Copyright

Copyright law governs restrictions placed on copying and distributing creative works. It is codified in various international treaties such as the Berne Convention and national laws. Copyright is important in free games as it applies automatically, limiting users' right to distribute copies, modify the source, translate the work, etc.

It is therefore essential for any work to be free, that it must have a free source code license and free media license for media (if any). Files and entire projects which may be downloadable from the internet or distributed by the authors free of charge do not override the automatic nature of these laws, which prevent users from legally sharing copies. Mistakes and general confusion in this regard are very common.

Copyright also applies to written works such as LibreGameWiki itself. For that reason there is a copyright notice at Libregamewiki:Copyrights and by editing articles, users must agree to license their edits under such. It is not legally permissible to place content from elsewhere on LGW, unless such content is already under public domain or a license which allows it to be distributed under the dual CC-BY/FDL licensing of this site (and all required attribution is also given).