Fan Art and Fan Site Policy
Everyone at Epic Games, Inc. (referred to in this document as “Epic,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) is extremely honored by all the interest shown by our fans in our games and our company, and we think it’s cool that you want to create artwork, websites, and other stuff based on our games and intellectual property. At the same time, we spend a lot of time, thought and money creating our games and intellectual property and need to protect them. So, in an effort to let you know what you can do with our games, copyrights, images, music, sounds, characters, brands, logos, trademarks, and other intellectual property (called the “Epic IP” in this document), we created this Fan Art and Fan Site Policy (called the “Policy” in this document) regarding the do’s and don’ts for: (i) your artwork, drawings, photographs, sketches, illustrations, and other intellectual property based on the Epic IP (called “Fan Art” in this document); and (ii) personal, non-commercial websites and mobile apps, created by you, that are freely accessible to the public and that are dedicated to promoting Epic’s games (called “Fan Sites” in this document).
Please read this Policy carefully so that you are aware of your legal rights and obligations with respect to the Epic IP, Fan Art, and Fan Sites.
By creating Fan Art or Fan Sites, you signify your irrevocable acceptance of this Policy.
Section 1 – General Terms and Conditions
1.1 Please understand that Epic vigorously protects the Epic IP from damaging infringement. However, pursuant to the term of this Policy, Epic grants all of its fans (and even those who don’t consider themselves fans) the revocable permission to create Fan Art and Fan Sites based on Epic IP. All Fan Art and Fan Sites must be tasteful (in Epic’s sole discretion) and (this is critical) have no commercial (monetary) objective. Also, Epic, in its sole discretion, can terminate and revoke your permission to create Fan Art and Fan Sites at any time, for any or no reason whatsoever.
1.2 Epic granting you permission to create Fan Art and Fan Sites in no way alters or lessens Epic’s ownership of all rights, title and interest in and to the Epic IP. Your right to create Fan Art and Fan Sites is limited to the permission described in Section 1.1 above.
1.3 You will not represent that your Fan Art or Fan Site is endorsed or approved by Epic or that any content on your Fan Site, or that any Fan Art, is endorsed or approved by Epic.
1.4 From your Fan Site, do not link to any website that promotes or exploits cheats or hacks to Epic’s games or any other games. If you do, we’ll be very unhappy and may sic our lawyers on you.
1.5 Any graphics that you wish to display on your Fan Site should be copied to your server and linked the web page for the associated product (or Epic’s home page). Epic may update or move graphics from time to time, so please do not link directly to the graphic as it could leave you with a broken link or page.
1.6 The permissions that Epic grants in this Policy do not extend to copying or utilizing Epic’s trade dress, which includes the overall appearance of a product or product line. No person who views your Fan Site or Fan Art should ever be led to believe that it is an official Epic production or confused about whether Epic is officially associated with the material.
1.7 Please don’t use any domain name that closely mimics our trademarks, Epic’s proprietary domains, or domains for Epic’s products. If you use a name that is confusingly similar we’ll be forced to take action. Trust me, you want to avoid us taking this sort of action.
1.8 You may not use intellectual property of Epic in any manner that Epic considers to be derogatory to Epic.
Section 2 – Disclaimer
2.1 Epic requires that a disclaimer be used in conjunction with your use of Epic IP. The required disclaimer is provided below. You must display the disclaimer on each web page of your Fan Site and on any web page containing your Fan Art, as well as on the Fan Art itself.
“Portions of the materials used are ®, (tm),(mr), and/or (mc) Epic Games, Inc., and/or copyrighted works of Epic Games, Inc., in the United States of America and elsewhere. All rights reserved, Epic Games, Inc. This material is not official and is not endorsed by Epic Games, Inc.”
2.2 Your use of the disclaimer does not allow you to “borrow” or otherwise use any material that you want by posting some sort of “disclaimer” regarding use of the material. Disclaiming that you “do not challenge the rights of an individual or company to the materials” has no legal effect and such disclaimers do not protect you and your unauthorized use of such materials. We know all about these legal(ish) work-arounds. They don’t work so don’t try to pull’em over on us.
2.3 If you use Epic brands, logos or trademarks (called the “Marks” in this document”) in connection with your Fan Art or Fan Site, attribution must be given to Epic as described in this Policy below.
- Marks must be used in connection with discussion of the products they represent.
- Marks must be used in a manner that will enhance and not damage the reputation of the Mark.
Marks cannot be altered. Epic’s Marks are brands and are spelled in a specific way with distinctive capitalization. Never make the Mark possessive, change the spelling, insert hyphens, reorganize where version numbers are placed, make one word into two, or make the trademark plural.
- Example: “Unreal® Engine™ #” should never be changed to “”Unreal® # Engine™” or “Unrealengine #™”.
