You claim that creators shouldn’t put their work on a pedestal, yet you are putting your own ideological purity on a massive pedestal. If you are truly running a Stallman-approved, 100% proprietary-free operation, the reality of your published games is going to be incredibly restricted.
Let’s take a look at the EULA and dependency chain of these games you’ve been making since your teens. Unless you are coding in assembly on a custom-built Linux kernel running entirely open-source hardware drivers, your work is fundamentally built on proprietary licenses.
What engine are you using? If it’s Unity or Unreal, you agreed to strict proprietary licenses just to download the executable. Even if you use Godot (which is open-source under the MIT license), it allows for proprietary commercialization, something Stallman actively despises because it permits developers to lock down their derivatives.
Are you using standard audio formats? Proprietary physics middleware? Closed-source anti-cheat or matchmaking APIs? The moment you compile your game using closed-source developer kits (like those required for PlayStation, Xbox, or Nintendo switch), you are legally bound to enforce proprietary terms on your end-user.
How do you distribute these games? If you sell your games on Steam, Epic, or the App Store, you are forcing your players to agree to restrictive, proprietary EULAs and DRM wrappers just to click the “install” button. Steam’s subscriber agreement is the exact opposite of everything Richard Stallman stands for.
If you are actually distributing your games entirely for free, strictly under a GPL-style copyleft license, and hosting them on a self-owned server for players running purely Free Software operating systems, then congratulations, you have maintained your ideological purity.
But if you charge money for your games on a commercial storefront, use commercial engines, or allow your game to be played on Windows, your players are bound by a web of proprietary licenses that you implicitly approved by choosing those platforms. You can’t champion Stallman’s absolute view on copyright while simultaneously profiting from the proprietary tech stacks that make modern game distribution possible.
You claim that creators shouldn’t put their work on a pedestal, yet you are putting your own ideological purity on a massive pedestal. If you are truly running a Stallman-approved, 100% proprietary-free operation, the reality of your published games is going to be incredibly restricted.
Let’s take a look at the EULA and dependency chain of these games you’ve been making since your teens. Unless you are coding in assembly on a custom-built Linux kernel running entirely open-source hardware drivers, your work is fundamentally built on proprietary licenses.
What engine are you using? If it’s Unity or Unreal, you agreed to strict proprietary licenses just to download the executable. Even if you use Godot (which is open-source under the MIT license), it allows for proprietary commercialization, something Stallman actively despises because it permits developers to lock down their derivatives.
Are you using standard audio formats? Proprietary physics middleware? Closed-source anti-cheat or matchmaking APIs? The moment you compile your game using closed-source developer kits (like those required for PlayStation, Xbox, or Nintendo switch), you are legally bound to enforce proprietary terms on your end-user.
How do you distribute these games? If you sell your games on Steam, Epic, or the App Store, you are forcing your players to agree to restrictive, proprietary EULAs and DRM wrappers just to click the “install” button. Steam’s subscriber agreement is the exact opposite of everything Richard Stallman stands for.
If you are actually distributing your games entirely for free, strictly under a GPL-style copyleft license, and hosting them on a self-owned server for players running purely Free Software operating systems, then congratulations, you have maintained your ideological purity.
But if you charge money for your games on a commercial storefront, use commercial engines, or allow your game to be played on Windows, your players are bound by a web of proprietary licenses that you implicitly approved by choosing those platforms. You can’t champion Stallman’s absolute view on copyright while simultaneously profiting from the proprietary tech stacks that make modern game distribution possible.