Quick question about policy
Reply on sbox.game-
Hey everyone,
Coming from the GMod scene, I wanted to bring up something that's been on my mind regarding S&Box and the game editor.
On GMod, we've had for years a ton of servers running gamemodes based on third-party IPs - Naruto RP, Star Wars RP, WoW RP, Dragon Ball, you name it. The legal situation has always been... let's say "unclear" but somewhat tolerated. Some servers have been running for 10+ years without issues, others got C&D letters out of nowhere.
With S&Box being a more modern platform, I'm wondering how this will work going forward.
Right now we play games within S&Box itself (similar to GMod), but there's also the upcoming export feature that will let people publish standalone games. That's two pretty different situations legally speaking.So a few questions:- Does Facepunch have any official stance on this?
- Will there be different rules for "games within S&Box" vs "exported standalone games"?
- Will there be guidelines about what's acceptable or not?
- Is the "don't monetize it too hard and stay under the radar" approach from GMod still viable, or should we expect stricter enforcement?
- For people planning long-term projects, is there any way to know beforehand if something might get taken down?
Not trying to get legal advice here, just curious about the platform's direction on this. Would be nice to know before investing months into something.
Cheers -
hello, it's obvious that Facepunch will not be responsible for standalone games, games on the platform are regulated by ToS and etc, and on paper everything looks fine you can't use the other IP if the license doesn't allow it, but in practic if no one complains, then no one complains. Yes, it's morally wrong and legally incorrect, but who cares if no DMCA? ofc, it's risky to expect a project to live for a long time. Hogwarts RP also thought they would live long. Here, it's a matter of luck, imo FP will take action only if they receive reports from copyright holders.
Everything I've described above is understood by everyone, and the main disagreements are over moral issues, not legal. These questiones have already been discussed on Discord and on the forum, you can check -
Facepunch will never give an official answer other than "Do not upload what's not yours".
Unfortunately it doesn't seem like they'll ever put much effort into moderating the games/maps/addons so all we can do is shun the people relying on IPs or stealing assets in the community. -
Facepunch has no responsibility legally to take down copyrighted content until someone submits a DMCA request.
It's why for instance that GMOD had Nintendo content available for its entire lifespan up until the DMCA was filed by Nintendo.
You shouldn't be uploading content you don't legally own, but, nobody but the copyright owner is going to stop you basically. -
there is an example the game existed for about a week and gained popularity, and FP didn't take any action until the DMCA was got, be careful 😉
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