How to write good (preferably legally binding) license agreement ??

??????

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Hey there,

Recently I've been working on something 'big' and I hope to make a small amount of finance from the project. Anyway, I am now at the point of writing my 'terms of usage' or whatever you wish to call it and could really use some help.

Are there any (free) websites you guys know of that someone such as myself would be able to obtain some helpful information (or even better, some physical help with creation of said document) ?

Do you have any other thoughts on things that may help, or should be included within a 'license agreemet' ??

I'm completely at a loss here, so any and all help is appreciated. :'(
 

juggernaut

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This is nonspecific advice and not from experience of my own but there are free and paid sites where you can request legal advice from a professional. I thought these were probably all hokey or scams until my mother decided to try using one with her divorce/estate sort of issues. She might have ended up paying $100 during the process of logic-ing out her questions but from what I understand they did a very good job educating her on choices and what to 'do next'
 

??????

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Thanks for your thoughts :)

I knew there would be such sites, but im hoping to get just some genneral advice for free, and if I feel the advice was good and I required further help, then I wouldnt really mind shelling out a few bucks :D

Do you happen to know the site that your mother had used at the time?
 

abe109

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Can´t you just get a sample liscence agreement that is free of charge and work around it?
 

??????

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Its amazing how sometiems people cannot see the obvious :p

Yea, that kinda helps, gonna have a look through some of these sites :D
 

Clord

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Legally binding agreement means that both parties write their names on the contract. Verbal agreements need to be recoded etc.


It does little good to assume that other guy will follow the agreement if it is not properly made with signed names as it would probably not even proceed to court stage due even agreement fails to have such a basic detail in it.
 
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Kyuukon

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Nah, I've read plenty of "By using this software you're agreeing to..." and "Not knowing of this do not excuse you from..." so I believe you're pretty much safe nowadays.
 
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??????

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Well, I went and used the Futuristic tiles packs ReadME as a 'template' and altered things to suit my needs.

Also, if those kind of agreements don't mean jack, then Enterbrains EULA itself has the same viability ;)
 

Corlagon

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Nah, I've read plenty of "By using this software you're agreeing to..." and "Not knowing of this do not excuse you from..." so I believe you're pretty much safe nowadays.
Depends on context. In my country, for commercial software, EULAs are invalid if you cannot access them until after purchase (although companies include them anyway and people don't bother reading them).
 

Clord

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In my country our laws take priority over whatever EULA says.
 

??????

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In my country our laws take priority over whatever EULA says.
Thats interesting, which Country might this be?

And what is their law regarding like, copyrighted materials? :p
 

??????

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Well, thats not too bad :p
 

Traverse

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Firstly, as I always say, asking for legal advice on the internet is not a fantastic idea. In many countries you need be licensed to give legal advice otherwise you can be penalized. I am not a licensed lawyer. Nothing in this post constitutes legal advice in any way.

Secondly, copying an already-drafted EULA without knowing what most of it means or does is a terrible idea. Aside from the fact that laws are different from country to country and that it may refer to country-specific laws that don't apply where you are, there is the obvious fact that YOUR product is not THEIR product. The Futuristic Tiles EULA refers to the Futuristic Tiles pack, Enterbrain and their company, not you, your company or whatever you're selling.

Thirdly, not only is copying it a terrible idea, if you're concerned with copyright you would do well to be reminded that since copyright is automatically granted in most countries, whoever wrote the EULA for the Tiles pack likely still has the copyright over it (if not, then probably whoever hired them to write it). Yes, even legal documents can be copyrighted. So by saying you're just going to copy it, you would very ironically be committing copyright infringement yourself unless you got the permission of the original writer to use it. Even if you edited it afterwards.

Fourthly, even if this were not the case and you were able to figure out what that EULA effectively does, the Futuristic Tiles EULA is a terrible EULA to copy from. If you take a look at clause 2.2, it can mean, interpreted in a certain way, that you are only allowed to create a game with the resource pack if you only ever create games using RPGMaker engines in your lifetime. The idea behind it is probably meant to constraint use of the graphics to games made with RPGMaker engines, but it is worded so poorly I doubt it would be legally enforceable. Hell, it even directly contradicts its parent clause that gives permission to use the pack in any of Enterbrain's engines (like IG Maker). There are other places in the EULA that look very unprofessionally worded, so much so that I question whether the writer even had the qualifications to draft a professional legal document.

Only tangentially related, but the way it was implemented gives me doubts that the Futuristic Tiles EULA would be legally enforceable for a laundry list of reasons:
1. Because you need to buy the product before you can see it.
2. Because there is nothing that requires you to tick a box or physically agree to it before using the pack.
3. Because it is entirely possible for people to use the pack without ever even seeing the EULA due to the fact that it is buried in a readme that, even after opening, you actually need to scroll all the way down to find. And that's if you even look at the readme at all.

I'm aware this is a legally gray area, but from what I can tell this ticks alot of the boxes outlined in the cases where EULAs were found unenforceable. Most of those cases were US cases, though.

Lastly, (or TL;DR if you couldn't be screwed to read through all the above) find an actual trained and preferably licensed intellectual property lawyer to draft your license agreement if you're worried enough about it to need a professional document. Just remember that, EULA or no, it will be very unlikely to stop pirates from uploading it onto and downloading it from torrent sites if whatever it is turns out to be any good, anyway.
 
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??????

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Yea, I agree asking online for any information can lead to confusion and/or inaccuracies, whether it be legal information or not. :)

I also agree that the EULA in question is very poorly worded in certain areas; however, a quick google search for 'general EULA terms' leads to highly similar documents. This led me to believe that whomever wrote the document simply found such an online source to use as reference, such as I have eventually done. :D

Also, in the case of "1. Because you need to buy the product before you can see it.".. This is the same for most resources obtained online - example, you have to download steam before it shows you its terms and conditions during installation.
 

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