Sim racing mod licences: what each one allows
When you upload a car, a track or a livery, you choose what people may do with it. Here is every option in plain words, plus the three questions people actually ask in sim racing that ordinary licences do not answer.
The licences at a glance
| Licence | Re-upload it elsewhere | Publish modified versions | Commercial use | Credit the author | Convert it to another sim |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
You give it away completely: anyone can do anything with it, even without naming you. | |||||
Anyone can use it, change it and re-upload it, even to make money, as long as they credit you. | |||||
Like the one above, but whatever they build from yours must use this same licence: nobody can lock it down. | |||||
They can use it, change it and re-upload it with credit, but not make money from it. | |||||
Non-commercial, with credit, and derivatives under this same licence. Very common in modding. | |||||
They can re-upload it as it is, with credit, but not publish changed versions. Converting it to another sim counts as a change. | |||||
The most restrictive Creative Commons: as it is, with credit and non-commercial. It is the one Mid-Ohio and G&J Kartway use. | |||||
All rights reserved People can download it and use it, nothing else: no re-uploading, changing or converting it without asking you. It is what the usual “do not re-upload” means. | |||||
Custom licence You write the terms yourself. Handy if you want something specific, like “you may change it, but do not touch the first line”. | · | · | · | · | · |
First things first: you can only license what is yours
A licence is your permission for others to do things with your work. That is why it only covers what you made yourself. If your track uses someone else’s trees, textures or model, your licence does not cover those parts: their author’s terms do.
And anything ripped from another game (a car or track extracted as-is from another sim) cannot be licensed by anyone but its owner. Reiza says it plainly on its forum: no sharing “1:1 rips” or stolen content from other titles. It is not published here either.
The three sim racing questions licences do not answer
Creative Commons were written for photos, text and music, not for mods. So when you pick a licence we also ask you three things people genuinely wonder about. They fill in automatically from the licence, and you can change them:
Can it be converted to another sim? Converting means making a new work from yours, so the “ND” (no derivatives) licences say no. Can people make liveries for it? A livery is a separate file on the car’s template; the community assumes it is allowed unless you say otherwise. Can fixes be shared? A patch that fixes your mod is also a derivative work: it follows whatever you say about modifying it.
Conversions: yours, but with the original’s name on them
Bringing a track from Assetto Corsa or rFactor to Automobilista 2 is a lot of work, and here it counts as yours. But the original modder is always credited, in a dedicated field on the page: “converted from the original by…”. If the track has already been through several sims, the whole chain is credited, in order.
You also need the original author’s permission. That is what OverTake and the rest of the community ask for, and it is mandatory if their licence does not allow derivative works (any “ND”, or “all rights reserved”). When you upload a conversion we ask for a link that proves it; only we can see it.
What about donations?
You can add up to four links (PayPal, Buy Me a Coffee, Ko-fi, Patreon, GitHub Sponsors or Liberapay) and they appear on your page and on every item of yours. The money goes straight to you. Asking for support for your own work does not clash with an “NC” licence: NC limits what others do with your work, not you.
It is a different matter if your mod is built on someone else’s under an NC licence, or is a conversion: then it is wise to ask the original author before asking for money for it.
How to choose, in thirty seconds
You want it to go as far as possible: CC BY. You do not want anyone making money from it: CC BY-NC, or CC BY-NC-SA if you also want anything built from yours to stay free. You do not want anyone to touch it: CC BY-ND or CC BY-NC-ND (it can be shared, but only as it is). You would rather decide case by case: all rights reserved, and people ask you.
What the hosting labels mean
Every page says how the item got there: uploaded by its author (they published it); hosted copy, with the author’s permission (we uploaded it and they agreed); or hosted copy with credit, permission pending (we uploaded it with their name and a link to the original, and have not been able to confirm yet). If you are the author of a copy, you can claim it from its page, or ask us to take it down with “Report”.
This is a guide to help everyone understand each other, not legal advice. What counts for each Creative Commons licence is its official text, linked from each licence.