Question on Donations

[LilyKnight]

Lets say you make something for free. It uses stuff people provided saying "don't use this for a commercial product". Well you put the thing you made with it on your website for free. However, you also have a donation jar on your website. This creates a grey area of the law. Even if you have other things on the site, it can be construed that you are making money. However, you are not selling anything which is the definition of commercial.

This can be argued both ways but whats the real situation here?
Assume full credit has been given for everything that the person knows who it belongs to.

That is your thought provoking question for the day.

[MetalRenard]

That's more like the kind of question you should ask a lawyer and not a bunch of ignorant geeks (not saying you guys are ignorant... or geeks)
It's really complicated and changes according to tour country :S

EDIT:
As i said later on (read later posts) This is NOT talking about the community, just about my own lack of knowledge and the fact that I spend too much time infront of my computer.

[LilyKnight]

the opinion of a bunch of geeks is important. someone in the community could easily do that. You could try looking at it from your own perspective instead of trying to be a perfect lawyer. I typically ask these questions to get the community thinking. I did it all the time back in the old days of rmxp.org

[MetalRenard]

Just to make sure, I consider myself as a geek and I'm ignorant when it comes to law! So don't take what I said personally or anything of the sort, I was merely commenting on my own inability to answer your question.

It's a good idea though... Could you maybe ask questions that don't need such advanced knowledge of specific things?... Something more accessible :p

[Charlie Fleed]

MetalRunner, maybe I don't master the language, but you really seem to address this community as a bunch of ignorant geeks in your post. Let's avoid to give people such wrong impressions.
EDIT: I appreciate your last post clarifying on that point. :)

[LilyKnight]

IT is an advanced question but its one that could cause trouble for the community if not answered. Even if its just people's gut feeling of "I'd so sue" since its a grey area that actually matters.

[MetalRenard]

Ok fair enough :)
Sorry I couldn't help out more!

[Jacket]

There's no compensation. Therefore it isn't commercial.

It can not be commercial unless it requires compensation or other form of payment to have service rendered. The use of material, IE: a game to play, counts as such service. I pay you, I get the game, that simple.

If I'm an old geezer, and a local child decides to rake my yard of leaves and shovel it of snow, and I give him a tip it's not child labor. Why? Because there was no labor. Why? Because he did not receive compensation for a service rendered. He received compensation in the form of a tip, or donation, which was not required for the service.

If, however, I had to donate to get full features or get additional features, then yes, it is commercial. But if downloading an RM game without paying can be done, it is merely a donation, or a tip if you will, and does not constitute payment in any way. It is not commercial in the slightest.

--just to edit in this bit,
The only way the "don't use in this or that" argument even stands remotely close is if they state "if you receive any financial contribution due to the product this (resource) is used in, then-". In this case pretend it's a script. I write a script, and I post it, and I say "If you get any money from this, split it with me a dime a dollar."

Now if I feel you and your website is making money off of a product, the game that has my script in it, I might feel that you owe me 10 cents for every dollar you have earned through those donations. However I would have to - if this was brought to courts - legally prove that some, if not a majority, of those earnings were made because of this one product. If you had a game: COMMANDER THEORETICAL IN HYPOWORLD, and that was the ONLY product on this site, the one accepting donations, and my script was used in that game, then it can be done.

If your website hosts, say, 20 games, it becomes harder to do, still can be done.

Though, I have yet to see anyone say "If someone gives you a tip because of the project your using this (material) for, give me a dime a dollar" so, you're in the clear.