License requirements ==================== Note: this manual is *not* intended for legal advice. It is provided to aid users navigate license and copyright requirements. What are licenses? ------------------ Rune is created and distributed under the `zlib license `_. It doesn't have a sole owner, as every contributor that submits code or other technical contributions does so under the same license and retains ownership of their contribution. The license is a legal requirement for you (or your company) to use and distribute the software. Your application can have a different license, but it still needs to comply with the original one. Requirements ------------ For the zlib license, as long as you aren't altering any engine source files and distributing them, there are no hard license requirements. However, if you do decide it is best to modify the engine for your own needs, you would need to mark these altered sources as modified from the original and that you made the modification(s). If you use Rune in your application as-is, an acknowledgement in your application or documentation is appreciated but not required. For code that is bundled with or used by Rune itself, there is a section at the end of this document that lists requirements for those. Third-party licenses -------------------- Rune itself contains software written by third parties, which is compatible with, but not covered by Rune's zlib license. Most, if not all, of these dependencies are distributed under permissive open source licenses which require attribution by explicitly citing their copyright statement and license text in the final product's documentation. Since the Rune Engine is so large, this can be difficult to do. A good option is to include this file in your project's distribution, and you can rename it to something suitable to avoid confusion with your own code and assets.