Intellectual Property

This page covers many questions some users may have about what they can and cannot do about Bohemia Interactive's or other licenses for a free, non-commercial use.

Definitions

Term	Definition
License	License
End-User License Agreement (EULA)	End-user license agreement
Intellectual Property (IP)	Intellectual property
Fair Use	Fair use / Fair dealing / Stanford uni link
Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)	DMCA / US Summary

Fair Use

«

« You keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means » – Iñigo Montoya (source)

"Fair Use" is very often called as the ideal line of defense regarding copyright infringement.
Alas for its subscribers, Fair Use most likely means allowed for research and educational purpose, under which gaming/modding does not fall. It is also a personal, non-commercial "default license" that cannot cover a mod team nor Steam distribution of such work.

For more information, see the Wikipedia articles Fair use / Fair dealing above.

Personal Use

"Personal Use", as "Fair Use", is also frequently used to justify illegal IP usage.
Personal use means for oneself only. Personal use does not cover group usage (e.g friends, clans), let alone reuploads.

Bohemia Interactive

For Arma Reforger, see Workbench's EULA and its FAQ.

Important:
Regarding BI Tools usage, anything that went through BI Tools can NOT be sold by default, without express authorisation from Bohemia Interactive. See BITools EULA for more information.

Category	Action	Allowed	Conditions
Mods & PBO	Buying/Selling mods		BITools EULA
	Buying/Selling pbo files		BITools EULA
	Porting BI games' reverse-engineered content to other titles		BITools EULA
	Forward-porting previous BI games' Licensed Data Package content to newer BI titles		BITools EULA
3D Models	Buying/Selling p3d 3D models		BITools EULA
	Buying/Selling non-p3d 3D models		N/A
	Buying/Selling non-p3d to p3d conversion service		BITools EULA
Textures	Buying/Selling paa textures		BITools EULA
	Buying/Selling non-paa textures		N/A
	Buying/Selling non-paa to paa conversion service		BITools EULA
Text content	Buying/Selling sqf scripts		N/A
	Buying/Selling cpp (config) files		N/A
	Buying/Selling bin (binarised config) files		BITools EULA
Monetising in-game content	Giving/Taking money for Arma 3 server content		Monetisation Rules
	Giving/Taking money for DayZ server content		Monetisation Rules
Media Monetising	Monetising a video of BI game(s)		Monetisation Rules

See also:

• Meta:General disclaimer
• Bohemia Interactive Community:Guidelines

Arma

• Data provided in Arma Licensed Data Pack:
  • can be modified and/or used to make an Arma mod
  • cannot be modified nor used in other games
• Data that is not listed in Arma Licensed Data Pack cannot be modified nor used in any way.

Take On Helicopters

• Data provided in Take On Helicopters Data Pack:
  • can be modified and/or used to make an Arma mod (or a Take On Helicopters one)
  • cannot be modified nor used in other games
• Data that is not listed in Take On Helicopters Data Pack cannot be modified nor used in any way.

Steam EULA

Steam Subscriber Agreement (User Generated Content paragraph)

• items must be uploaded by the creator/owner/group account or the uploader must have been authorised to do so by the aforementioned creator(s). It is forbidden to upload an item that was made by someone else otherwise.

Other Intellectual Properties

In a general manner, companies do not agree to usage of their Intellectual Property without a license agreement. Here are some licenses detailed for a free, non-commercial use.

Important:
Please note that this table is provided as an assistance and should in no way be considered a legal reference.

Bohemia Interactive cannot and will not be held responsible for any license misuse you may commit.
You and only you will be held responsible for your actions. As a general rule of thumb, read and abide by each company's EULA.

Use the provided information at your own risk!

ⓘ

This table was last updated on 2024-05-30 and may be obsolete at the time of reading.

• Read the respective EULA to be sure, as your personal responsibility is involved!
• You can provide additional information on the Arma Discord Server, in the #community_wiki channel.

License	Owned by	EULA	Agreement-less usage	Licensing contact
Babylon 5	Warner Bros Licensing Company of America	N/A	Unknown	Contact info
BattleStar Galactica	Universal Studios	N/A	No	N/A
BattleTech / MechWarrior	The Topps Company	N/A	No	N/A
Command and Conquer	Electronic Arts	Terms of Service	Seems to be tolerated	N/A
DC Comics	Warner Bros	N/A	Unknown	Contact info
Fallout	Bethesda	Zenimax Media Terms of Service	No	Contact info
Gears of War	Microsoft Studios	Dev Rules	Seems to be accepted	N/A
Halo	Microsoft Studios	Dev Rules	Seems to be accepted	N/A
Marvel Comics	The Walt Disney Company Marvel	Walt Disney Studios Licensing Terms of Use	No	Contact info 1 Contact info 2
Metal Gear Solid	Konami	N/A	Unknown	N/A
SCP Foundation	SCP wiki	SCP Licensing Guide (CC-BY-SA)	Seems to be tolerated 1.00 not to be uploaded to Steam's Workshop as it would go against EULA 1.0.0 Workshop upload is OK with a custom license	Contact info
S.T.A.L.K.E.R	GSC Game	EULA Fan Content Creation Guidelines	No	support@gsc-game.com legal@gsc-game.com
Stargate	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios	N/A	No	N/A
Starship Troopers	Sony Pictures Home Entertainement	N/A	Unknown	N/A
Star Trek	CBS Entertainment	Terms of Use	Seems to be tolerated	N/A
Star Wars	The Walt Disney Company LucasFilm Ltd.	Walt Disney Studios Licensing Terms of Use	No	Contact info
Warhammer	Games Workshop	Intellectual Property Policy	Unsure about distribution	Contact info

ⓘ

The above table is about agreement-less usage; keep in mind it is always possible to ask owners for their permission to adapt their intellectual properties in Arma.
You may already have a "no", but all you risk is a "yes"!

Frequently Asked Questions

Important:
Please note that this FAQ is provided as an assistance and should in no way be considered a legal reference.

Bohemia Interactive cannot and will not be held responsible for any license misuse you may commit.
You and only you will be held responsible for your actions. As a general rule of thumb, read and abide by each company's EULA.

Use the provided information at your own risk!

Can I use models from a game of my favourite franchise? I will give credits!

Not if these models have been ripped (extracted from the game)

Not without permission of both the model's rights owner and the franchise's intellectual property owner. Giving credits without permission is legally meaningless.

All the models are made from the ground up, so I can use the universe of my favourite Intellectual Property, correct?

No. Using copyrighted material (the universe, terms, lore) without permission is not allowed. Ask for permission or do not, there is no try.

I use models for a free videogame usage, this goes under Fair Use?

No. In short, Fair Use is valid for a creation's criticism or studying and not for public release of any sort. Refer to Fair Use to know more about why claiming Fair Use is wrong regarding modding.

So, in order to do anything, what do I need?

Two conditions are required:

• to have the Intellectual Property owner's permission:
  • the permission can be implicit (the EULA can allow modders to create content without specifically asking)
  • the permission can be explicit (the EULA states that by default no content can be created unless approved)
• to have models:
  • the models can come from another game - provided the model rights' owner provided an implicit or explicit permission
  • the models must otherwise be created from scratch

Anything else is intellectual property (copyright, trademark) infringement.

See Also

• https://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/ - Stanford University's information page about "Fair Use"
• https://sqi.workshopcrawler.com/ - an unofficial Steam workshop tool that detects reuploads
• https://arma3practicalipguide.blogspot.com/ - Practical guide to IP in Arma 3
• https://soundcloud.com/armahosts-llc/ep-37-intellectual-property - a Radio Arma podcast on the matter