Throughout Minecraft texturing history, there has been many incidents of stolen work and confusion over a pack's license. Today, we will tell of of the importance of following a license, what some common licenses are, and some rules to follow if you are not sure what the creator would want.

What is the TAU?
The Texture Artists' Union, or TAU for short, is an organization of texturers whose purpose is to fight against stolen texture packs, provide simple, clear licenses for authors of packs, and change policies and implementations that could negatively effect the creativity of our artwork.

Why do texturers have licenses?
Many creators want to protect their work so it can not be blatantly stolen from them. There are different degrees of security in many of these licenses, allowing the creator to have control over how others use their work.

Why is following a license important?
There are many reasons why following a license is important, one of the really important ones is that the author of the pack has legal standing in how they want their textures to be used. Many artists' also want to keep their work moderated, meaning they want to know just who is using their art, and how they are using it. Many sites also support the licenses of these packs, Planet Minecraft and Minecraft Forums are a couple examples of sites that follow the license that the artist chooses.

What are some common licenses?
There are a few common licenses that are used.
You have the TAU licenses that are used by members. They come in 4 levels of security. Wood, Iron, Gold, and Diamond.

Wood: The lowest level. Having this on your pack indicates that your textures can be used by anyone-- with or without explicit permission-- for any purpose, including remix packs. NOTE: As a precaution, the default expectation of this rule is that the textures cannot be used with adfly links. If you don't care if someone uses adfly links with your pack, be sure to say so in your written license.

Iron: A moderate level of security. Having this on your pack indicates that your textures can be used by anyone-- with or without explicit permission-- for any purpose, including remix packs, so long as credit is clearly given to the original author both within the zip file (as a readme) and on the original post of the remix. NOTE: As a precaution, the default expectation of this rule is that the textures cannot be used with adfly links. If you don't care if someone uses adfly links with your pack, be sure to say so in your written license.

Gold: A strict level of security. Having this on your pack indicates that your textures can only be used after written permission is obtained from the creator of the pack. It also indicates that adfly links on remixes are never acceptable, under any circumstances.

Diamond: The highest level of security. Having this on your pack indicates that your textures cannot be used for any remixing or redistribution purposes whatsoever, including re-posting to a different website. It also indicates that adfly links on remixes are never acceptable, under any circumstances.

There are also the Creative Commons licenses. These licenses usually have to be registered at the site, the ones shown below are simply for reference.


"This license lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation. This is the most accommodating of licenses offered. Recommended for maximum dissemination and use of licensed materials."


"This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work even for commercial purposes, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms. This license is often compared to o copylefto free and open source software licenses. All new works based on yours will carry the same license, so any derivatives will also allow commercial use. This is the license used by Wikipedia, and is recommended for materials that would benefit from incorporating content from Wikipedia and similarly licensed projects."


"This license allows for redistribution, commercial and non-commercial, as long as it is passed along unchanged and in whole, with credit to you."


"This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, and although their new works must also acknowledge you and be non-commercial, they dono t have to license their derivative works on the same terms."


"This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms."


"This license is the most restrictive of our six main licenses, only allowing others to download your works and share them with others as long as they credit you, but they cano t change them in any way or use them commercially."

There are a few more common licenses that are used, such as simple copyrights and user created instructions on how to use their work, but since these are most commonly similar to at least one of the licenses stated above.

What if the creator does not have a license?
A good rule of thumb is to follow the Texture Artists' Union Gold level of security license. It is a very versatile license, and is one that most who did not put a license on their work would mind being under.

Additional questions that have been answered:
If you have any questions, please ask them in the comments below, one of the TAU admins will attempt answer.

Q: What is the rule of thumb for using adfly or other forms of ad links on works containing someone else's textures?
A: Unless they state in their license that it is okay, ask them first via PM or Email.

Q: Do people actually follow this?
A: Yes, at least they should from a legal standpoint.

Q: What is the most commonly used license?
A: I'd say the equivalent of the TAU gold license is the most commonly used, since people tend to want to be asked before their work is used.