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Marketplace Assets being sold by Third Party

Unreal Engine Marketplace
#1

Hi there.

I’d like to bring attention to this issue to the community and Epic.
Apparently a lot of marketplace assets are being sold in Taobao by third party.
I’m not exactly reporting my asset , but to see these packs being distributed and someone else earning from it, Oh man.

Pirating / Torrenting is one thing. SELLING and profiting from stolen work is altogether a whole new level.
I’d like to know if Epic can do something about them. Since Epic is now partially owned by Tencent and have strong CHina presence , I assume they
have some form of legal power, China-style.

example of link :

[Removed link]

EDIT : For those who say nothing can be done is quite incorrect. Selling counterfeit item is like jaywalking. But not pirated/stolen things. China is stepping up their game on it. Including allowing blizzard to sue some developers earlier on.

http://en.people.cn/n/2015/0825/c90882-8941475.html

this is a good example of what could happen if the right strings are pulled.

#2

Well epic is partly owned by a chinese company. Report it, I say. There has been stolen stuff sold on that site before, and from a little googling it looks like they were sending people to prison for it!

#3

Hey,

additionally you could send a mail to [EMAIL=“piracy@unrealengine.com”]piracy@unrealengine.com.

#4

You should take the link off this post, because your promoting their site sent the link to: piracy@unrealengine.com

#5

That is cheap… Never thought I’d see someone trying to scrape literally pennies off stolen content…

#6

Yeah, you should remove the link (dont make it easier for them & it’s against the rules to post links to pirated content)!
Then send Epic an email (the piracy related one, mentioned above) and they will deal with it I hope!

#7

I do a lot of business in China and am also working with a lot of the major publishers like Tencent. From my experience, there isn’t much to be done about this. Even if Tencent is able to pull this site down (Epic certainly won’t have any sway with the Chinese government), 10 more will creep up just like it within 48 hours. I’m sure there’s 10 other sites like this one that already exist and we haven’t stumbled on them yet. You also have to understand that piracy in China can be compared to “jaywalking” in the US. If a police officer needs to meet his quota AND someone complains persistently about this issue, then yeah you’ll get a ticket. Otherwise it’s not something they waste their time enforcing.

The best weapon the Unreal Marketplace has over these websites is the ongoing support. Once you buy the item (unless it’s purely art assets or audio clips), you generally have followup questions and need support. Also - even for art and audio - you patch and update your packs. They have to constantly re-buy the latest every time you push any sort of change through the marketplace.

You might also want to take solace in that you aren’t actively advertising your content in China anyways, so it’s not as if you’re losing on any sales that you would’ve had otherwise.

Not that I’m a fan of piracy, just trying to find the silver lining (because otherwise we can just sit and be angry about it).

#8

They are selling demos as well…wow that’s nasty…

#9

Hey guys/@Frozenfire, I removed the link from the OP. As mentioned, send the link to piracy@unrealengine.com

#10

I wouldn’t expect Epic to pulldown taobao. they’re too big. they’re like Ebay there. I bought a lot of physical stuff from Taobao as well. It’s not going down.
BUT, what they can do is to let Taobao enforce their “no-stolen-goods” policy.

you’re partially right there’s no loss of sale… except anyone in the world can buy it.
I’m also aware of torrent links , but I’m no fan of chasing the ghost of file sharing.
Someone else profiting form it is… well… different

I was alerted to this link when one of my freelancers asked me if i want any asset he could buy for me on my behalf.
and then tell me where he got it from.