License

ComicControl's Creator-owned Philosophy

ComicControl is distributed with the intent to help creators put their work out in the world.  Its purpose is to offer a simpler solution for those creators that want to publish their work independently and profit from their work under their own brand.  For this reason, ComicControl is free for these users.

Licensing Summary

Licensing for ComicControl is geared towards allowing the free use of the software for the digital publication of independent creator-owned works.  The free version of ComicControl may not be used by for-profit companies publishing non-independent works.  This means that the free version of ComicControl may be used by:

  • Creators publishing their own creator-own worked online without the aid or participation of a major publisher or similar for-profit company;
  • Independent web developers building websites for the above parties.

These parties may not use the free version of ComicControl:

  • For-profit publishers and distributors that publish and/or sell multiple creative works

In principle, the license only permits the commercial use of ComicControl by independent creators and creative teams.  The involvement of a publisher or distributor in any digital distribution using ComicControl without a paid license is prohibited.  Basically--if your ComicControl site makes money, the people profiting from it should fit in a walk-in closet.

This doesn't mean that larger companies and teams can't use ComicControl; however, they must purchase a commercial license for the software in order to use it.  Commercial licenses are sold on an individual basis and may include support and customization services.  To inquire about purchasing a commercial license, or need clarification if you may use the free version of ComicControl in your case, please contact admin@comiccontrol.com.

ComicControl is free to use for non-profit and non-discriminatory charitable or educational entities for any purpose that does not violate the prohibited uses contained within the free license.

Click here to view the full license for the free version of ComicControl.

Prohibited uses

There are certain activities that are prohibited by the ComicControl license, including but not limited to:

  • Selling ComicControl as a software or service
  • Redistributing the modified or unmodified source code of ComicControl on a third party site
  • Deploying a rebranded version of ComicControl, either for free or for sale
  • Modifying ComicControl to include harmful content, whether or not this code is distributed publicly
  • The use of ComicControl to publish sites that contain hate speech, promote hate crimes, publish threats of harm to individuals, or call for violence to be enacted on an individual
  • The use of ComicControl for any unlawful purpose
  • The use of ComicControl by any political or commercial lobby or party

The free ComicControl license is revocable at any time by ComicControl, LLC, with or without cause.  As long as you're not a dick, however, you are unlikely to get your license revoked. See the fifth bullet point for examples of being a dick.

Use case examples

To better understand the acceptable and unacceptable uses of the free version of ComicControl, here are some examples of use cases.

  • Can use for free: a creator or creative team uses the ComicControl software to build a site to publish their creator-owned comic online.  They make profit from ads on the website and merch sold on the site. 
  • Needs to buy a license: A publisher or distributor uses ComicControl to build a site to publish a comic that it owns or is licensed to distribute digitally.
  • Can use for free: An independent web developer contracted by a creator or creative team to build their website uses ComicControl on the site.
  • Needs to buy a license: A web development company advertises and sells ComicControl as a service or software they provide.

If you're not sure that your intended use is permissible under the free license of ComicControl, please inquire at admin@comiccontrol.com.

Covering our asses

The free version of ComicControl is provided as-is and ComicControl is not responsible for any site failures caused by modifications to the software by the user or ComicControl's automatic updates.  ComicControl does not provide support for the free version of the software.  Like any free software, you use it at your own risk.

If you notice a bug in the code or would like to request a feature, please contact us at feedback@comiccontrol.com; however, by doing so you relinquish the right to claim ownership of any fixes or features that may but implemented in ComicControl as a result of your message.  This also applies to such messages in any other medium.  This includes code snippets sent directly to ComicControl.  

All components of ComicControl are either owned by ComicControl or distributed under various free licenses which permit their use for commercial purposes.  These components include: 

  • Summernote (MIT License)
  • Lokesh Dhakar's Lightbox (MIT Licence)
  • PhpConcept Library - Zip Module (GNU/LGPL)