Are donations illegal?

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MadPumpkin
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Are donations illegal?

Post by MadPumpkin »

Does anyone know if donations you ask for are illegal for games that you made that are clones off of other games? For example, if I made a Zelda or Sonic tribute game, would it be legal if I asked for donations on the website?
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Falco Girgis
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Re: Are donations illegal?

Post by Falco Girgis »

MadPumpkin wrote:Does anyone know if donations you ask for are illegal for games that you made that are clones off of other games? For example, if I made a Zelda or Sonic tribute game, would it be legal if I asked for donations on the website?
I'm pretty sure they're legal. What would be ILLEGAL is if you were charging money to actually purchase the games...
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MadPumpkin
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Re: Are donations illegal?

Post by MadPumpkin »

GyroVorbis wrote:
MadPumpkin wrote:Does anyone know if donations you ask for are illegal for games that you made that are clones off of other games? For example, if I made a Zelda or Sonic tribute game, would it be legal if I asked for donations on the website?
I'm pretty sure they're legal. What would be ILLEGAL is if you were charging money to actually purchase the games...
Alright thanks, that's what I was thinking. Because I believe that Sonic Team Jr. even asks for donations on their website.
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Falco Girgis
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Re: Are donations illegal?

Post by Falco Girgis »

MadPumpkin wrote:
GyroVorbis wrote:
MadPumpkin wrote:Does anyone know if donations you ask for are illegal for games that you made that are clones off of other games? For example, if I made a Zelda or Sonic tribute game, would it be legal if I asked for donations on the website?
I'm pretty sure they're legal. What would be ILLEGAL is if you were charging money to actually purchase the games...
Alright thanks, that's what I was thinking. Because I believe that Sonic Team Jr. even asks for donations on their website.
Make it clear that the donations are for beer/asswipe and that the actual game itself will be free...
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Re: Are donations illegal?

Post by Van-B »

Once you have more than 1 game on there, nobody will be able to complain - might be a little different if you only had say, a SMB clone and were asking for donations. I guess the more games on your site, the less likely you are to ever have someone bitch at you.
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MadPumpkin
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Re: Are donations illegal?

Post by MadPumpkin »

Alright, well I won't have my clone until I at least am half way done with Octopia anyways so that's great.
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Re: Are donations illegal?

Post by EdBoon »

MadPumpkin wrote:
GyroVorbis wrote:
MadPumpkin wrote:Does anyone know if donations you ask for are illegal for games that you made that are clones off of other games? For example, if I made a Zelda or Sonic tribute game, would it be legal if I asked for donations on the website?
I'm pretty sure they're legal. What would be ILLEGAL is if you were charging money to actually purchase the games...
Alright thanks, that's what I was thinking. Because I believe that Sonic Team Jr. even asks for donations on their website.
came across this while reading up on the newly released UDK:

Q: Could I set up a website and put games onto it, but not sell the games, just make money through ad sense?

A: Collecting revenue from ads on a site designed as a portal to your UDK based games doesn't make your games free. It just acts as a proxy to direct revenue collection from your UDK applications. If you are collecting ad revenue as a proxy to collecting direct revenue from the game you will require a commercial license and Epic is due a royalty.

i'm thinking if you don't have any ad revenue you will be fine, seems like your in the clear with donations
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