Licensing distributables with default third party plugins

Development Pipeline & Plugins Plugins
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1

Hello world,

I have been working on a little indie project for over a year now and would like to make it commercially available. Just need to complete the licensing requirements to be distributed along with the release.

My project has the default 4.18 plugin set (minus vr and ar). When i package it, under “\engine\binaries\thirdparty” i get the following

  1. nvidia\nvaftermath
  2. ogg
  3. PhysX
  4. Vorbis
  5. Windows\directx

I could really use some guidance on how to proceed from here in regards to what licenses (or legal docs) should i distribute along with the release. Wouldn’t want to mess things up after spending so much effort on it…

2

Hi Hellwitu. I’m Epic’s lawyer, so I can’t give you legal advice or interpret your obligations under third party licenses. But, I wanted to point you to some resources that may be helpful.

You can find the relevant licenses for the third party software in the “Engine/Source/ThirdParty/Licenses/” folder and/or in the relevant .tps file. Those licenses will specify your obligations with respect to the third party software.

A helpful site to understand common licenses is: https://tldrlegal.com/

3

Thanks Dudley… These should help to begin with… Will go over these today…

4

While i do struggle with license terminologies, i managed to gather the following info.

Licenses required in final ship:

1: EULA for your product between seller and buyer.

2: EULA for your product that explicitly disclaims any representations, warranties, conditions, and liabilities related to the Unreal Engine.

3: License agreements of third-party software your product uses and provide notice to your end users if required. (In the above case, Nvidia & Ogg)

4: In-game Credits:
“[Product name] uses the Unreal® Engine. Unreal® is a trademark or registered trademark of Epic Games, Inc. in the United States of America and elsewhere”
“Unreal® Engine, Copyright 1998 – xxxx, Epic Games, Inc. All rights reserved.”

Regarding 3rd party software, i have noted the key points in their licenses (under “Engine/Source/ThirdParty/Licenses/” ):

1: nvidia\nvaftermath
-…You may exercise your license rights pursuant to Subsection 1(b) above
pursuant to the terms and conditions of any form of end-user software
license agreement, provided Your end-user agrees to be bound by terms
and conditions that are as protective of NVIDIA’s Intellectual Property
Rights in the Software as this Agreement.

2: ogg
-…Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution

3: PhysX
-…Custom agreement between Epic/NVIDIA. Lisence none.

4: Vorbis
-…OggVorbis is a combined product.

5: Windows\directx
-…License none

If someone could help confirm that would be of great help for me.

5

As mentioned, I can’t provide you with legal advice since I’m Epic’s lawyer. But, you are correct that the UE4 EULA requires the items you’ve listed under “Licenses required in final ship”. I’ll let others comment on the remaining points.

We provide some guidelines to help you understand what you have to do to publish a product under the UE4 EULA. I hope you find it helpful.