It’s still illegal even if you don’t do it for commercial purposes. Think of people doing things with it that you don’t like that reflects bad on your IP–that’s why many game developers don’t allow people to create games in their universe even if the game is free because it could affect people’s views of the official stuff.
Most cases they won’t do anything about it, that’s why if you get enough attention then it can be a problem. Of course though, whatever you do on your own people won’t know about.
It doesn’t matter you are using it for commercial or non-commercial use. Both are illegal.
When it’s said ripping assets is illegal it’s meant it’s illegal to use their assets in any way. It’s not said “ripping assets is allowed for personal use.”
On the other hand, why should everyone try hard to stop you from using ripped content? go ahead and do it. %99.99 original owners don’t care, but if at some point they feel like suing you, you are the one who would live on the streets for the rest of your life.
I am planning to quickly create a prototype of my game using assets from another game. I am not sure if I am going that way or not. But well I will replace them down the line when I get a 3d artist.
My advice is if you are using copyright assets and releasing the content viewable in public something like a youtube video, never claim its your own work. Always write where you got them from and don’t do anything stupid which will hurt their IP. And never use it commercially. I have seen plenty of other game assets(skyrim, mass effect, minecraft etc) used in ue4 as a testing purpose.
I would personally never show any content from my game that has been taken from elsewhere, I feel dodgy even using the starter content from Epic let alone if you were to use ripped content. For personal testing purposes it’s pretty easy to make your own stuff really quick (with generic skeleton/ART from epic or just boxy looking stuff), anyone who has watched my stream will know that I use super boxy looking characters for my prototype.
non commercial use not make that legal, that only reduce the risk of get denounce (not always) .
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You can’t redistribuite to public in any form, content you not own the rights. Commercial or non-commercial.
EULA ins’t a law, and lots of times EULAS clauses are abusives and sometimes illegal in a lot of countrys. Abusive EULAS invalidate the “acceptance” EULA in my country.
We are talking about intellectual property here that belong to the artists and to their companies (Or coders if we were talking about code). Without the written permission by the owner you are not allowed to rip content and distribute them for any reason no matter what you name it research, curiosity or w/e.
Yes you can watch concept art, videos of gameplay etc and try to recreating something from scratch on your own (as a reverse engineering) but even then there is a line you shouldn’t cross. For example you are allowed to model and texture for your personal use a character such as Super mario but you are not allowed to sell it in a game. You are able though to sell it as your personal art.
For code reverse engineering in the actual coding concept is not allowed either but building the code from scratch on your own isn’t an and you can do with it whatever you feel right.
Generally (country) there is not laws against extract content from game (if you known a law in any country just show a link), that mean its legal. There are a law for distrubute in nearly all countrys. that mean illegal.
Reverse engineear i think its legal in all europan countrys at least. I don’t known in nort america.
If i remember right in nort america you can patent coding, that mean you perhaps are doing something illegal just only for write coding.
In Europe no.
Laws are diffent between continents and countrys remember.
I agree that a EULA isn’t law, but it is a contract outlining what you can and cannot do. Breaking the rules of the contract will expose you to actual laws that can then be used against you in court. So while it isn’t technically law, it might as well be.
differs depending which country you live in, some of the laws are not as strict for type of thing, but even then you can still be held accountable through international laws/treaties.
they can denounce you for breaking the contract but that not make “extract content” illegal. And the question in thread its if its illegal.
they can’t use against you that clausule in a court because not exist any law that forbid extract content and judges act according to the laws. In my country of course don’t known others.
and break a contract can have consequences but again ins’t something illegal. at least if you not break that contract doing something illegal like distribute without permiss. Anyway the illegal thing in case its distribute without permiss, something that can be forbidden in the EULA.
Invent laws in a EULA have no legal . EULA tell you in what conditions can you doing things like distribuited (something that is limited with laws) without breaking the EXISTENT law. If the are not law agains something they can’t legislate/make new one for make that illegal.
A EULA is not a binding contract or a license but a means of conveyance as a statement as to what would be considered a violation of their copyrights relating to the redistribution of what they consider to be their property under copyright law as written and will sue for damages.
It’s a “keep off the grass” sign that has little or no impact as to what you do with works in hand as a first purchaser and is of little concern as to personal usage until such works is redistributed. It does not matter if it’s commercial or non-commercial as the mandate and reason for Copyright is to ensure that the holder has the rights to distribution as they see fit regardless of how you make use of assets “in hand” that excludes the intent to redistribute.
Keep it to yourself not a problem until you share their works with thousands of others that they don’t profit from in an uncontrollable manner.
Just to add.
