Hey,
Does anyone know if I can use modified fortnite models (like skins) in an UEFN project?
I am not saying about third-partied content, I’m saying about original Fortnite content such as the Fishstick, or the Jonesy.
For context: I want to modify a fortnite skin in blender and import it in UEFN, and use as an asset (animate it and put it in the game).
Is it legal? I do not want to have any problem.
One more thing… Can I port the skin model to blender by softwares like Fortnite Porting or it is not legal?
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So, I don’t know if I will be any help here or not, but I have seen a lot of people–myself included asking (broadly) about this. It seems there is a bit of confusion on this topic. So let me tell you what I do know and try to be as helpful as I can.
A couple disclaimers upfront:
- I am not a lawyer and nothing in this post should be construed as legal advice.
- While I personally know some people that work at Epic, I am not directly associated with Epic Games in any capacity, so I don’t know what Epic’s internal plans are ultimately.
Given those two disclaimers here is my take and understanding of the current situation:
All of the base-game Fortnite assets included in UEFN are cooked and locked behind a UI and Code wall. To the best of my knowledge researching the subject, they cannot–much to the disappointment and frustration of many UEFN users at the moment–be repurposed for other uses within the editor without doing any fancy (potentially legally non-complaint) shenanigans (a.k.a. Exporting/Extracting/Uncooking).
From my understanding, external tools exist that can help a person extract these assets so that they can be reimported and used in the same way as custom assets. However, using tools like this to extract assets would be considered by most companies (and likely a court) as a blatant reproduction and/or uncooking (reverse engineering) of the assets–and in most legal cases would be considered a breach of section 4.2 “Conditions on Epic’s License Grant to You to Use UEFN.” of the UNREAL EDITOR FOR FORTNITE SUPPLEMENTAL TERMS TO THE EULA, Which states:
You may only use UEFN as Epic expressly authorizes under these Terms. You may not do or attempt to do any of the following with respect to UEFN or any of its parts:
<…>
Copy, reproduce, distribute (including via a network server), display, or use UEFN in a way that is not expressly authorized in these Terms.
<…>
Reverse engineer, derive source code from, modify, adapt, translate, decompile, or disassemble UEFN or make derivative works based on UEFN.
Use UEFN to infringe or violate the rights of any third party, including but not limited to any intellectual property, publicity, or privacy rights.
<…>
Violate any of Epic’s policies applicable to you, including behaving in a manner that is contrary to the Fortnite EULA, Community Guidelines or Creator Content Guidelines in your creation of UEFN Content or use of your UEFN, or in your collaborations with other Creators.
Further, Section 2 of the Fortnite EULA states:
You may not do or attempt to do any of the following with respect to the Software or any of its parts:
(a) use it commercially or for a promotional purpose except as Epic expressly authorizes;
<…>
d) reverse engineer, derive source code from, modify, adapt, translate, decompile, or disassemble it or make derivative works based on it;
(e) remove, disable, circumvent, or modify any proprietary notice or label or security technology included in it;
<…>
Avoiding copyright Infringement/ IP Infringement is scattered all throughout the legalese we agree to when joining the Island Creator Program (ICP) and it is a strict no-go.
It appears that many islands get away with this still because the approval/moderation process appears largely automated. But legally speaking: a lack of enforcement is almost never a waiver of rights. Just because Epic hasn’t cracked down on something doesn’t make it not technically “sue worthy”, and is no guarantee that Epic won’t eventually crack down.
This essentially means: using Fortnite Assets in any way that extracts, removes, or uncooks them from UEFN without additional permission from Epic is in violation of these ICP agreements.
The only thing in question is: are the Fortnite assets considered part of UEFN (as defined in the agreements)? It doesn’t seem so because the supplemental terms also clearly identify “Fortnite Content” and say, in 8.3 “Content”:
“Content ” means Content available in Fortnite, the Creator Tools, or UEFN Projects, including UEFN Content, third-party intellectual property that may be incorporated in the foregoing (“Third-Party Content ”) and Epic’s original intellectual property (“Fortnite Content ”). For clarity, Fortnite Content is not UEFN Content or Third-Party Content, and vice versa.
