Legal question

I dont know if I am blind our dont understand it but if I purchase a asset from the asset store are what I purchase legal to publish in a game?

 

1 - Depends on the license agreement with the publisher, they may restrict it to personal use (So better off to make sure first).

2 - Some may charge you royalties, so again, check with the publisher and ask for a proper license agreement.

3 - THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE, only trying to help.

 

Anything in the asset store is legally allowed to be used in a Unity game.

 

Yah there is only the asset store EULA.... which states I believe that you can't have a `custom license` ... for the most part. So there is only that EULA to deal with, and the intention is you can use whatever it is in your game - that's the point.

 

custom license are only available for free assets. All the paid ones are under the Asset Store EULA and therefore available for both commercial and personal use.

 

They're under the asset store EULA but there can still be additional license information:
https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/11292

 

The answer to this question and the one about using free Unity for commercial games needs a sticky. Not that anyone would actually search out and read the post if there was one, of course, but it might be slightly useful to have one just for kicks.

 

If the website doesn't make it clear enough then I can't see a sticky helping.

So rather than a sticky I'd say making it even more obvious on the website/Asset Store. Clearly some people need it to be explicitly stated. So one of the features listed on the download page for Unity should be "Can be used for commercial projects", and one of the things in an asset's default description should be similar.

I suspect that the problem is that when faced with the wall of text that is a license agreement people are too worried they've missing something. Or they're too lazy to read it for themselves. (And either way... would prefer to entrust their legal safety to Internet randoms... for some reason...)

 

Why does this subject keep coming up every week?

 

I completely agree, I could even see a small icon that appear somewhere obvious on all assets that indicate if this asset is ok for commercial use with no strings attached. It could maybe help a bit as well if the asset store received an update that cleaned up the interface and information a bit.

The problem with licenses is that lots of people around the world doesn't grow up with one of the major languages as their native tongue. Then remember that there is people that cannot even read properly because of different reasons.

If it is correct that the license is managed by the creator for free assets, then that too should be removed and replaced a system where a contributor to the store must choose between one of a few common licenses...

 

Hey Guys,

I take in the fact that the EULA can be a hard document to read, especially for people who do not have English as their first language. I will do what I can to make it easier for people to answer their EULA questions, perhaps a EULA FAQ or something similar.

Regarding the question: "How do I know that the asset(s) i've purchased from the asset store can be used commercially?"

Answer:

If you purchased it, you can use it commercially for your games and applications.

Free assets may have a custom EULA with a simple message of: "Please put the creator's name in the credits" or something like that.

The only commercial use of the asset that is not allowed is the act of selling the asset itself as an asset.

 

I purchased something the other day that had a note in the description that the included font wasn't licensed for redistribution. I know that font licensing is a twisty labyrinth in itself (digital use by embedding is different to digital use in images is different to non-digital use, etc.) but that could be worth clearing up in its own right. Or, you could change the rules so that only fonts which can be redistributed digitally can be included.

Of course even there it's difficult because of attribution...

I don't envy whoever has to manage this stuff on Unity's side!