it depends on the licenses of the mods it depends on.

[Wuzzy]

I get the feeling this thread is doing more harm than good …

[LoseTheGame]

Red-001, the mod would only depend on the default game mods, is it then important which of those it depends on?

Wuzzy, I totally understand where you're coming from, and it's amazing that there is so much free software out there, including Minetest, so let me clarify. I'm a maths teacher and have made two Minetest mods for learning maths that I have used successfully over the last two years at my school. I think Minetest has huge potential in this regard, but as a maths teacher in the UK I'm working 60+ hour weeks just to support my family, and it's taken me years of a few spare hours here and there to make some very crude mods. If I want to be able to dedicate more time to educational software, I have to be able to sell it to schools for at least a small amount of money or it's just impossible in terms of my family surviving. I want to be able to teach part-time and code educational software as a second job. I feel this would have much greater educational impact than me just teaching full-time for the rest of my life. I hope that makes sense but let me know if you can think of an alternative! :)

[Wuzzy]

No, you do NOT understand “where I am coming from”. I was only suggesting that you should not trust any legal advice given here.

[LoseTheGame]

Ah sorry Wuzzy, I clearly didn't understand. So what you're saying is that to be safe with selling anything I would need a lawyer? That may not be so easy, but I'll look into it... Thanks for giving good advice about this though.

[Wuzzy]

Okay, it's probably not THAT hard but you should also make research on your own, just to be sure. Hopefully someone more skilled appears in this thread.

[cHyper]

the main game is open source and the mods also, they belongs to the game. there is no comercial game yet.

[LoseTheGame]

Just to make this more complicated than it already is, what about charging access to a game server? My next projected is going to be a server with my own mods running (and the ones in the default game). If the server was password-protected and I was charging for access, is that still likely to run into issues?

[keyboard4238]

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer. Please don't sue me or take this as advice. I know next to nothing about law but I'm pretty good at making educated guesses based on Google searches lol ^^

I'm pretty sure the LGPL allows for dynamic (and only dynamic, no static) linking with proprietary code unlike the GPL, but I don't know about this particular use case and all of the requirements the LGPL describes. I don't know if a Minetest mod/subgame counts as dynamic linking, static linking, a derivative work, or a completely separate work, either.

Also, you can sell most open-source stuff, you just have to include the source code :)

[hrafn]

Please see the GNU Project's article on selling free software: https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/selling.en.html

As the Minetest engine is licensed under the LGPL, there is no problem with you selling a game that makes use of the engine, as long as you comply with the license conditions and do not infringe on any trademarks.

The LGPL is a copyleft license, so any software derived from LGPL-licensed code must be published under the LGPL, and source code made available on request (though unlike the GPL, you may link LGPL-licensed code with non-free/proprietary code, if you so wish).

Ah sorry Wuzzy, I clearly didn't understand. So what you're saying is that to be safe with selling anything I would need a lawyer? That may not be so easy, but I'll look into it... Thanks for giving good advice about this though.

Selling the software is not an issue. The LGPL simply requires that you make source code available when distributing derivative software.

Just to make this more complicated than it already is, what about charging access to a game server? My next projected is going to be a server with my own mods running (and the ones in the default game). If the server was password-protected and I was charging for access, is that still likely to run into issues?

Charging for access to your server is fine. A great many companies sell internet services which rely on free software on the back-end.

[LoseTheGame]

Thanks for all the help with this everyone. I think I'll focus on the server game for now, and will do a bit of my own research into the licenses when I get some free time.