Micropolis Licensing

⚖️📜✍️🤓 Review the GPL and Public Name licenses that govern this project.

Contents

Introduction

The Micropolis project operates under two important licenses:

  1. The Micropolis GPL License Notice - This is the GNU General Public License with additional terms added by Electronic Arts to protect the SimCity trademark while allowing the code to be freely used and modified.

  2. The Micropolis Public Name License - This license governs the use of the "Micropolis" name itself, which is a registered trademark of Micropolis Corporation.

We extend our sincere gratitude to Electronic Arts for their generosity in releasing the SimCity source code under an open-source license, and to Micropolis Corporation for allowing the community to use the Micropolis name for this open-source city simulation project. Please respect both Electronic Arts' SimCity trademark and Micropolis Corporation's Micropolis trademark by adhering to the terms of these licenses. Additionally, we ask all users to please honor the terms of the GNU General Public License v3, which protects the freedoms that allow this project to exist and thrive as open-source software.

Micropolis GPL License Notice

Micropolis, Unix Version. This game was released for the Unix platform in or about 1990 and has been modified for inclusion in the One Laptop Per Child program. Copyright (C) 1989 - 2007 Electronic Arts Inc. If you need assistance with this program, you may contact:

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Micropolis or email micropolis@laptop.org.

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/ .

ADDITIONAL TERMS per GNU GPL Section 7

No trademark or publicity rights are granted. This license does NOT give you any right, title or interest in the trademark SimCity or any other Electronic Arts trademark. You may not distribute any modification of this program using the trademark SimCity or claim any affliation or association with Electronic Arts Inc. or its employees.

Any propagation or conveyance of this program must include this copyright notice and these terms.

If you convey this program (or any modifications of it) and assume contractual liability for the program to recipients of it, you agree to indemnify Electronic Arts for any liability that those contractual assumptions impose on Electronic Arts.

You may not misrepresent the origins of this program; modified versions of the program must be marked as such and not identified as the original program.

This disclaimer supplements the one included in the General Public License. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMISSIBLE UNDER APPLICABLE LAW, THIS PROGRAM IS PROVIDED TO YOU "AS IS," WITH ALL FAULTS, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, AND YOUR USE IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK. THE ENTIRE RISK OF SATISFACTORY QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE RESIDES WITH YOU. ELECTRONIC ARTS DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY WARRANTIES, INCLUDING IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, SATISFACTORY QUALITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NONINFRINGEMENT OF THIRD PARTY RIGHTS, AND WARRANTIES (IF ANY) ARISING FROM A COURSE OF DEALING, USAGE, OR TRADE PRACTICE. ELECTRONIC ARTS DOES NOT WARRANT AGAINST INTERFERENCE WITH YOUR ENJOYMENT OF THE PROGRAM; THAT THE PROGRAM WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS; THAT OPERATION OF THE PROGRAM WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE, OR THAT THE PROGRAM WILL BE COMPATIBLE WITH THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE OR THAT ANY ERRORS IN THE PROGRAM WILL BE CORRECTED. NO ORAL OR WRITTEN ADVICE PROVIDED BY ELECTRONIC ARTS OR ANY AUTHORIZED REPRESENTATIVE SHALL CREATE A WARRANTY. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF OR LIMITATIONS ON IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR THE LIMITATIONS ON THE APPLICABLE STATUTORY RIGHTS OF A CONSUMER, SO SOME OR ALL OF THE ABOVE EXCLUSIONS AND LIMITATIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

For the complete text of the GNU General Public License v3, please refer to the official GNU website.

Micropolis Public Name License

Version 1, October 1st, 2024. Copyright (C) 2024 Micropolis GmbH.

The name/term "MICROPOLIS" is a registered trademark owned by and exclusively licensed to Micropolis GmbH (Micropolis Corporation, the "licensor"). It is here (upstream) licensed to the authors/publishers of the "Micropolis" city simulation game and its source code (the project or "licensee(s)").

Your use of the GPL'ed source code under the name "MICROPOLIS" makes you a subsequent (downstream) licensee of the trademarked term "Micropolis" and binds you to the same terms as the original upstream authors/publishers of the project. These terms are:

  1. Give proper attribution. Copying, forking and or using the source code of the city simulation game under the name "Micropolis" requires you to include a trademark attribution on the main source code "welcome" page or on an obverse title page and in "credits" or wherever you acknowledge other trademarks and copyrights. This attribution requirement also applies when you use the original name in variation, with suffixes, prefixes or addenda (e.g., "MicropolisX", "Ymicropolis" or "Micropolis Z"). Attribution is also required when the trademark is used in works where the Micropolis project is covered, for example in blogs, online texts, scientific works etc.

    A preferred attribution would be: "Micropolis is a registered trademark of Micropolis Corporation (Micropolis GmbH) and is licensed here as a courtesy of the owner under the Micropolis Public Name License." Where possible, activate this attribution with a link to https://www.micropolis.com and optionally to the license text.

    Appropriately propagating the source code of the game requires the licensee to keep intact all notices stating that this agreement is in effect and give all recipients a copy of this license along with the code.

  2. Acknowledge that the name "MICROPOLIS" is a commercial registered trademark. While the use of the bare source code is governed by GPL, the name of the open source project is a trademark owned by a single company within the community and the owner grants a revocable license for the name "MICROPOLIS" to you, the user, for non-commercial use in relation with the source code and game.

    This fact doesn't restrict software freedom or what you can do with the open source code. It only limits the use of the brand identifier. This is in order to enable co-existence under this name, separating the commercial realm from a free and open source city building game community and its activities.

  3. Do not use the name "MICROPOLIS" in a way that creates confusion among consumers. Use of the name must remain closely related to the source code of the game. Its use must not disparage the licensor in its projects, e.g. through untruthful advertising, false or misleading promotional materials, etc. Do not use "MICROPOLIS" more prominently than your own company, product or service name. Do not use "MICROPOLIS" on posters, brochures, signs, websites, or other marketing materials to promote your events, products or services without written permission from the licensor. Do not refer to a product or service as being certified by, associated with or claim endorsement of, for or by the licensor. Do not attempt to claim or assert any ownership rights in the mark "MICROPOLIS" and do not attempt to register the term as a trademark, trade name, domain name, or "doing business as" name, alone or in combination with your own trademarks or addenda.

    Apart from giving credit via the courtesy string wherever possible, the licensee agrees that use of the mark "MICROPOLIS" is done in a way that helps to mitigate confusion among consumers between the city simulator game and the licensor's products.

  4. Usage in publishing. Do not use the term "MICROPOLIS" on the cover of a book or magazine without written permission from the licensor. You may not use the term "MICROPOLIS" in your own domain names, subdomains or as prominent account name on Internet platforms. This requirement also applies when you use the original name in variation, with suffixes, prefixes or addenda (e.g., "MicropolisX", "Ymicropolis" or "Micropolis Z"). You acknowledge that the use of the project's trademarked term "MICROPOLIS" in such a way is generally not "nominative fair use."

  5. Trademark dilution bailout. In order to assess a possible future trademark dilution, the licensee agrees to cease use of the trademark in case the open source game project contributes, according to the opinion in public proceedings or in court, to a loss in distinctiveness of the licensor's mark.

  6. Dispute resolution and jurisdiction. Court of jurisdiction is Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Dispute resolution is favored to be handled through the European Union's dispute resolution board.

Notwithstanding the immediate effect of this licensing document, a grace period of 90 days from the date of issuance is granted to all prior users of the "MICROPOLIS" trademark to achieve compliance with the terms and conditions herein.

For more details, to request approvals or for explicit permissions, please contact the licensor, Micropolis.