Copyright policies

[Becktendo]

If our team purchases the rights to something like a song, is it allowed to be used even though it is copyrighted? Also, Are characters based on Fortnite skins allowed to be used in the map (such as my concept, Carbide Knight, based on the original Carbide skin)

[bnwkr (Ben)]

If you have the correct license for a song and have cleared its usage with the holder of the rights, you would not be breaking copyright law and it would be perfectly fine.

Looking at Epic’s UEFN terms of service, it says:

6.1.2. Your UEFN Content may include music. However, you must own all rights in any music you upload through UEFN. Usually, to own all the rights in music means that you both a) wrote the music and lyrics yourself and b) performed and recorded the music yourself.

Do not upload music that you do not fully own or that requires you to obtain permission from others to grant Epic the licenses described above. This means, among other things, you may not upload music:

that you have purchased a non-exclusive license for;
that you created while under contract with a record label or a music publisher;
if you are affiliated with or a member of a performing-rights or collective management organization anywhere in the world (“Society ”); or
that you wrote, performed, and/or recorded jointly with others.

When you upload UEFN Content that includes music, you promise to Epic that you fully own the music and that Epic has no obligation to pay royalties to any third party, including without limitation a sound recording copyright owner (e.g., a record label), a musical work copyright owner (e.g., a music publisher), and Society, whether representing authors’ rights (e.g., ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, PRS, SACEM, JASRAC, etc.), or producers’ or performers’ rights (e.g., PPL, GVL, FKMP), any unions or guilds, or other third parties, anywhere in the world, with respect to Use of your music by Epic and others under these Terms. The license you grant to Epic pursuant to Section 5 applies to music you upload as well, including the pass-through rights outlined in Section 5.3.

From this, it seems you have to clear the rights for you to use the music in Fortnite without the need of Epic to get a license or anything that involves Epic Games so they aren’t liable for any royalties. Just be extra careful with the music license you use, basically. But that’s just my interpretation of the Terms, not guaranteed to mean that.