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DoubleSh0t
Basic Member
Joined: 18 Jun 2005
Location: Pennsylvania |
0.  Posted: Sun Jun 19, 2005 5:12 pm Post subject: Licensing Issues |
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| My friend and I want to start a DDR machine using StepMania. What possible licensing issues would we run into with Konami, artists of the songs, StepMania, Colbalt Flux (we want to use their dance pads), etc etc? Would it even be worth attempting, or would we have to deal with a lot of red tape? |
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AMxJM
Trick Member
Joined: 01 Dec 2004
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| 1. Posted: Sun Jun 19, 2005 8:14 pm Post subject: |
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I don't really know about most of that stuff, but...
| StepMania's COPYING.txt file wrote: | Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a
copy of this software and associated documentation files (the
"Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including
without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish,
distribute, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to
whom the Software is furnished to do so, provided that the above
copyright notice(s) and this permission notice appear in all copies of
the Software and that both the above copyright notice(s) and this
permission notice appear in supporting documentation. |
Basically, there's no red tape with StepMania, at least. Though, if this is just a personal machine for you and your friends, I wouldn't worry about the rest of it much. You know, fly under the radar and all that.
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darkchao56
Trick Member
Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Location: Westminster, MD |
| 2. Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2005 8:55 am Post subject: |
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It totally depends man,
If its for private use, its no diffrent than playing stepmania on a computer.
I have an old 3rd mix cabinate that I modified (ooh konami gonna sue me too O_o) with the J-PAC, and It runs Stepmania with all of the avalible mixes. I have a coin acceptor in it for when I have torunaments, and its perfectly legal. (The modification of the cabinate law is for commercial use only).
If your going to stick it in an arcade, Id worry about some konami rep coming in (although its highly unlikley unless your in Japan) and sueing you.
Go for it 
Its fun to build up SM Games!
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DoubleSh0t
Basic Member
Joined: 18 Jun 2005
Location: Pennsylvania |
| 3. Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2005 3:26 pm Post subject: |
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| Yeah, we were thinking about putting it in an arcade. I assumed it was illegal, but I was hoping there might be away around it. Thanks for the help. |
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Pop'n Usagi!
Trick Member
Joined: 17 Nov 2002
Location: Your mum |
| 4. Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2005 5:02 am Post subject: |
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If you're making it for private use (i.e you and your friends in your garage) there are no legal implications whatsoever. However, if you want to charge for it, even Stepmania will be able to take you to court. It's free software, so obviously you can't charge people to use it. As long as you don't start advertising it around your town, you should be safe. DDRUK's DDX Stepmania machine was only forcibly removed after they started holding competitions and stuff on it, showing all over their site that it's a DDR cabinet replaced with stepmania.
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[quote:8b1ee61c71="rampage in oct '04"]
I'm sure if it was sold for profit, Konami would clamp down on it (I'm sure it's a matter of time before they clamp down on ITG).[/quote]
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Cutriss
Staff Member
Joined: 24 Jan 2002
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| 5. Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2005 5:59 am Post subject: |
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| Pop'n Usagi! wrote: | | It's free software, so obviously you can't charge people to use it. |
You don't know much about Linux, do you? Linux is free, so why can I go buy a copy of -insertDistributionHere- Linux at Office Depot for $50?
You can charge for free software, dependent on the license provided with the software. Even if the license forbids resale, there's nothing stopping you from providing the software and then selling "installation services". Boxed Linux distributions are sold at a price that includes printed manuals, pressed CDs (since the free version is download-only, or get-it-from-a-friend), usually paid technical support, and often a bunch of other enhancements and extras.
Free software licenses aren't just meant to protect the interests of the creators - they're also designed to protect the interests of the users.
Your real concern isn't Stepmania - it's making money using copyrighted content that you don't legally own a business license for. For example, taking money for people to play Amish Paradise in Stepmania without remitting payment to Scotty Bros. or Weird Al Yankovic.
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Sentient Mode is capable... |
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AMxJM
Trick Member
Joined: 01 Dec 2004
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| 6. Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2005 11:48 am Post subject: |
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| Pop'n Usagi! wrote: | | However, if you want to charge for it, even Stepmania will be able to take you to court. |
Allow me to repeat myself.
| StepMania's COPYING.txt file wrote: | Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a
copy of this software and associated documentation files (the
"Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including
without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish,
distribute, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to
whom the Software is furnished to do so, provided that the above
copyright notice(s) and this permission notice appear in all copies of
the Software and that both the above copyright notice(s) and this
permission notice appear in supporting documentation. |
So, yeah, you can sell (i.e. charge for) a game running off of Stepmania so long as you include all the copyright and permission notices required. It's all the music in your mix that's the problem with that, though. Of course, if you can produce your own songs, you don't have to worry about that. 
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DoubleSh0t
Basic Member
Joined: 18 Jun 2005
Location: Pennsylvania |
| 7. Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2005 8:47 pm Post subject: |
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| Thanks for the helpful responses. So much for me becoming a millionaire off of DDR, eh? I'll still plan on doing a "machine" for private use amongst friends and stuff, so that's pretty cool atleast. |
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