How legal is it to use third-party text sources?

Hi. I am carrying out a personal project and I would like to resolve several doubts related to the use of third party materials.

In this case I wanted to use a text source that has caught my attention and although it belongs to a recognized game Ubisoft is available for free download. For the same reason I wanted to know if legal problems could arise if I use that source.

I appreciate any opinion.


Hola. Estoy llevando a cabo un proyecto personal y me gustaría resolver varias dudas relacionado con el uso de materiales de terceros.

En este caso he querido usar una fuente de texto que me ha llamado mucho la atención y aunque pertenece a un juego reconocido de Ubisoft esta disponible para descarga gratuita. Por la misma razón quería saber si pueden surgir problemas legales si uso esa fuente.

Le agradezco cualquier opinión.

Free download does not mean free to use for whatever reason. Check the license, if it does not have one, you will need to ask them. Probably they won’t even answer though. But good luck.

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Unless the license states otherwise, you cannot use this for your own work.

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If Ubisoft put it out it will almost certainly be their copyrighted material. Ubisoft will also almost certainly not give permission for their material to be used in a competing game. You’d then only be able to use the material under very strict circumstances based on your local laws, or anywhere you would distribute the game. But for making your own game you would be unlikely to qualify.

But besides that, what does “personal project” mean? If it means you’re creating it for only your enjoyment, and will never distribute the project to anyone, then copyright of the content is not particularly concerning.

I Am Not A Lawyer
Seek a lawyer who specializes in trademark and copyright law for real answers

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Thank you very much for your answers. Well, with personal project I mean a development work between fiction novel for books and video game development.

The font is based on Assasin Creed and I loved it. I used it for the title of my project.

And use it for a promotion poster.

I have already requested some response from Ubisoft, and I have not received any news. The font can be freely downloaded with the name of the game, but from there it can be marketed or even modified I’m not sure.

You’re asking about a font?

A custom proprietary font taken from another company’s work will be copyrighted and can’t be used without permission. A font which is inspired by another font but not directly copied or otherwise identical should be fine.

I Am Not A Lawyer

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Then you suggest me to create a source inspired by the Assasin Source without copying directly ?, Could you? Also the source of Assasin is inspired by other sources that have almost the same calligraphy, but the shape of the “G” and “R” are unique and I love them. Even so if it is the only way to be able to base myself on its source creating something that is inspired by its source but that does not break the author’s rights, I will have to do it. Thank you.

All I’m suggesting is if a font was created from scratch in the style of Ubisoft’s font, while not a copy/paste of the Ubisoft font itself, then you are almost certainly going to be fine.

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Okay, it’s much better than asking permission from Ubisoft. Maybe they also relied on some other font.

Assassin’s Creed font appears to be very similar to that of the fonts Trajan and Cinzel. The former is a paid font sold by Adobe but the latter is provided by Google under the Open Font License.

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It’s complicated but yet not. Depends on how you want to use it. The Law on Fonts and Typefaces in Design and Marketing: Frequently Asked Questions (about commercial and non-commercial use) - crowdspring Blog

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I want to maintain a unique style for my future publications in books, video games, or anything else. It would be the race with which my work can be recognized, this source I adore and I will take a lot of your advice, I know that they will guide me well.

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Thank you. I think that if there are no problems with the commercial use of the Cinzel font, I will use it. I also became interested in the source of Imperia, for it I will have to see if the License does not limit my commercial use and then I will see if I acquire it.

Edit:
I think that you have made the work much easier for me, and with a little research I managed to find good sources of both Public Domain and Licenses to Market.

This source is based on Trajan or The First Roman. I thank you for your contribution to this conversation.

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Interesting side note regarding Trajan. It’s become the font of choice over 25 years of Hollywood movie poster design.

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Yes.