Clarification on commercial vs. non-commercial

Hi guys. First off, our apologies: after some discussion with Lunarea, it has come to my attention that some clarification is needed regarded "commercial" vs. "non-commercial". Some resource developers may consider contest entries to be commercial games due to the potential monetary gain.

Ultimately, the contest cannot dictate what resource developers consider to be commercial and non-commercial projects. For example, if a programmer releases their scripts for non-commercial use, they could still deem a contest entry as commercial and forbid it from appearing in the game. We cannot interfere in that matter.

As we have said, it is up to you to obtain the permission and rights to use all assets. Even if we (the judges and contest runners) consider contest entries non-commercial, the resources creators may not, and we are not in the business of making such decisions for them. To avoid controversy, it is highly recommended that you obtain permission to use ANY assets in the contest that are not free for commercial use, because the asset creators might consider your contest entry to be commercial and this could cause friction later on.

This does not affect the RPG Maker DLC and RTP, which are free for both commercial and non-commercial use (as long as they're used in RPG Maker XP/VX/VX Ace/IG Maker/Manga Maker and you can legally use said software).

We will be updating the guidelines to clarify this matter.

IN SHORT: if a resource says it's free for only NON-commercial use, be sure to contact the creator to avoid controversy later on!

We also have to watch the Font choice because a lot of time we don't take in consideration the font we use in game and some of them require's to buy a licence for be able to use in commercial stuff

Should be standard practice, be it for contests or for money through advertisements or donations. Because if you don't they can probably claim a part of your prize afterwards at the very least. All the people who didn't attach proper&clear licenses to their 'free' stuff probably got overwhelmed with questions to use their assets :p .

Wouldn't this all depend on the legal definition of "commercial" rather than a resource maker's, though? I mean over here in Australia, a contest isn't considered a commercial enterprise. Prize money is considered to be hobby income, rather than legitimate self-employment. A "commercial" game would be one that is made for the explicit purpose of being sold.

If you did use something for the contest and someone got upset about it, they would technically be in the wrong, because something made for a contest is not legally a commercial product. There have been situations where people have entered competitions with Creative Commons stuff which is licensed for non-commercial use only, and those people will still within the legal limits of the license. If a resource maker says that something is free for non-commercial use, they can't change that definition whenever it suits them. The majority of the entries in this contest won't win any prize money at all -- that's as far from a commercial product as you can get. The games we're making aren't being sold. They'll all be released to play for free.

That said, if someone's resource became a massive selling point of your game (for example, I have someone who made music exclusively for my entry, and the soundtrack is a key factor in establishing the tone of the game), they should be more than entitled to a share of your prize money. It just shouldn't be based on "hey, I said this is non-commercial only, what gives?"

Creative Common is not always the same as "non-commercial". But it depends per country and per cc license and it is very complicated so you are best of asking first or risk sharing your prize money. Even a lawyer would have to spent quiet some time on that I'm sure.

I'm pretty sure that disputes like these would be under the legal jurisdiction of the resource artist anyway, so Australia's rules would only matter if the resource creator was from Australia as well.

But still, isn't a contest entry different from a commercial product in most jurisdictions? I'm still pretty sure for something to be commercial it has to a.) be available for sale somewhere and b.) turn a regular profit, not just a one-time payment of prize money.

I am, however, still making sure I have commercial rights to everything I'm using, just in case. Luckily most resource makers don't seem to care about the fact that the contest has a monetary prize, but I would be more than happy to share the prize if I win because of someone else's resources.

Here, I'm going to repost the most relevant bit of info from the other thread about this.

Just want to point out I only see it (when people use my tileset) as a commercial use if you win, because then you generate income using my resources, and that's commercial to me. But that's why I only require you to compensate me if you happen to win. Otherwise, just go on as normal.

That's a good attitude to have, Celianna. I don't personally consider my entry to be a commercial game, but tilesets are a large part of an RPG Maker game and the artists should have a right to be compensated for their work.

Yeah possibly if you win that's when they will go after you to get part of the money, so it will still be a better practice to simply tell them right away and ask for their permission just to avoid conflicts etc... :)

I took a look at this but that doesn't really answer the issues with "non-profit" and Donations. If you earn an income through donations, is that considered commercial? And even if the donations are small, there would be no point sharing that income. I don't believe donations is considered an "income" anyway since one month you could get £200, the next only £5.

What if you are selling other projects alongside the free video game that contains these resources? The video game will be downloaded and played by many, and there are other projects on your website being purchased and you generate an income from that. So this article is basically saying that the "free" video game is commercial, despite the fact that it is "free" and not being the source of income, because it isn't - it's free. I don't think the law nor the license does a good job at explaining that issue.

Let's say one person sells a game and only gets 200 in total sales. Let's say a second person doesn't sell his game but expects donations for the joy of playing it and gets 200 in total donations. How could one of those possibly be a commercial game and the other not, since they both made the same amount because of their game? Well, that's because they're not actually different, they're both commercial projects. Just because donations are variable and not required doesn't mean you aren't profiting from your game.


Now, this gets into some gray territory if you've got a situation where you've got a website that accepts donations but there are lots of other OK for commercial use products and services on your site. There's no way that you can prove that you aren't getting a donation because of your game, and there's also no way to know if it's totally because of that game. When things are legally gray like this it's best to avoid the situation entirely. When things go to court you'll lose even in the unlikely event that you win the case. Not worth it.


In the case of a game being distributed for free on the same site that other games are being sold, that's a different thing entirely. It's easy to prove that the money you're getting is entirely for the commercial games. No one is saying you can't do that.