fair use Am I allowed to use BI assets in free game mods/skins?

[nesan 7]

In regards to the reuse of game assets for free mods/skins in other games, is this allowed under company policy?

 

I should note the Garry's mod community does this all the time and said noncommercial/parodic reuse of assets is considered to fall under fair use law by this community.

Possible uses that definitely fall under fair use include:

• Using game models in Garry's mod as a freely available model.
• Using game models for non-commercial mods for other games such as Bethesda games and Source engine games.
• Using game models in free non-commercial fangames.
• Using game models in source filmmaker/blender/other software to make fan videos.
• Offering the models for free use in a 3d virtual world such as VR chat.
• Any other use that is non-commercial or otherwise parodic, and thus falls under fair use.

[dalber24 122]

The answer is simple, no, you can't use anything even if it's free, for the love of art or whatever, you can't use anything created by the community without their consent either.

BI content can only be used in BI products.-

That is what I have understood for years and I doubt that it has changed or will change.-

[drebin052 323]

Have a look at Bohemia's Game Content Usage Rules. Intending to port things from BI games (Arma, DayZ, etc.) into a non-BI game very much falls into reverse engineering which is a big no-no since you are clearly not making your own stuff that are inspired by BI's assets:

 

Quote

Key information:

[...]

6. You may develop your own game content, tools, plug-ins and other utilities or services for both noncommercial and commercial use as long as it is your original creation, without using the content, tool or any other intellectual property of Bohemia Interactive.

[...]

 

Quote

Can I reverse engineer or modify your game files?

 

You may not reverse engineer or hack our games to access the content you want to make items from or to change the game’s functionality.

 

Some (not all) music is an exception but you're better off checking with BI's legal team for permission:

 

Quote

How about music?

 

Most of the music can be freely used subject to our general rules, e.g. all music from Arma games. Sometimes we license music from 3rd parties and subsequently don’t own the rights ourselves and cannot give permission for you to use music or other audio from the game. If this is the case we’ll let you know, safest to check first with us. But we can confirm that the music in Carrier Command: Gaea Mission and some of the music in Take On Helicopters is not available for re-use.