What you can or can not do in an open forum is a moral argument at best, and since I’m not a lawyer, not the ideal place for legal advice as to due diligence.
I can just speak for the German law… and like almost everything in law, a lot of “rules” / “laws” can be interpretd very different… but generally… and to make it short…
The upload of these ripped or how these 3d contents is called, is “illegal”
The Download of these 3d content for “learning” purpose or what ever… is also illegal. It’s the same like downloading pirated games
or let’s even say CONTENT FROM THE MARKED PLACE for free under the “testing/educational/personal use” cloak. It’s “generally” simply not legal.
What could happen downloading “illegal” stuff ? What i’m writing here is not a free ticket or a guaranty for downloading these stuff…
But basically in the most cases as far you are not going commercial or trying to get a lot of attention with clips, trailers, demos, free games or whatever, nothing will happend.
Since we are talking here abot civil- law and not criminal- law… the copyright holder will be not really interested “generally” to go for prepayment “court / lawyer” etc… to get eventually some money from you “if you can pay”…
If you are using illegal 3d content for commercial use in your game, “we are talking still about civil- law” I’m very sure you can prepare yourself for court and also prepeare to close your indie- company when talking about content from
EA or any other big …
like a wrote law is complicated and i’m more into economic law cause is the direction i’m specialized in… but i would not suggest to use content for any serious project… by the way, imagine someone is using your created content without asking you… it is simply not fair… cause someone has put a lot of efforft in creating these 3d objects…
And hearing or reading all the time it was just for personal or educational or testing purpose or i even didn’t know that is not legal, didn’t makes it better… You can’t kill someone and telling the court, i really had no idea that i’m not allowed to kill someone I know is a lightly overcasted sample but i think everyone gets what i mean…
distribuited in any way, commercial or non-comercial without the rights/or permiss, i think its clearly illegal in all europa and nort america and they mayority of the other countrys. I think nobody doubt that no?
Encrypting game files, extracting assets and using them without permission for learning purpose is like lock picking a locked door to a house, taking with you whatever precious they have to examine it. That’s also another reason why you shouldn’t do it even if it is not illegal.
Was just reading through the Ubisoft EULA again to see if there is any info on international laws, found bit at the very end:
So regardless of where you are located, your bound to the laws set forth in England (for product).
I think the bottom line here is that you can be held accountable in a court of law for breaching the “contract” (it’s not literally a contract, but is any easy way to look at it) you enter when agreeing to the EULA. The of being sued when not making any earnings off of it might be low, but that does not make it legal to do so, you are breaching the terms of the licence.
Ignoring the debate over whether it’s legal or not in whatever country or if we disagree or not, at least consider … If you bought a tangible good, like a car or stereo component… do you not have the right to literally take it apart piece by piece if you wish? Why should digital content be any different?
Just a though but why the need to use someone’s stuff to make your stuff?
Plenty of products available to build by proxy that is affordable or falls under CC-zero or MIT that is compatible with UE4 licensing requirements. Ripping content from some other game is not necessary and at the very least considered toxic.
The only thing I can think of as to reason is the idea that one can make a game for free?
no its like rent a house and lock picking for see what are inside. You can lock picking your own house because lock picking ins’t illegal, use/examine all object (because ins’t illegal) but you can’t sell or redistribuite what’s inside because it is not yours (because its illegal if its not yours). Except of course if the contract/EULA allow you the right for do that.
You can rent a house and the contract limit the right to use the couch, you accept it, then you use it, you break the contract but not the law and your not doing anything illegal, because isn’t illegal use a couch.
Please read all the answers you got. It’s not like buying a car. It’s rather renting a car for an endless period of time. You can not take apart a rented car. As said before, when buying a game, you do not actually buy it, you get the license to play it. It’s like renting, and you ca’t take it apart.
Also, as said, it would be jured in another country, and as long as your country, and teh country stated it EULA have a legal agreement about crime (most countries of the world have at the moment, that’s why it’s so hard to escape after murdering someone for example). And if yuor country does’t have agreement with other country, the game wouldn’t propably be sold in your country.
So, basicly, the law of your country doesn’t matter at all, and in the corner case you would be departed (in the case of eula) to england (if you would have togo to jail, otherwise you would jsut have to pay) and if you would refuse, the police from your country would be forced to force you to go there (to the english police in case).
As far as i know, reverse engineering a game assets or code just for personal use its not outlawed, i know a few people that reverse-engineered some UE3 games(it was hilariously easy) to see how they work and its just fine if you dont use that for commercial purposes or distribute that decompiled code.
I know is a lightly overcasted sample but i think everyone gets what i mean…