Are there any legal issues with posting free internet games on a website?
Asked by
Fred931 (
9434)
August 7th, 2009
For instance, if i were to take Dogfight 2 from Miniclip.com, could i freely post it on my site?
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11 Answers
Yes there are legal issues. You do not own the game. Thus you would be commiting copyright infringement by downloading and hosting their game on your own site.
It’s not a free game. It’s free for you to play because you visit Miniclip.com which has ads of all sorts.
They could easily sue you for any revenue you gained by hosting their game on your site. It is not free for you to distribute at all. Just because it’s on the internet doesn’t mean the item is free for everyone to take and do anything with.
Don’t do it unless you are a lawyer who enjoys going up against companies for fun.
If you’re just trying to have games on your site, then link to their game.
Many places will let you post their content with attribution. Check the terms on Miniclip’s site to see.
I checked their EULAs and SAs and ABCs and they will let you post their stuff on a website for free.
You can as long as the site provides you with the embed link you are free to post these games to your site. Just be careful of your sources these embedded files usually include links back to the sites you get them from. The thing about most flash aggregators is that their content is largely if not 100% free for use, in fact the biggest of them (AddictingGames, NewGrounds, MiniClip, Flash247, etc.) all have mostly the same games with a few proprietary games thrown in the mix.
They do provide the embed links.
That all said, I wish they would bring back DinkyBomb somewhere.
“I checked their EULAs and SAs and ABCs and they will let you post their stuff on a website for free.”
Then why are you asking the question? If they have an express policy to allow you to – there shouldn’t be any question about it. I can’t entirely believe they’d let you do so without giving them credit for it, however. You might want to double check the details. Also, it’d probably just be courteous to accredit them anyhow, regardless.
You need to read the terms of service and rules of that site. Usually it’ll state clear as crystal in there whether you can post, copy or distribute any information or material elsewhere. I’d be very careful in doing this if you plan to go ahead with it. If there’s a way to contact the site, you should do so and get their permission anyway.
Usually, it’s illegal to copy or distribute anything that’s not yours on the internet. I have seen several Youtube videos taken down as a result of this.
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