The clarifying statement at the end makes it clear that Fortnite Content (Fortnite Models, Textures, Materials) is not licensed in the same way the UEFN and its included content are. So using a Fortnite asset after uncooking or extracting it, is no different than using a Fortnite asset that someone stole from Epic and gave to you. (Well except that by extracting it, YOU become the person that stole something from Epic)
I don’t know how Epic actually views this, or if they actually care. I have seen no instances of official Epic Representatives commenting on this. However, I really wish that they would so that the community had a bit more clarity on the matter.
Epic Games is trying to ultimately roll Fortnite over into a full metaverse platform. As a result of this, most of their work on Verse and Reference Assets SEEMS TO BE towards building a platform where content developers can freely share their gameplay assets without providing access to the underlying art assets and components of the gameplay elements (something that will be necessary for an inter-operable metaverse)–in similar fashion to how the Cooked Fortnite and Referenced assets are now. Because of this focus, it is likely that the default behavior for reference assets is to be completely locked down.
All of that being said: while it seems to be against the terms, Epic doesn’t seem to be cracking down on their own IP being stolen to be used in shocker the same game the assets were stolen from. To the average person it seems unreasonable that they would crack down on this, but Epic would be within their legal right to do so. I also think it is very bad for the Fortnite creative community as a whole that we don’t have access to the base game assets to build our experiences. The truth is, there are only three reasons that game developers would choose to build in UEFN rather than another engine:
- Exposure: as long as Fortnite is popular, it is much easier to reach a particular demographic by publishing into Fortnite. But there really is no guarantee that Fortnite will stay popular forever.
- Platform: all of the dev-ops work that Epic handles behind the scenes for the Fortnite Ecosystem is massive for developers. It means that small studios like mine don’t have to manage all the infrastructure, although mine already has such infrastructure–though admittedly not as robust.
- Assets: at least I thought this was a reason. Building or buying good quality game assets takes a lot of time and money. And it is great to have a lot of tools available out of the box to bring an idea to life without having to spend weeks making custom assets. Sadly UEFN is currently delivering well on this with core gameplay devices; however, not giving us Creators access to the base assets drastically limits our creativity. It makes many experiences we would like to make simply impossible without a lot of custom assets (which is a problem some people try out UEFN to avoid).
Which really makes me wish Epic would more explicitly spell out the licensing of Fortnite Base Game Assets in their agreements or elsewhere. So that we all have to stop asking the question. I really hope such an explicit statement would include some basic licensing of Base Fortnite assets for use within UEFN. Because as it stands, it’s kinda hard to justify building your game in Fortnite when you have no say in monetization, Discovery (or anything really), AND have to front the cost for all your own asset development.
Thats all my 2 cents. But now to clearly answer your question: you could, in theory, use a modified Fortnite asset, but it is likely a breach of ICP agreements
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Hey, thanks for the response, I really appreciate it! You clarified a lot of things for me. I hope Epic releases the Fortnite Content legally for the UEFN Developers.
“not giving us Creators access to the base assets drastically limits our creativity”
I think the Fortnite-verse is very cool, and using parts of Fortnite Content like skins in our games is a huge way to engage the community about the game itself and “be part of Fortnite”.
With your response, I think putting a fortnite modified model in the game will not put me in legal trouble, because I know it has games with copyrighted content that is more serious that using the content of the FN itself, being playable for over a year now. And as you said:
To the average person it seems unreasonable that they would crack down on this, but Epic would be within their legal right to do so.
With the improvement of UEFN and Creative 2.0, I guess they will eventually release the FN Content to the comunnity. But for now, I think they would leave alone the creators who use it.
I think I will assume the risk, but I really don’t know.
But again, thanks for your attention and your amazing response!!!