Licensing

First of all, thank you SOOOO much for making TweenLite! It is the easiest and most powerful programming tool I’ve ever used (and I’ve used the Ruby language).

So, let me see if I have this right…

If I make a game that uses TweenLite, and sell said game to Company B for a one-time fee, and Company B hosts said game on a site that does not charge end users to play it, I don’t need a license?

BTW, I fully intend to get a Club Greensock membership (“Business Green” or otherwise, as needed) as soon as I’m sure I can make money making Flash content.

Good question, Amos. Yes, you got it exactly right – if you charge company B a one-time development fee for your game and they share it publicly, not charging end users any fees, you do NOT need the special license that comes with a “Business Green” Club GreenSock membership. This is how most commercial projects happen and the standard “no charge” license covers it. If, however, you or company B were going to charge multiple end users an access/usage/license fee for the game, you’d need to get a “Business Green” membership. Thanks for asking.

Thank you so much for TweenLite – it’s very useful and fast!

I have a question about the license: do I need to buy a “Business Green” Club GreenSock membership if I use TweenLite to make an advertisement for my commercial website which is freely accessible to anyone? Some people will purchase things on the website, so I wasn’t sure if it requires the special license (You mentioned that if multiple end users are charged a fee, I need the license).

Ricky, as long as the product/application for which multiple end users pay doesn’t directly use the GreenSock code, you do NOT need the special commercial license. So, for example, if you build a web site for a shoe company and the web site uses GreenSock code and customers can purchase shoes on the web site, that’s fine because the product/service/application they’re purchasing (shoes in this case) doesn’t use GreenSock code. If, however, you were using GreenSock code in a game that users must pay for (either to play at all or to access certain features of), you WOULD need the special commercial license that comes with a “Business Green” Club GreenSock membership.

Hey, following on from the answer to Ricky…

If I were to create a website that:
1) Uses Greensock software to render data (say images).
2) The website is free to browse and display these images.
3) A subscription fee applies on the website to, say, view other premium content (such as videos/music) that doesn’t explicitly use any GreenSock code above what is available freely.

Would I need a license in this case?

bintal, if absolutely no part of the “premium content” section of your site uses any GreenSock code, you wouldn’t need the special license that comes with a “Business Green” Club GreenSock membership. Thanks for asking.

I am an independent contractor and am usually the sole flash developer on my projects. I am thinking of getting the business license so that I can use your libraries for the types of jobs the license covers. My question is this:

I would only purchase the single developer license, naturally. What if a client to whom I am delivering code for a project that falls under the constraints of the commercial license sometime in the future goes with a different developer or developers, but continues to use your libraries in the project without their own valid license? Who is responsible for holding the license at that point? The client and the new developers may not be aware that they need to have a license. Would this in anyway be a legal issue for me as the original developer and license holder?

John, you’re obviously a very conscientious developer which I really appreciate. Let me get straight to the answer:

All of your Work Products that are created and sold while your “Business Green” membership is active are covered by the special license. However, if your client takes your Work Product and redevelops it, making substantive changes and starts selling it or charging multiple customers access/usage fees for the new/enhanced product, they’d need to get a membership of their own because they’d be doing development work that leverages GreenSock code outside the scope of the product you created for them.

In terms of liability, your responsibility in that scenario is to communicate the licensing terms to them (tell them what’s out-of-bounds), that’s it. I certainly don’t expect you to control them. They’re responsible for their own choices.

TweenLite is just amazing, and so easy to use. Thanks.

I’m making a sound library that depends on TimelineMax for timing events, and planning to release it as open source on Google Code.

I understand under Point 10 above, that Greensock files cannot be included, but what about the compiled .swc file? Can my open source library include only the greensock .swc and still abide by Greensock’s license agreement?

Thanks.

Cardin, it would be an honor to have you use TimelineMax in your library. Absolutely, please do. The challenge with using it in a project that’s hosted on Google Code, however, is that I believe it would violate Google’s terms of use due to the fact that they require that everything hosted there be licensed a particular way (mentioned above as you pointed out). Plus doing so could mislead users. You’d just need to make sure that end users are made aware of the terms of use for the GreenSock tools which are a subset of your project. It wouldn’t be okay for a massive company to come along and use your project as a way to circumvent GreenSock’s terms of use and decide to leverage GreenSock tools that they got from your project and employ them in a product that they resell for millions of dollars of profit to multiple customers, saying “hey, I got it off of Google Code and the page said it was completely open source and free”. That being said, 98%+ of the projects out there (including commercial projects) are covered under the standard “no charge” license, so it would be very rare that any of your users would need to get the “Business Green” Club GreenSock membership anyway.

As far as including the .swc instead of the source files in order to get around Google’s requirements, no, I don’t think that’ll do it. I doubt they’d see a licensing distinction between ActionScript files and .swc files, but you’d probably need to check with them about that. I don’t mind if you use the .swc as long as you make sure that the license and copyright info are clearly communicated to your end users. But it doesn’t look like Google Code will accommodate that sort of thing.

Good luck with your project. Please let me know if you need anything else.

Hi, would a company intending to earn ad revenue from adverts displayed in an application that used greensock code be liable for the licence?

Matt, advertisement revenue isn’t a factor – if the only fees paid are from advertisers for ad placements, that wouldn’t require the special license that comes with “Business Green” Club GreenSock memberships. Otherwise any site that displays a banner ad on the same screen as another swf that uses GreenSock code would need the license, but that’s not the case at all. Good question though.

I agree this is the best licensing model. Thanks so much for doing it this way. It’s open source, free to use and has a “share the profits” obligation to support the cause if it’s good enough (and clearly it is). Fits perfectly in our capitalistic-transforming-into-something-else-world! Have you gave any thought on making a minimalistic clause version of this license, giving it a name and trying to spread it around?

I’m curious, what license would a commercial free to play game featuring optional microtransactions fall under?

Thanks for asking, Raymond. Games that are free to play but offer optional micro transactions would indeed require the special commercial license that comes with “Business Green” memberships because multiple customers are charged a fee of some kind.

Hi, I’m just curios, for example I’m working on a company, then they gave me a project, for example to build a website or a presentation for our company’s client and at the same time I already have a “Business Green’ Membership. So can I use the plugin for the project even though it’s for my company’s client?

Yes, Berwyn, if your company has a “Business Green” membership, that commercial license covers all of your work (while the membership is active of course), even if your client is the one who uses or sells what you guys create. However, if your client changes the product/site/app/game you sold them in any way, it would no longer be covered – they would need to get their own license to cover that. Otherwise, it would allow huge companies to just hire a single freelance developer who has the commercial license, let them start a project and “buy” it from them, and then take over development and avoid needing to get their own license in the appropriate manner. Make sense? So basically the license covers your work as-is even if it’s sold by your client.