Is there any way I can use BFW images in my games?

victormati · Post by **victormati** » December 6th, 2019, 3:19 pm

I am creating a game and would like to use some BFW images in it, like the initial image of the archer and generic soldiers, but I plan to sell this game on Steam, for example. How can I get this freedom? Will I have to hire the original artist?

Post by **Tad_Carlucci** » December 6th, 2019, 6:23 pm

See the Wesnoth Copyrights for details. Most likely, the answer is no, you can't sell the artwork. If selling is important to you, I'd suggest hiring an artist and commissioning original works under some license you and your artist can agree upon.

I say "most likely" because the vast majority of Wesnoth's artwork predates the change to CC-BY-SA (or other CC license for UMC) on 30 July 2017 and falls under the GPLv2.

Post by **Pentarctagon** » December 7th, 2019, 12:15 am

The GPL doesn't forbid anyone from selling works licensed under it.

Post by **Tad_Carlucci** » December 7th, 2019, 3:10 pm

True. But it would also require you to make the artwork and source code available for free so anyone can preproduce your game and give it away for free.

Post by **Pentarctagon** » December 7th, 2019, 6:39 pm

I don't think it would? For example:

Keep in mind that some programs, particularly video games, can have artwork/audio that is licensed separately from the underlying GPLed game.

Post by **Tad_Carlucci** » December 7th, 2019, 9:17 pm

You're right.

The specific question was for images.

The image may, or may not, be usable by your own software (or even other Wesnoth UMC). You may, or may not, be allowed to distribute the image to others. And you may, or may not, be allowed to charge for the game with the image.

The answer depends upon the date the image was uploaded to Wesnoth's servers; whether it is part of the Wesnoth package or available as a download as UMC; and the specific license chosen if the image was uploaded as UMC after 30 July 2017.

Post by **Pentarctagon** » December 7th, 2019, 10:01 pm

To clarify somewhat: All images in vanilla Wesnoth are usable by all UMC, and all images in UMC are usable by all other UMC (assuming they follow our add-on uploading guidelines).

Only UMC may have images licensed as CC NC (non-commercial use only) and-or ND (the original can't be modified).

Wussel · Post by **Wussel** » December 9th, 2019, 10:48 am

So the answer to the initial question seems to be YES.

CC-BY-SA 4.0 for mainline

BY requires you to give credits to the artists (or Wesnoth?) for each piece.
SA means you have to make the picture (only the used art) available under the same license. That seems to apply specifically if you somehow change the picture in any way since SA seems to be the weaker version of ND. But better make the art files readable in your game.

(no NC) You can earn money and
(no ND) you can change the art
(i.e. mirror it, rescale it, twist it, recolor it or paste it into a composition)

Some UMC use NC and ND. So no NC for you. ND might not be a problem for you. But you were only asking for standard mainline pictures anyway.

Good reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Commons

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