Questions about Defold License

[Asatte]

Hello everyone, I make informative videos on Defold from time to time and I will make a video on its license eventually. So, I have a bunch of questions which I hope can be answered by Defold foundation. I know Defold is free forever but I see many people worrying about not being completely open source online.

Here are my question:

1- The Defold License is based on Apache 2.0 but not fully OSI/FSF open source.

• Could the Defold Foundation ever decide to change the license terms for future versions of the engine? (Not asking if you would do it but asking if is it legally possible)

• If that (could) happened, would older versions still remain usable under the existing free license

2- Are there any conditions under which developers might lose their rights to use or distribute the engine under the current license? (Immoral, racist etc. games)

3- “You may not sell, rent, lease, or otherwise commercialize the Defold Software as a Game Engine Product.” is seems to worry people a lot as I have seen this being discussed online. They call it vague. Would a game with custom maps, characters etc. be considered as Game Engine Product?

There are some Godot based engines (like Action Game Maker), would such engine allowed with Defold? If yes, would it be paying loyalty?

4- Why not have a complete open source license? What would Defold lose from it?

I would love to get answers from the foundation so when I inform people about Defold, I can give correct answers.

Note that I am not doubting Defold (if I did, I would not pour effort in making it more accessible) but I still want to learn how much can the engine can limit the users.

Thank you

[britzl]

@Asatte

Could the Defold Foundation ever decide to change the license terms for future versions of the engine? (Not asking if you would do it but asking if is it legally possible)

Yes, we can change the license, but according to the objectives of the foundation we can not change the license to one where it is allowed to sell the source code or the build results (ie editor, engine, tools).

@Asatte

If that (could) happened, would older versions still remain usable under the existing free license

It is my understanding that versions of the code up to the time when the change of license takes place keeps the old license. More information here: The Legal Side of Open Source | Open Source Guides

@Asatte

Are there any conditions under which developers might lose their rights to use or distribute the engine under the current license? (Immoral, racist etc. games)

The second paragraph of the Defold License grants an irrevocable license. I do not see anything in the Apache/Defold license about revoking the license.

In addition to this we have Terms & Conditions for use of our website, services and software. The Terms list additional conditions for using the services we provide. We have basic analytics in the editor and on the website for instance. By using the services you agree to us collecting anonymous data about use of our software and services. In section two we discuss User Conduct where users agree to not use our website or services “to harm anyone or to cause offense to or harass any person”. This gives us the right to ban users from our forum for instance, and we could in the future add mechanisms to prevent illegal use of the build servers we currently provide for free (this does however not prevent someone from using their own build server).

@Asatte

They call it vague. Would a game with custom maps, characters etc. be considered as Game Engine Product?

No. That is not the intent of the license, moddable games are not the target. The purpose is solely to prevent someone from taking the Defold source code and sell it as a game engine product. The term “Game Engine Product” is defined as:

“Game Engine Product” shall mean software used for video game development. This includes both the content authoring software and the software used to show the created content.

@Asatte

There are some Godot based engines (like Action Game Maker), would such engine allowed with Defold? If yes, would it be paying loyalty?

Action Game Maker is built on top of Godot source code isn’t it? If someone created a Defold Action Game Maker built on top of the Defold source code that would be considered Derivative Work. This in itself is not a problem and you are free to redistribute Defold Action Game Maker as long as you include the copyright notice, license text etc. But the moment you start selling copies you’d be violating the terms of the Defold license, specifically what is stated in paragraph 4, Redistribution:

4. Redistribution. You may reproduce and distribute copies of the Work or Derivative Works thereof in any medium, with or without modifications, and in Source or Object form, provided that You meet the following conditions:

a) You do not sell or otherwise commercialise the Work or Derivative Works as a Game Engine Product*

@Asatte

Why not have a complete open source license? What would Defold lose from it?

The founders of the Defold Foundation decided that one of the objectives of the foundation was to ensure that Defold would remain free and source available. They wanted to ensure that the software they had invested a lot of time and money in would remain free forever. And in order to guarantee this they decided to create a foundation instead of a corporation since the foundation laws in Sweden clearly state that the foundation objectives can not be changed for any reason.

I would personally have preferred a pure open source license such as MIT, but there is little point in dwelling on this anymore. We’ve been running the Defold Foundation for more than five years now and the fact that we are still around proves that it is possible to have sustainable operations despite the choice of license. Most users simply don’t care and in their eyes we are open source in all the ways that matter.

[Asatte]

Thank you for the detailed answers. This clears the confusion and I can use them to give better answers on the channel