Hey all, I want to gather the opinions of the asset creators and artists here regarding writing out a license for our free-to-play (entirely) SDK mod that will be published through Steam. I'm a member of the team working on
P4SS, a Sourcemod using the newly-released TF2 SDK made for 4v4 PASS Time. It's currently my responsibility to speak with our custom mappers to find out what it's going to take to secure the ability for us to legally publish our "in-rotation" custom maps (which use third-party custom assets, including many shared here on TF2Maps) directly alongside the mod.
I've acquired permission for these mappers to include the assets packed, and have even been granted the ability to publish a pack of assets directly with the mod as default game assets by one artist. However, some artists brought up very valid worries that gray areas created by publishing these maps (and especially just these assets directly) alongside the mod could open loopholes for mappers in TF2 to abuse the licensing and be able to use these assets in TF2 Workshop maps without credit or compensation to the artists.
With that in mind, I'm asking for feedback on our WIP assets licensing agreement so that, in the future, if we approach one of you to ask for your blessing to publish a map that uses your custom assets, you can breathe easier knowing that nobody plans on abusing your hard work.
Definitions
Mapper - Someone who creates a custom gameplay map made to be played on
The Mod - P4SS, the SDK mod made available through Steam for free
Pack - To include a custom game asset file within a particular map file that references it
Published Custom Map - A custom gameplay map licensed to and published directly alongside the mod
This mod contains a variety of custom-made assets, including particles, textures, materials, models, sounds, and maps.
Some are created by the internal mod development team, some are created by members of the PASS Time community, and
some are graciously licensed to the mappers and mod by TF2 community artists. These assets are only intended for use
in alignment with the following terms and conditions.
Assets created by the internal development team for the mod, and maps and custom assets created by PASS Time community
mappers published alongside the mod, are only intended for use within the mod unless otherwise stated. Some custom
maps are made available for download from other sources, such as TF2Maps.net, passtime.tf, and the 4v4 PASS Time Discord
guild. These decisions are made at the mapper's discretion and follow separate guidelines not detailed here.
A number of art assets included in published custom maps have been licensed to the mod/mapper by artists and asset
creators from the TF2Maps community. These assets, unless otherwise stated, are only intended for use within the maps
with which they're packed. These assets have been graciously licensed to the mod with the understanding that the mod
remain entirely free to download and play. In addition, this license does NOT grant users the ability to use these
assets in other games, mods, or projects. Mappers who create maps using these assets for Team Fortress 2 must still
acquire all the necessary licensing and permissions for these assets through their intended channels. This license does
NOT grant the ability to use these assets in a map published to the Steam Workshop for Team Fortress 2 or any other mod,
game, or project.
Some custom assets created by the TF2Maps community have been granted to the mod as assets to be officially included
with the mod. These assets are published directly within the mod's files, rather than individually per map. This
special allowance is intended first and foremost for published custom maps to utilize a single, central copy of the
assets, reducing the file size of the maps. However, this also grants special permission and access to mappers making
maps for the mod to use these assets in their maps. Access to these assets is only intended for maps made for the mod.
Maps that use this access CANNOT be published via channels not intended for use with the mod, unless standard
permissions have been granted by the asset creators to the mapper. Maps that use this access CANNOT be published to the
Team Fortress 2 Workshop.
The assets made available through this allowance include:
[Assets list excised until publication]
I've copied this over one-for-one from VSCode, so the slashes are unchanged, but you probably shouldn't ignore it. That's just to indicate to readers down the line to skip over it until there's actual Workshop support.
////////////////IGNORE THIS SECTION WITHIN THE SLASHES UNTIL WORKSHOP SUPPORT FOR THE MOD IS IMPLEMENTED////////////////
This mod contains Steam Workshop support. In addition to the terms for uploading content to the Steam Workshop laid out
by the Steam Subscriber agreement (6.B), users must also agree to the following terms to upload content to the Steam
Workshop.
The P4SS Workshop is intended only for custom maps. Custom maps made available through the Workshop that use
third-party custom assets, including assets from TF2Maps.net, must first acquire explicit permission from the artists
and asset creators to publish said custom assets within a map intended for a custom SDK mod. In addition, mappers must
appropriately credit creators and artists of used custom assets through the intended tools available during Workshop
upload.
Maps made available through the P4SS workshop are NOT intended for use in other games, mods, or projects, and
custom assets packed with maps do NOT grant license to use them in other games, mods, or projects; this includes the
Team Fortress 2 Workshop.
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