Libregamewiki:Common game licensing traps

This article is an essay giving advice on how to effectively distinguish free games from non-free games (for the purposes of LibreGameWiki) and to spot common traps and red flags. For our policy on writing articles, see Libregamewiki:Article policy.

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When checking whether a game is a free game (according to LibreGameWiki), our experience shows that things may not always be what they seem like. Even when a game is itself advertising as “free software” or “open-source”, further inspection might reveal this is not actually the case. Our list of Libregamewiki:Rejected games is long, and yes, many of these games (falsely, at least in our opinion) advertise themselves as “free”.

In this article we provide a few simple and not-so-simple checks to determine whether a game is a free game. Please remember that "free game" includes all media files (sounds, music, graphics, levels, data, etc.), not just the source code.

Easy checks

First, here are some quick checks that immediately disqualify any game from "free game" status:

• Well-known non-free license. The game (source code or media files) includes any of the following licenses that applies to any file in the game:
  • CC BY-ND (any version)
  • CC BY-NC (any version)
  • CC BY-NC-ND (any version)
  • CC Sampling+ (any version)
• No source code. Source code is a necessary (but not sufficient) precondition for free games
• No license exists. Usually free games state their license in an easy to find file. First check if a license is stated in any of the following files: README.txt, README.md, README, LICENSE.txt, LICENSE, COPYING.txt, COPYING or any file with a similar name. If you can’t find it in those files, try looking in other places, like a website. If you still cannot find any license whatsoever even after searching, it should be considered non-free
• Partially missing licensing. Licensing info does exist, but but there is a portion (like a file, type of media, or entire directory) of the game where a license was not specified, neither explicitly nor implicitly
• Unknown license. Sometimes, the README or LICENSE info openly admits they don’t know the licensing of some file. This should be treated as “No license exists”
• Source code is free, but media files aren’t: If the license info explicitly makes clear that only the source code is free, but not the media files, then it is not a free game.

If a game meets any of the above criteria, it is not a free game.

Hard checks

Not all non-free games can be that easily weeded out with the easy checks above. Some non-free games are less obviously non-free. Here are more things to check:

• Non-obvious non-free licensing. Sometimes, you won’t find the non-free licenses in the main README or LICENSE files, but “hidden” in some directory levels below. This is especially the case if the main license info does not explicitly state that the license applies to the whole game, or that the media license applies to all media files.
• "... unless otherwise stated": If you encounter this (or similar text) in licensing information, this is a red flag. It is usually written like this: "All of our game's media is licensed under CC BY 4.0, unless otherwise stated". This doesn’t automatically mean the game is non-free, but it means it needs closer inspection. There’s a risk that a proprietary license might be hiding somewhere in the game. It could be that all the other licenses are still compatible with free software and free culture, but you mustn’t rely on it.
• Poor licensing: Some games just screwed up the licensing. Read the license files carefully to see if you spot any mistakes like the following:
  • Missing license version: Some licenses have version numbers. For licenses with versions, it is always important to state the license name with version number. If the license version is missing, the legal rights for the user are unclear.
  • Not a real license: Sometimes, the license files mention a license name that actually doesn't exist or isn't defined anywhere. One example we had was "Creative Commons 3.0" (no such license exists)
  • Vague “BSD License”: If the license info just says “BSD License”, and a copy of the license text is not provived, this is incomplete information. There are multiple BSD licenses, so it's important to specify which one
• Custom license: Some games may come with a custom license that applies to that game only (or a very small number of games or projects). If this happens, and there isn't a clause that obviously violates free software principles, the game may or may not be free. Talk to the LibreGameWiki community for advice

Please note this list is non-exhaustive.

"Unofficial" free forks of a non-free "official" game

If you determined a game is definitely non-free, there may be a (small) chance that a free/libre variant of it exists. LibreGameWiki permits articles to be written about those free/libre variants. Some games that are non-free "officially" may have an "unofficial" free fork. Some Linux distributions replace non-free files of non-free games in order to make those games free. See Libregamewiki:Article policy for details.

One example for such a game is Duck Marines (as of 13/06/2026).

Talk to the game authors

If you have determined a game is non-free, please don’t just dump it into Libregamewiki:Rejected games and walk away. We like to have more free games, not less.

Please also talk to the authors to address possible issues, if that topic hasn’t already been brought up before. Open an issue on a bug tracker, start a forum thread or whatever is necessary to reach the developers. Some bad licensing practices might have been done in error. Some authors might not be aware that NonCommercial and NonDerivatives clauses are incompatible with free culture. Stay factual, but make your position clear. Do not insult people, this will lead to nowhere. And once in a while, we might turn some once non-free games into free ones. :-) If you really care about a game, you might even want to start to contribute to the project in order to fix the non-free issues yourself. But before you do this, first ask if such contributions would even have a chance. If a project keeps insisting on non-free license for ideological reasons, there is unfortunately not much more you can do.