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Licensing and contributions

License​

GameVault is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, with the exception of some components such as extensions and plugins.

You may use, adapt and share the work if you credit it, keep it non-commercial and license derivatives the same way.

This also means that GameVault is not considered open-source.

Why is GameVault not open-source?​

People often read the public code as open source. It is source-available: you can read and modify the code, but the licence does not grant the open-source freedoms. Keeping it that way lets us show the code and still stop others from selling it. See the 2023 licence announcement.

Contributing to GameVault​

Anyone can contribute.

Ways to help that need no code:

  • Rate GameVault in the Microsoft Store, or recommend it to someone.
  • Write about your setup on a blog, a forum, Reddit or social media.
  • Mention GameVault in a talk, a podcast or a video.

For code, open a pull request in the repository you want to change. For bugs and ideas, open an issue with enough detail to reproduce the problem.

Before contributing code, read and accept the terms in the project's CONTRIBUTING.md. They name Phalcode® as owner of your contribution and transfer the rights to us, which keeps licensing and monetisation of the project clear.

Publishing Adaptations of GameVault​

The licence forbids commercial adaptations. Non-commercial derivatives are allowed under the conditions below.

GameVault is developed commercially. Third-party software may not use the trademarks GameVault™ or Phalcode® without our consent, and we enforce that to keep unauthorised products from being associated with us.

Derivatives must not look like official products. Users otherwise assume we endorse or maintain them, which becomes a support and safety problem: as a German GbR we carry personal liability for our products, so we keep control of the brand and the software.

Derivatives are welcome under a distinct name such as "GameVaulTux" or "GameVault Snake Edition". The product description has to say that they are unofficial.

Publishing an official product under our brand requires a formal agreement that names Phalcode® as sole rights holder and transfers liabilities, rights and responsibilities to us.