• Overview
• Licenses
• Example: Massive Resource Mod
• Notes
• Versions
• As has been explained elsewhere (UESP Wiki: Licensing), there is a need for licenses in the modding community. Accordingly, I present here several informal licenses with suggestions for their use by modders. While these were designed with the Morrowind Modding community in mind, it is expected/hoped that they can be used more widely.
• Note that these "licenses" are informal and lack much of the usual structure of an most license (e.g., definitions, standard legal boilerplate about liability, etc.). So whether they qualify as good licenses, or even licenses at all is clearly a matter of debate. However, for my own work, I'm calling them licenses, and intend them to be viewed as such. At the very least, these "licenses" provide fairly clear statements of the author's intent – which from the community standpoint is usually the most important thing.
• Lastly, I am not a lawyer, nor am I presenting any legal advice here. (Yes, that's fairly standard legal boilerplate!)
• In this section is the text of a public domain statement. This can be applied to any creative work, and serves simply as an announcement that the work is in the public domain, i.e., that the author surrenders their rights regarding it.
• This work is in the public domain.
• In this section is the text of several licenses. The first two should be used for mods, while the remaining licenses are intended for artistic resources (meshes, images, animation files, sounds, etc.).
• If you use one of these licenses, do not change the text, unless you also remove the "WML 1.0" designator.
• It is intended that "WML 1.0 XXX" allow quick recognition of the license. Hence it would be confusing to apply to a license that did not fit the terms.
• "WML" stands for "Wrye Modding License".
• The bare resource license ("WML 1.0 Don't Modify (Resources)") does not allow redistribution. It is hoped that authors who use this will also use one of the living will licenses from the following section.
• You are free to redistribute, but not to modify this work.
• You are free to redistribute this work in unmodified form.
• You are free to modify and re-distribute this work, so long as you: 1) give the author(s) credit proportional to their contribution to the final work, 2) distribute the final work under the same terms, and 3) make artistic resources included with the final work available under the same terms as below.
• Artistic resources (meshes, textures, sounds, etc.) included with this work may be included in unmodified form with modified versions of this work, so long as their authors are given credit proportional to their contribution to the final work. Note that artistic resources may not be modified, or extracted from this work, unless permission is given elsewhere.
• You are free to include this work as a resource within another work, so long as you: 1) give the author(s) credit, and 2) make it clear to the recipients of the final work that this work may not be modified.
• You are free to redistribute, but not to modify this work.
• You are free to include this work as a resource within another work, so long as you: 1) give the author(s) credit, and 2) make it clear to the recipients of the final work that this work may not be modified.
• You are free to redistribute, but not to modify this work.
• You are free to include this work as a resource within another work, so long as you: 1) give the author(s) credit, 2) make it clear to the recipients of the final work that this work may not be modified, and 3) allow free redistribution of the final work.
• You are free to redistribute this work in unmodified form.
• You are free to include this work as a resource within another work, so long as you: 1) give the author(s) credit, and 2) make it clear to the recipients of the final work that this work may not be further modified except under the terms stated here.
• You are free to modify and re-distribute this work, so long as you: 1) give the author(s) credit proportional to their contribution to the final work, and 2) distribute the final work under the same terms.
• Some authors are willing to allow public redistribution and/or modification of their work only if they become unreachable (e.g., due to death or severe illness) or if they leave the modding scene. The following Living Will Licenses support this approach.
• Generally, you will use these licenses in place of a plain WML licenses, however, at times, it may make sense for both to be used. E.g., you might issue an artistic resource with a plain "WML 1.0 (Resource)" license and a "WML 1.0 Redistribute, but Don't Modify (Resource)" living will license.
• If you use one of these licenses, you may vary the unavailability period from up to two months, do not otherwise the text – unless you also remove the "WML 1.0" designator.
• In the place of XXX, you may use any of the plain WML 1.0 licenses except the "WML 1.0 (Resource)" license.
• I ask you to consider that instead of using a living will license, that you specify your desires in a "Courtesies" section. This is what I do for my own work.
• Note that this license does not allow the author to remove the work from distribution! If you wish to reserve that right, you'll have to use a non-WML license.
• If this work becomes publicly unavailable for a period of one month, or if the author publicly abandons this work, then the following freedoms are granted...
• [Full text of WML 1.0 XXX license.]
• In addition to the license, you may want to add a courtesies section. These are requests, not requirements. I use these to specify my preferred hosting site, and how I would like modifications to happen.
• For an example, see the next section.
• Here's the license and courtesies statement that I use for Wrye World...
• You are free to redistribute this work in unmodified form.
• You are free to modify and re-distribute this work, so long as you: 1) give the author credit proportional to their contribution to the final work, 2) distribute the final work under the same terms, and 3) make artistic resources included with the final work available under the same terms as below.
• Artistic resources (meshes, textures, sounds, etc.) included with this work may be included in unmodified form with modified versions of this work, so long as their authors are given credit proportional to their contribution to the final work. Note that artistic resources may not be modified, or extracted from this work, unless permission is given elsewhere.
• While the license above allows open distribution and modification, the following courtesies are requested...
• Please don't redistribute this mod unless it become unavailable from Wrye Morrowind.
• Before making/releasing a modified version of this mod, please check with me (Wrye at Elder Scrolls Forum). If I'm not available, check the community to see if someone else has taken over the job. If not, then feel free!
• Again, I strongly encourage the use of more open licenses, but here is an example of how a living will license might be applied to a massive resource mod...
• You are free to include this work as a resource within another work, so long as you: 1) give the author(s) credit, and 2) make it clear to the recipients of the final work that this work may not be modified.
• If this work becomes publicly unavailable for a period of one month, or if the author publicly abandons this work, then the following freedoms are granted...
• You are free to redistribute this work in unmodified form.
• You are free to include this work as a resource within another work, so long as you: 1) give the author(s) credit, and 2) make it clear to the recipients of the final work that this work may not be further modified except under the terms stated here.
• You are free to modify and re-distribute this work, so long as you: 1) give the author(s) credit proportional to their contribution to the final work, and 2) distribute the final work under the same terms.
• If the artistic resources for a mod are available under more generous licenses then the share alike license, then that can (but does not have to) be noted in the credits section of the readme for the share alike mod.
• The following works should be considered as resources:
• Meshes, textures, animation files, sounds, etc.
• Texture, sound, etc. replacers.
• Esps and esms that are just bare wrappers around resources.
• If a resource package does a mix and match of other resource packages (e.g., 25% from one resource package, 25% from another, 50% new work), then that is considered a modification of the original work.
• If a resource uses another resource, e.g. if a new mesh uses a texture from another resource package, then that is considered as a modification of the original work.
• If a work is modified under a share alike living will license, then the "living will" has already engaged, and so the resulting work cannot itself be under a living will license. I.e., it should be released under the terms of the corresponding plain (non-living will) license.
• (C) 2005, by Wrye
• Home page: Wrye Musings
• Best way to contact me is by PM to "Wrye" at the Elder Scrolls forum.