This is an old thread but I’m trying to understand the matter myself.
Why would a map not be regarded as a standalone piece of art? There are many level design concepts on ArtStation that are regarded as original standalone pieces of art. Why would a map not be regarded such?
Also… I haven’t seen a single art asset on the marketplace that is not a combination of textures, meshes, materials etc.
Artists also use a lot of references for their work, some even just copy/paste photos onto the canvas and draw their own textures and forms on top of it.
But I guess the best thing one can do is talk to Epic Games directly. Legal matters are nothing to be played with.
If you read the 1st post from poster, you will notice that there are two pieces of content which belongs to other creators, in his particular case: auto-materials for landscape which includes textures and an modular house kit (separate parts which make houses in several different ways). In this particular case, he won’t be able to sell, because the other content were made with someone’s work. So, even the landscape were sculpted and it is awesome, the other pieces break marketplace rules. The only way for this to go through is: the poster to obtain from those creators a written authorization as a special licensing which allows the resell of their work and send this authorization to the marketplace as proof he can do it.
Everything which is authored by someone is copyrighted, even textures. Of course work based on references is a bit different, but you can’t possibly think all references are free of copyright, meaning: known faces or places or objects (with brands or copyright on design) can be reproduced without incurring in a copyright or brand offense. (places like the Hollywood hill sign can’t be reproduced without written authorization)
Of course talking with Epic is the ultimate source of confirmation, but if some logic is applied before asking, you don’t need to do it:
Does my work use someone else’s work? (textures, blueprints, meshes, materials)
Does my work use a derived shape from a known brand? (logos, vehicles, guns, home appliances)
Does my work use a reference photo of a place, a person’s face, etc and the result, even handcrafted, is recognizable as that place, person’s face, etc?
Any yes for any question above will automatically make the submission a failure, unless you have written authorization allowing you to do so.