Code & software ownership
A plain-language explanation of how ownership works between developers, clients and Vortigern Industries, so everyone knows where they stand.
This page is not a legal contract. Using Vortigern is covered by the Terms of Service, and if a hosting agreement you signed with us says something different, that agreement wins.
The short version
- Whoever writes the code owns the code.
- Vortigern owns Vortigern software.
- Clients own their community, server, data and branding.
- Hosting something doesn't make it ours.
Code vs. Vortigern software
- Code is a bot or script written for a specific client or project, such as a custom server bot, commands built for one community, or a game script made on commission.
- Vortigern software is everything Vortigern builds and runs as its own products: the Vortigern and Factions bots, this website and the dashboard, SCiPNET, our game scripts, the hosting setup and deploy tools, and shared modules that more than one bot uses.
Code
- The person who wrote the code owns it. The owner of the code's repository is the record of who that is.
- If several people wrote it, each person owns the parts they wrote, unless they agree on something else between them.
- Paying for a commission pays for the work and the right to use it. It doesn't transfer ownership unless both sides agree to that in a ticket or message before work starts.
- To own the code outright, you can offer to buy it from whoever wrote it. The price and what's included are agreed in a ticket.
- Hosting code doesn't change who owns it, whether we host it or anyone else does.
Vortigern software
- Vortigern owns its software. Code written for Vortigern software belongs to Vortigern, even when a staff member or volunteer wrote it.
- Staff keep ownership of anything they write on their own, for clients or for personal projects.
- Adding our bots, using the dashboard or being hosted by us gives you the right to use the software, not ownership of it.
- Vortigern software can't be copied, resold, or hosted somewhere else without our permission.
- A custom bot built on top of Vortigern software is split the same way: the custom parts belong to whoever wrote them, and the Vortigern parts stay with us.
- Buying custom code doesn't include Vortigern software. If the bot needs a piece of it to run, you get a copy of that piece to use with that one bot. We still own it, so it can't be sold on or used in other projects.
What hosting gives us
- Permission to run, store, back up and fix the code while we host it. Nothing more.
- We won't reuse a client's code in other projects or share it without the owner's permission.
- When hosting ends, we delete our copies of the code within 30 days, unless the owner asks us to keep them.
Other people's code
- Open-source libraries and tools keep their own licences. Using one in a bot doesn't make it anyone's here.
- Discord's and Roblox's own terms still apply to anything built for them.
Questions and disagreements
Open a ticket in our support server and we'll reply within 7 days. If people disagree about who wrote something, the repository history is the record.
We may update this page. Changes are announced in our Discord at least 7 days before they take effect, and a change never takes away ownership someone already has.