Terms of use for my games

Terms of use for my games:

Please write to me if you have plans for using any of my games. I will generally grant non-exclusive rights to use a game if it will be distributed in a form that must be paid for (for example, as a download that is purchased or on a CD that is purchased). I will not grant rights to use a game in a program that is given away free (for example, as a free download or passed around by e-mail). Furthermore, I must be acknowledged as the original inventor of the game and I must be paid a percentage of any purchase price or royalties.

I get a lot of letters from people who want the rights to a game and they assure me they won’t use it for any commercial purposes. They’ll only pass it on to their friends. That’s exactly what I don’t want. If a game gets passed around for free, then it falls into the public domain. People assume it’s some ancient game and no one really invented it. I feel strongly that creators should get credit for their creations and they should be paid for them.

As a cautionary tale about what can happen when a game is passed around for free, consider Black Box. There are many Black-Box-playing programs on the Internet, and hardly any acknowledge the inventor of the game. I doubt that most of these programmers even consider that someone invented this game, and if they do consider it, then they don’t know who the inventor is (it’s Eric Solomon).

Theseus and the Minotaur has appeared on many devices under the names “Mummy Maze” and “T-Max.” People are working on putting it on more devices, like the TI-83 and even the Atari 2600 (!). I mention this to point out that there is a lot of competition in Theseus programs. I hope someone will consider using my other games, such as the Alice Mazes and the Eyeball Mazes.

Here’s my e-mail address:

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