Once I share a game in scratch, it automatically applies the creative commons license (CC BY-SA 2.0), meaning that anyone can distribute it as long as they follow certain conditions (even though most don't follow these and get away with it anyway…)

However, does that license also apply to the game assets alone? I'm now making a better version of a game I made previously in scratch, but now on a different engine and I'm reusing some assets (mostly sprites) I made on the scratch version, so do these assets have the creative commons license applied?
Note: The assets I'm talking about where made by me, they're not ripped from other sources and not even slightly altered versions

it definitely applies to the assets. and to the code

It applies to everything, including the code, assets, and sounds, heck even the project.json file

But what if I make changes to the affected assets and only releasing them to the non-scratch game? Like arranging some pixels or even remaking whole frames (the assets have a pretty small canvas since they're meant for “retro” graphics, which is also pretty limiting to just make whole new assets), will the CC license still be there?
The license can't just claim the whole idea, concept and designs of the game, right???

jackalocked wrote:

But what if I make changes to the affected assets and only releasing them to the non-scratch game? Like arranging some pixels or even remaking whole frames (the assets have a pretty small canvas since they're meant for “retro” graphics, which is also pretty limiting to just make whole new assets), will the CC license still be there?
The license can't just claim the whole idea, concept and designs of the game, right???

Whatever you share on Scratch is under it. If you don’t want something to be under CC, do not share it on Scratch.

The versions of the sprites that you share on Scratch are under the Creative Commons license.

Now, if you use a different engine/platform and remake the sprites (so that the designs are slightly different), I admit I'm a little unsure on whether these will also be under Creative Commons. I guess it depends on whether your altered sprites would be considered a “remix” of your Scratch versions, because the Creative Commons license requires that any material “remixed” from a Scratch project must also be distributed under the Creative Commons license. I don't know whether your altered sprites would be considered a “remix” in that case.

Still, even if not, I bet someone could make the argument that they can use your Scratch sprites and edit/remix them to look similarly to your altered sprites, “independently” of you altering them. There is a possibility that they would be allowed to do this; I'm not entirely sure.

ThisIsTemp1 wrote:

Whatever you share on Scratch is under it. If you don’t want something to be under CC, do not share it on Scratch.

Yeah I wish I knew that a year ago

So not even adjustements to the assets can save it from the license?

I didn't proceed further from the scratch version aside from the assets and some platforming code though, so the only things that I'm reusing that got the license are just some sprites really (unfortunally the entire player sprites are in there and I'm having a hard time trying to remake them).

However, I'm unsure if the whole concept of a yellow kangaroo with green socks is safe from the license since it was kinda executed on the scratch version, and as I asked before, does the license claim the concepts aswell?

I have pretty much no knowledge about licensing stuff like this, but I'd assume that if you e.g share a game on both the Scratch website and outside it, you have to license the Scratch site version under the site's CC-BY-SA 2.0 license, but you can license the off-site version in any way you want. And if you adjust the assets/make new ones and never share them on Scratch, you can license them in any way you want, since they aren't shared on Scratch (Though, like Za-Chary said, people might still be able to modify the Scratch assets to make them look more like the adjusted ones).

CC-BY-SA claims everything that would be copyrightable and is irrevocable.

Unfortunately, it seems you would have to scrap the idea.

If it was never shared, it would not be CC. But if it was, everything is CC. The only exception (maybe) is the writing of any songs you made and wrote yourself that you may have used, and assets from outside of Scratch (These would keep their old license).

You could always release the reused assets under CC-BY-SA 2.0, and keep the rest of the game under a different license.
Note that this enters a legal grey area and that I'm not a lawyer.

BigNate469 wrote:

You could always release the reused assets under CC-BY-SA 2.0, and keep the rest of the game under a different license.
Note that this enters a legal grey area and that I'm not a lawyer.

“Note that this enters a legal grey area…”

Yeah that's where my concerns come from, re-using assets with an automatic un-revokable CC license on a game meant to be protected with copyright could cause some legal trouble for me (i'm not a lawyer neither and I'm quite new to this license stuff aswell), which is why I wondered if re-arranging the affected assets would get rid of the license.

Some people outside suggested me to make my game easelly modificable (MODs) so that what Za-Chary mentioned (modifying altered assets to look like the CC ones) would have less impact, maybe that would work and would also help the game itself to grow but I'm unsure if the engine I'm using can make it possible (and I don't want my game to be centered arround modding just like Friday Night Funkin').

kkidslogin wrote:

If it was never shared, it would not be CC. But if it was, everything is CC. The only exception (maybe) is the writing of any songs you made and wrote yourself that you may have used, and assets from outside of Scratch (These would keep their old license).

Yeah I should've known that before working on my scratch games that where meant to take off

But about the assets outside of Scratch… so if I shared the game's assets on a different website that doesn't apply the CC license, and only later releasing the project onto Scratch, those assets would still keep that website's license instead of Creative Commons??
I did show off the assets outside of Scratch months before release, but I'm not sure if it would count.

CST1229 wrote:

I have pretty much no knowledge about licensing stuff like this, but I'd assume that if you e.g share a game on both the Scratch website and outside it, you have to license the Scratch site version under the site's CC-BY-SA 2.0 license, but you can license the off-site version in any way you want. And if you adjust the assets/make new ones and never share them on Scratch, you can license them in any way you want, since they aren't shared on Scratch (Though, like Za-Chary said, people might still be able to modify the Scratch assets to make them look more like the adjusted ones).

This is the answer.

You still retain the copyright over your work, what is shared on scratch gets the creative commons license as required by the site and anyone sourcing it from here gets to use the work under that license.
You could share the same work elsewhere under a different license and people would have to comply to that license but you wouldn't have a strong case if someone were to claim they actually sourced it from the place with less restrictive license.
Modifying the work wouldn't be required but it can make it distinct enough from the scratch version that you would have stronger protection over it - it would be harder to claim it was sourced from there. But like CST1229 said, there is still the risk of someone making modifications to match the more restrictive work.

jackalocked wrote:

(#13)

kkidslogin wrote:

If it was never shared, it would not be CC. But if it was, everything is CC. The only exception (maybe) is the writing of any songs you made and wrote yourself that you may have used, and assets from outside of Scratch (These would keep their old license).

Yeah I should've known that before working on my scratch games that where meant to take off

But about the assets outside of Scratch… so if I shared the game's assets on a different website that doesn't apply the CC license, and only later releasing the project onto Scratch, those assets would still keep that website's license instead of Creative Commons??
I did show off the assets outside of Scratch months before release, but I'm not sure if it would count.

No, they're CC now. I mean something gotten from a website that already ahs a different license (or no license and is hard-copyrighted, in which case taking the assets from there is illegal).