up:: [[Godot MOC]] tags:: #on/computing/gamedev #on/legal # Complying With Godot Licenses [This article](https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/about/complying_with_licenses.html#doc-complying-with-licenses) in the official documentation is a good summary of how to comply with the various licenses you'll interact with while making a game with Godot. Godot is distributed under the [permissive MIT license](https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/about/complying_with_licenses.html#doc-complying-with-licenses). In this case, the only requirement is to include the license text somewhere in your game or derivative project. The license text is shown below. > This game uses Godot Engine, available under the following license: > > Copyright (c) 2014-present Godot Engine contributors. Copyright (c) 2007-2014 Juan Linietsky, Ariel Manzur. > > 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, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions: > > The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software. > > THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE. > [!NOTE] Your Game's License > Your games do not need to be under the same license. You are free to release your Godot projects under any license and to create commercial games with the engine. > [!WARNING] Third-Party Licenses > Remember to list third-party notices in your project's credits screen for the assets you're using. These will be for things such as textures, models, sounds, music, and fonts. > > Free assets often come with licenses that require attribution. Double-check their license before using those assets in a project. ## Godot License Text Inclusion The license does not specify how it has to be included, so anything is valid as long as it can be displayed under some condition. These are the most common approaches (you only need to implement one): - Credits screen (can be at the bottom after showing the rest of the credits) - Licenses screen (special menu to display licenses) - Output log - Accompanying file - Printed manual - Link to the license ## Third-Party License Text Inclusion Godot itself contains software written by third parties. Most of it doesn't require license inclusion, but some does. If they are compiled in your Godot export template, then make sure to do it. If you are using the official export templates, then all libraries are enabled (meaning you need to provide attribution for all the libraries listed below). > [!NOTE] Disabled Modules > If you export your project using a custom build with specific modules disabled, you don't need to list the disabled modules' licenses in your exported project. Below is a list of the libraries requiring attribution. ### FreeType [FreeType](https://freetype.org/) is used to render fonts. The following text must be included together with the Godot license: > Portions of this software are copyright © \<year\> The FreeType Project (www.freetype.org). All rights reserved. Here, `<year>` should correspond to the value from the FreeType version used in your build. This info can be found by opening the **Help > About** dialog and going to the **Third-party Licenses** tab. ### ENet [Enet](http://enet.bespin.org/) is used to handle high-level multiplayer. The license text is as follows: > Copyright (c) 2002-2020 Lee Salzman > > 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, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions: > > The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software. > > THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE. ### mbed TLS Projects exported with Godot 3.1 or later include [mbed TLS](https://www.trustedfirmware.org/projects/mbed-tls/), which uses the Apache license. Include the following text: >Copyright The Mbed TLS Contributors > > Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at > > [http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0](http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0) > > Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License. ## Tips for Including License Text > [!TIP] Getting License Information > Godot provides several methods to get license information in the Engine singleton. This way you can source the info directly from the engine binary, which prevents it from becoming outdated if you update engine versions. > > For the engine itself, use [Engine.get_license_text](https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/classes/class_engine.html#class-engine-method-get-license-text) > > For third-party components used by the engine: > > - [Engine.get_license_info](https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/classes/class_engine.html#class-engine-method-get-license-info) > - [Engine.get_copyright_info](https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/classes/class_engine.html#class-engine-method-get-copyright-info) > > For miscellaneous engine contributor information (these aren't required): > > - [Engine.get_author_info](https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/classes/class_engine.html#class-engine-method-get-author-info) > - [Engine.get_donor_info](https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/classes/class_engine.html#class-engine-method-get-donor-info) ## References Juan Linietsky, Ariel Manzur, and Godot Community. “Complying With Licenses.” Accessed February 27, 2024. [https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/about/complying_with_licenses.html](https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/about/complying_with_licenses.html).