Marks must always be accompanied by the proper symbols. It is unnecessary to mark each use of a trademark with the ™ or ® symbol. If you plan to use a trademark more than once, all you need to do is mark the first use of the mark and put the appropriate line in your credits box. However, each trademark you use should be emphasized with bold, italic or colored type every time you use it. The proper trademark symbol for the “Unreal” trademark is ® (superscript “(R)”). If you cannot use the special character symbol for some reason, a text replacement will suffice. (E.g., “Unreal(R)” instead of “Unreal®”.) The proper trademark symbol for the “Epic Games” and “Unreal® Engine #” trademarks is ™ (superscript “tm”). If you cannot use the special character symbol for some reason, a text replacement will suffice. (E.g., “Unreal(R) Engine(tm)” instead of “Unreal® EngineTM”.)
Section 3 – Disclaimer of Warranties
Our lawyers required a few extra hours of billable time to pay off a car payment so they wrote this and insisted we inform you that Epic does not provide a warranty for any Epic IP. EPIC EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, CLAIMS OR REPRESENTATIONS OF ANY KIND OR NATURE WITH RESPECT TO THE EPIC IP, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING ANY WARRANTIES OF QUALITY, PERFORMANCE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY, OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NOR SHOULD THERE BE DEEMED ANY WARRANTIES CREATED BY COURSE OF DEALING, COURSE OF PERFORMANCE OR TRADE USAGE.
Section 4 – Limitation of Liability
Our lawyers also have kids and kids can be expensive. So expensive they found a way to bill us a few more hours by writing this and requiring us to inform you Epic is not liable for damages based on your use of Epic IP. YOU EXPRESSLY UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT IN NO EVENT SHALL EPIC BE LIABLE WHETHER IN CONTRACT, WARRANTY, TORT, PRODUCT LIABILITY, OR STRICT LIABILITY, FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF YOUR CREATION, DISPLAY, OR USE OF ANY FAN ART OR FAN SITE OR YOUR USE OF THE EPIC IP, IF ANY, EVEN IF WE HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
You agree that in the event Epic revokes or terminates your permission to create Fan Art or Fan Sites, you may not sue Epic for any damages caused by this revocation or termination, including direct, indirect, consequential, incidental, or special damages of any kind, including, without limitation, lost profits, or your expenses related to you Fan Art or Fan Sites.
Section 5 - Mods
As you know, you are allowed to create modifications or enhancements (collectively referred to as “Mods”) to some of our games pursuant to the end user license agreements for those games. Please note that this Policy does not amend or in any way change or affect our game end user license agreements with respect to Mods or otherwise.
Section 6 - Do Not Send Epic Your Fan Art
Please do not send your Fan Art, unsolicited ideas, suggestions or artwork to Epic or anyone at Epic. Our full and complete Unsolicited Idea Submission Policy is located somewhere on http://www.epicgames.com.
Section 7 – Enforcement of Rights
Epic carefully monitors the use of Epic IP. In the event you make unauthorized use of Epic IP, Epic will direct you to immediately stop such unauthorized use. In the event you fail to stop unauthorized use or you at some later time resume unauthorized use, Epic may take legal action against you. Trust us, we don’t like to have to take legal action against anyone, but if we have to take legal action against you, you will like it even less. Of course, if this happens, you will be required to pay for Epic’s attorney’s fees and other costs of litigation.
Section 8 – No Relationship Between You and Epic
YOUR PARTICIPATION IN CREATING FAN ART AND FAN SITES IS PURELY VOLUNTARY. YOU ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT YOU WILL NOT RECEIVE ANY COMPENSATION OF ANY KIND FROM EPIC FOR YOUR FAN ART OR FAN SITE. NOTHING IN THIS POLICY WILL CREATE ANY CONTRACTOR, PARTNERSHIP, JOINT VENTURE, FRANCHISE, EMPLOYMENT OR SIMILAR RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN YOU AND EPIC. YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU MAY STOP PROVIDING CONTENT FOR YOUR FAN SITE AND MAY STOP CREATING FAN ART AT ANY TIME THAT YOU DESIRE.
Section 9 - Miscellaneous Legal Issues
Guess what? Lawyers have wives can be as expensive as kids. In an effort to squeeze the maximum amount of billable hours on this thing our lawyers wrote the following mumbo-jumbo and insisted we put it here for your reading enjoyment. Epic reserves all rights not expressly granted herein. Epic may modify this Policy at any time by posting the revised Policy on one or more web sites and you are deemed to have knowledge of any such changes. The terms of this Policy shall be governed by the laws of the State of North Carolina and any legal proceedings related to this Policy shall be based in the courts of Wake County, North Carolina and you consent to such jurisdiction. If any provision of this Policy shall be deemed unlawful, void, or for any reason unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed severable from these terms and conditions and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.
