Is EclipseCrossword really free?
Yes! EclipseCrossword is completely free, even for business use and for profit. There are no fees. For all of the details you should read the license agreement (you already agreed to it if you’ve installed EclipseCrossword), but here’s a summary.
- You own the copyright to all crossword puzzles you make with EclipseCrossword, including the grid and the clues.
- We own the copyright to the EclipseCrossword app, including the script code that makes crossword web pages work properly. You can, however, freely distribute puzzle web pages that you save in the EclipseCrossword app that include that code; you just can’t claim that you wrote that part.
- If you make your puzzles for work, your employer might own the rights, not you—just like everything else you produce at work.
- You still own the copyright if you share your puzzle on our Share EclipseCrossword service, but you have to give us permission to share it with the world.
- You can use EclipseCrossword puzzles in your book, newsletter, newspaper, or other publication, without crediting us or paying us anything. (We do appreciate it when people mention EclipseCrossword.com! We don’t have an advertising budget.)
- That includes for-profit publications. You are welcome to charge money for puzzles you create.
- You are allowed to install the EclipseCrossword app on any number of computers at home or at the office.
- EclipseCrossword adds our website address to printed puzzles and exported web pages. If you want to take the effort to manually remove those notices, we won’t stop you.
- Except: Please do not remove the hidden copyright notice from the script code in HTML files saved by the EclipseCrossword app. You can remove all of the visible notices.
- We’d prefer it if you just linked to our website, but if you’re making a compilation or resource CD, you can include a copy of EclipseCrossword’s install file as long as you make it clear to the buyer that they’re not paying for EclipseCrossword and they can otherwise get it for free.
How do we make money, then?
Good question! We don’t, generally. We do occasionally receive donations from fans, but that’s about it. We’re not in it for the money. You can read more about our philosophy of Principled Software.