Can a FREE asset be used in an open source project and if yes, under which license?
In the Asset Store End User License Agreement it sais under
2.2.1 Non-Restricted Assets
The following concerns only Assets that are not Restricted Assets: Licensor grants to the END-USER a non-exclusive, worldwide, and perpetual license to the Asset to integrate it only as incorporated and embedded components of electronic games and digital media and distribute such electronic game and digital media; reproduction and display in distributed physical advertising materials is permitted solely for marketing purposes in respect of such electronic games or digital media. Except for game services software development kits (“Services SDKs”), END-USERS may modify Assets. END-USER may otherwise not reproduce, publicly display, publicly perform, transmit, distribute, sublicense, rent, lease or lend the Assets. It is emphasized that the END-USERS shall not be entitled to distribute or transfer in any way (including, without, limitation by way of sublicense) the Assets in any other way than as integrated components of electronic games and digital media or in supporting physical marketing materials. Without limitation of the foregoing it is emphasized that END-USER shall not be entitled to share the costs related to purchasing an Asset and then let any third party that has contributed to such purchase use such Asset (forum pooling).
Does this mean I must not redistribute assets, meaning I can not include them in any open source project, even not if they are published as "FREE" assets?
Or is there a way to work around this?
How about this license declaration:
Free Software License
Released binary versions of this project may be obtained and used without limitations and free of charge.
Assets contained in this project are however NOT sub-licensed by this and must NOT be extracted out of the context of this project for reuse. They are subject to the original license published through the unity asset store. They were FREE assets at the time they where included in this project, however a different licensing may apply to them in the future, prohibiting continued use.
These assets currently are: Unity Space Shooter Tutorial (c) Unity Technologies (...)
Concerning only the components originally created within this project, the permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY $$anonymous$$IND, EXPRESS OR I$$anonymous$$PLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LI$$anonymous$$ITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF $$anonymous$$ERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGE$$anonymous$$ENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAI$$anonymous$$, DA$$anonymous$$AGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FRO$$anonymous$$, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWAR$$anonymous$$
Answer by RedUnityCat · Oct 08, 2018 at 09:58 PM
There's alot of open source projects listed on unitylist.com , some of which clearly using free assets.
However this doesn't mean it's legal. (And I don't want to answer to legal claims...) But as mostly the redistribution is problematic and publishing binaries is not, I have the idea, that one could exclude the assets from github (.gitignore) and make a list for contributors about which assets they have to download from the store and put in their asset folder in order to develop and compile the project.
What do you think about that?
I was thinking: is an asset an "integrated component" of a game, if the whole unity project is shared like on github? Because if it was, then one maybe even upload them there. Then one would still have to exclude them from any open source license for sure.
However this does not seem to bother that many people, since I seem to be talking to myself. $$anonymous$$aybe if just nobody cares, I won't get sued?