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Steam legal stuff / monetizing

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I had a question for the devs in a different thread, and decided to ask again for a more elaborate answer in this thread so we dont derail the other one.

So, what is the current ZK's legal status, what is its planned future legal status, and are there any plans for proper monetization?

Are you trying to set up ZK as a non-profit organisation, or a profit one? If it is a regular profit organisation, are there any potential problems with licensing for any of ZK's assets, which, i assume, have all kinds of licenses attached to them?

Are there plans to do more monetization options? I would love to see a cash shop with custom commander models, and maybe even custom unit models. This could be just reskins, or entirely new models. As i understand, the actual unit geometry doesnt matter for the game - all of the data, such as the hitbox size and shape, as well as weapon shots origin points are all stored in unitdefs and are not directly related to the model.

I could easily see ZK raising funds on scale from $10k to $100k over the 6-12 months after the steam release if there are cool-looking things for sale. That would certainly help maintain the server, as well as purchase high-qualty assets, possibly even hire some freelance assholes to make them.
+4 / -0


9 years ago
We would like to establish non-profit org. so there are no issues with music etc. which have CC-NC license.

There are currently no plans for fundraising above the level needed for maintenance as funds pose moral dillemas regarding their distribution/spending. But if core devs agree it's certainly a possibility.

Atm. there are issues with setting up non-profit which has limited liability and allows multinational structure.

So far we haven't found a country with proper laws and a citizen willing to set that up.
+2 / -0
The plan as far as i know it is to set up a non-for-profit or, better, a "low-profit limited liability" type of official organization. The difference is that latter provides limited liability so individual members of such an organization would not be subject to massive liability in the worst case.

As mentioned in other thread, this is currently stalled as info about setting up an L3C in AU is being gathered.

quote:
As i understand, the actual unit geometry doesnt matter for the game - all of the data, such as the hitbox size and shape, as well as weapon shots origin points are all stored in unitdefs and are not directly related to the model.

Weapon origin points and hierarchies are stored in model, which makes models part of sync data. Textures are not, and neither are shaders. Current commander skins work as a shader that alters the texture.

That said, i don't see much technical issues changing models. After all, commanders already use different models while being functionally similar.
+1 / -0


9 years ago
CZrankAdminLicho says he needs a legal entity to being ZKL development because that would allow for deploying things on Steam. Legal entity investigation seems to have stalled. Everything looked at so far says "hire a Lawyer for paperwork XYZ" and that would just suck away all the money. AUrankAdminSaktoth was asking someone he knows but has not responded.
+1 / -0
9 years ago
AUrankAdminGoogleFrog would that simply be as easy as setting up a LLC under someone's name (literally anyone could be the owner) and presenting ZeroK as the product?

My sister knows a lawyer who likes our family and helps with family legal stuff.
If you can distill the question you need answered into "How do i satisfy these (XYZ) requisites to fulfill the (ABC) clauses in this part of (example) contract?"
+0 / -0


9 years ago
IMO having just a for-profit LLC is easiest, but also less tidy. E.g. people could start asking about "what about contributors" and "where does the munny went".
+0 / -0


9 years ago
LLC means by by music and 80% of our models afaik, because those are CC-NC
+0 / -0


9 years ago
Does that apply to the corporate entity doing it, or to the product itself being commercial/noncommercial? I see for-profit companies like google doing and using a lot of free license stuff.
+1 / -0
Wait, EVO:RTS is on steam, why can't you just ask @[EVO]ForbodingAngel how he did it?!?!?
+0 / -0


9 years ago
Being a lone wolf he was probably fine with using himself as the legal entity.
+0 / -0


9 years ago
Evo still has had contributions from other people. Maybe not permanent or long-term collaborators like ZK has, but still.

Probably just didn't care for the worst case in the slightest.

Also Evo doesn't have hats.
+0 / -0


9 years ago
The difference is that Forb is and always was the undisputed project leader and probably owner.
+0 / -0

9 years ago
Who's got two thumbs and just became (sorta) friends with the composer for Star Citizen. Me. (Working with him on a project soon)

Set this up for proper monetization, and you can get rid of the stock music and have real scored music for ZK.

Check his work:
http://www.musicbypedro.com/
+2 / -0


9 years ago
@GroundedMan: while that is good news, and also clears the way for me to monetize my videos if that ever becomes relevant, there is still the issue of replacing most of the models.
+0 / -0


9 years ago
How is the current ZK music "stock music"?
+3 / -0
Listen to "Love in a Nutshell" and tell me that doesn't sound like it could work for the first half of any romantic comedy or Christmas movie trailer.

As much as a Schneidemesser music has been set up to fit ZK, it was originally built for various trailers (or at least built for general trailer use) and a couple of vaporware MMOs. Half of it happens to work for ZK, but the music wasn't made for us.
+1 / -0

9 years ago
Bah just create an association under Swiss law. Does not require money to create, registration in the registry of commerce not mandatory but may be done for a small fee (but with authentified signatures), liability limited to the assets of the association. I should be able to find a draft contract to set up an association in English.. The downsides are: all paperwork will have to be done in French, German or Italian and someone has to provide the seat. Did you know that FIFA and UEFA are Swiss associations?
+0 / -0


9 years ago
Would that allow governance by a "fairly international" team?
Could it be setup by extraterrestrials? Ugh, i mean, foreigners.
+0 / -0

9 years ago
I am a lawyer so I should be able to tell for sure lol but it's not really my field. However, by quickly skimming through the law, it seems there is no restriction on (1) nationality/residence of people setting up the association and (2) nationality/residence of people running the association, so it should work.
+1 / -0


9 years ago
CHrankConnetable for legal advisory!
+6 / -0
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