Distribution Using Licensed Game Assets From China

RyanC

Member
Recently I've been looking into using game art from China and although it seems the assets are available to purchase. I'm concerned about commercial distribution with these assets, as I have noticed that Unity Asset Store does not allow such assets to be used in any commercial projects.

I've looked online but cannot see any information about it.

Anyone know anything about this?
 

Yal

šŸ§ *penguin noises*
GMC Elder
You'd generally be able to use art according to the license it is released under. If the asset store sells assets you're not allowed to use commercially, you can't use them commercially, even if they're released for a price. I can't see why anybody would sell assets that cannot be used to make money later, because that sounds like a surefire way to lose customers, but it they do, you can't use them. Or you could use them anyway and hope nobody takes legal action, just be aware that it's a seedy decision.
 
Be really careful there. Intellectual property is tricky.

One important thing to always remember: If the "seller" of an intellectual property was not authorized to "sell" it then your usage will stay illegal no matter how much you paid for it. Meaning you'll have to pay to the owner anyways including legal costs. This part should be the same in nearly every modern country.

And if you buy from an even slightly dubious source like a site from China you might even get penalized in some countries. So you'll also pay a fine, more legal costs and maybe get registered as a criminal.

So if you have any doubt, don't buy it.
 
You lot do know China has legitimate, non-criminal businesses, right...?
Of course it does - I gues no one here doubts that. It's just that chances are ALOT higher that you land on a shady site.

Usually I'm not that good at giving advice on these boards because I'm not a learned programmer. But giving legal advice, that's what I do for a living :) Trust me in this: 90% of all our legal cases in wich normal people or small companies get trouble with intellectual property are about licencing or buying something from an asian and mainly chinese site. And in most cases they even were sceptical in the first place like the OP wich means in some countries they additionally get penealized. So my advice still is: don't buy it if you have hte slightest doubt about the site being legit.

Also what Yal wrote is important. You need to know what license type you're downloading/buying. Some licenses exclude commercial usage. Some allow it but only for certain things wich might exclude video games.
 

rIKmAN

Member
The responsibility should be pushed back to the vendor as they are reselling illegal assets. The buyer purchases these in good faith, believing the assets to be legal. But, with the way in how laws can be so screwy sometimes, who knows what would actually happen in court.
Good luck taking anyone in China to court for any IP related crime - not only that, good luck even finding them.

China is a well known haven for IP theft, IP laws are pretty none existent or at least in terms of being followed and adhered.

Of course there are legitimate business in China, but the fact remains it's a much much higher risk to purchase anything involving IP from there than other countries, partly because of the inability to check the legitimacy of the source of the purchase, and partly because of the aforementioned lack of IP protection laws being applied and followed.

It's sad, but it's much safer to purchase IP related content from elsewhere as it will reduce the risk of potential scamming and you unknowingly infringing down the line.
 

rIKmAN

Member
Logic would dictate that it would be a "stop using these in your product" type of judgement, but since when has logic been the only thing used in lawsuits?

Also, if you have some success with a game using those assets and the infringement allegation isn't made until a decent amount has been made, I would would assume the infringed would want a piece of that pie - it's human nature - and also probably the basis for a known scam.

However I'm not a lawyer and we all know what assuming does...

On a related note, check this video out for the craziness that goes on in the world of patents, and I would say IP, trademarks etc could be in the same sort of upside down, "this can't be real", "wtf is going on" type world.

 
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