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Legality using free Assets from other websites
I found some free assets on some other website (I will not list it here so there are no advertising issues) and I was wondering about their legality. They do not state in any way if they are pirated or simply free anyhow so I was wondering how can one check or know if the assets they use in a game are legal of use and they have no issues after releasing the game? I mean when my game is finished I don't mind paying for an asset if a situation arises that I was not aware of at first but if my game is released and then I get sued, that becomes a much more serious issue
"Best" would probably be to just ask the creator and probably sign some agreement or contract if you want to be super safe. Don't think that simply asking will help as you wouldn't have any proof that the created agreed on something so if you do get sued you'd probably need some evidence that you are allowed to use that stuff. (please note that I'm no lawyer or anything close to that.. )
I would stay away - if a piece of content doesn't come with a specific free-for-commercial use license, I would assume there isn't one.
Even Creative Commons licenses usualy are non-commercial and require mentioning the author / have other limitations.
If you got free assets from somewhere other than the asset store, they are most likely pirated. Unless you got them from the creators website, and in that case, they would obviously be free, otherwise you would have had to pay for them directly. $$anonymous$$any asset creators put their assets on the asset store, and post them on their own website where you can download them. However, they do not offer their asset for free just because they host it. Paid assets will cost you money, free assets will not. Just get them from the creators and you will be safe. Downloading them from anywhere besides the creators website or the asset store will almost insure you have an illegal copy.
But if the other website is providing assets with links to the unity store then it's ok right? What about selling a game with free assets downloaded from unity store, or free for a limited time only?
Well. Not necessarily. A website hosting a pirated copy could conceivably post a link to the original on the unity store. Are we talking specifically about unity asset packages?
Answer by Graham-Dunnett · Mar 26, 2014 at 05:49 PM
Unity Asset Store vendors will know if you have purchased their asset or not. If they see a game which appears to use their tech, then they'll buy the game and tear it apart to look to see what's in it. If they find their tech, they'll probably contact you asking for proof that you've bought it. Or, if they are p*ssed off, they'll get a lawyer involved. That might mean your game needs to be taken off the market, and you might need to come to some agreement about how much of the revenue you've made needs to be shared with the vendor.
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