koobas.hobune.stream
[Legal issue] Paid assets on GitHub
Hey,
recently I started working on a project in Unity with my small team and we would like to use some paid assets from the Asset Store.
The thing is, we are using GitHub for version control and I'd like to know if that would break any legal condition since those paid assets would be publicly showed on our repository. We don't have private repositories.
I've read that GitHub has some default laws on public repositories but I can't really tell if it's legal or not. This should be a problem a lot of people have faced before but I just can't find the right answer.
Thanks.
A note for readers specifically looking for the case of the Global Game Jam. The rule says you have to share code and assets "that you are legally allowed to share without breaking any other legal agreements", so you don't have to be afraid to use paid assets in this jam. That said, your project won't be usable if you remove critical code / assets, so I guess you'll have to share your code and assets just like that, without a Unity project.
I was about to submit this as an answer but hesitated.
According to https://unity3d.com/legal/as_terms 2.2 and 3.8, the end-user cannot distribute nor allow any third party to distribute Assets, so I guess pushing to a public repository would indeed break Asset Store Terms of Service / EULA.
Of course, the question now is whether pushing to a public repository equals distributing. I assume it is, but I am not a legal expert.
While I don't know the answer, I will say why risk it? What do you or others get by posting the assets on GitHub? It's obviously illegal for a user to download the raw asset, so no one benefits by having the paid assets posted there. You can release all the assets that you have control over for others to use and view on GitHub, and offer a built and downloadable version if you want that includes the paid assets.
As far as I remember you cannot make a repository private when using GitHub unless if you pay for it, so that might be the "issue". Paid assets on a public GitHub is illegal generally. Even sharing paid assets among $$anonymous$$m members can be a problem if the license does not support it.
Oh I didn't know that, but isn't that stupid ? I mean, if you pay ( as a company ) for an asset, you have to delegate it to one of your employees and no one else can use it?
DISCLAIMER: not legal advice.
If you don't have a license to distribute it in raw format, then you can't. public repository obviously should be considered distribution. they shouldn't have special status legally. it's basically a webpage. uploading music you bought from a music store for example would clearly be illegal to upload to your own blog even if you consider it for your own use. It's also unfair for the creator, if someone downloaded your project and used it somewhere else without paying.
There are private repositories for free. I believe gitlab offer one. But technically it might also be in violation of the license for sharing with the git host. but not as bad as uploading to a public one.
You could also exclude those assets using gitignore
Did a quick search on Github for one of the Paid Asset, find a lot public repos that contain it.
To be honest this whole Asset Store system need some serious rework to protect those asset creators.
