This page contains answers to frequently asked questions received by our Legal Department, and covers popular topics like what you may (or may not) do with our intellectual property (“IP”), our policies on third party licenses for consumer products super-awesome-swag, etc.
We want to help you find the answers to your questions and explain how we view many of these common issues. Please read below to learn more, and contact us at [email protected] if you don’t see an answer to your question.
What about if my product or service based on Hi-Rez Studios’ IP is free, but I generate revenue from advertisements?
As long as you comply with our Guidelines and any other legal documentation that applies to you, and you don’t violate any third party intellectual property rights, we are fine with you generating advertising revenue from distribution of your fan product or service; provided, however, your product or service is always free to the public so everyone in our community can enjoy it. Remember, Hi-Rez reserves the right to shut down any fan product or service at any time for good reason, bad reason, or no reason at all.
Please don’t do anything that upsets the community, is immoral, or generally should be avoided. (Common sense is usually your best friend.)
Yes, but certain restrictions apply. (See below.)
Hi-Rez Studios, Inc. (“Hi-Rez”) hereby grants you a limited, personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, and non-sublicensable license to use and display, for home, non-commercial, and personal use only, one copy of any material or artwork that you may download from the Site (as defined in the Online Terms of Service and Use Agreement applicable to all Hi-Rez games), including, without limitation, any audiovisual files incorporated in or generated by the software (collectively, the "Content"); provided, however, you must include or maintain all copyright and other proprietary notices contained in or associated with such Content. You acknowledge, understand, and agree that you may not sublicense, assign, or otherwise transfer this license or the Content and that no right, title, or interest in and to the Content has been or will be transferred to you from Hi-Rez or anyone else. You also agree that you will not alter, disassemble, decompile, reverse engineer, or otherwise modify the Content.
Hi-Rez reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to revoke this limited use license at any time, for any reason or no reason. You may not use Hi-Rez materials on websites that feature defamatory, pornographic, or inflammatory content, including, without limitation, hacks and cheats for any of our games or any other content that Hi-Rez finds objectionable or unlawful.
No. Any product or service based on our IP that is for sale or profit, or any other commercial purpose as defined solely by Hi-Rez, is expressly prohibited. You must have a license with Hi-Rez in order to sell or commercially exploit products or services based on our IP. At this time, Hi-Rez does not enter into licensing agreements with individuals. This may seem harsh to you, but it’s actually to ensure that the products and services available to our community adhere to high quality standards. Because we have limited capacity to work with licensees, it’s important to carefully select who we work with. If you own or represent a company that is interested in working with us on a product or service and believe you have exceptional criteria in your industry, you may contact us at [email protected] to share more information about the opportunity.
Same answer as the previous question, minus the advertising revenue piece.
First, we love that you want to share your idea(s) with us and understand how much time and energy it takes to create something new and interesting. However, to protect everyone involved, we do not accept unsolicited submissions of concepts, creative ideas, suggestions, stories, artwork, music, data, video-games, digital content, or other potential ideas or content. This is to avoid the possibility of future misunderstandings when projects developed by us or our partners might seem to you to be similar to the submitted concepts, creative ideas, suggestions, stories, artwork, music, data, video-games, digital content, or other potential ideas or content. Therefore, please do not send us any unsolicited submissions.
From time to time, we may request submissions from you. These requests are solicited (which is the key distinguishing fact from the prior question), and your participation is governed by our Online Terms of Service and Use.
Are there any legal notices that I should have on my website, product, or service when talking about your products and services?
Yes, and thank you for taking the time to ask. You must include all copyright, trademark, and other notices (as applicable) for the appropriate products or services. Please visit the Legal Notices page for more information.
We do not allow additional content creation for any of our actively supported games. You may create and distribute Tribes maps for published titles within that franchise if the release date for the applicable published title(s) precedes April 12, 2012; provided, however, any maps you create and distribute must be for personal, non-commercial purposes only. Any such additional content is also subject to the other terms and conditions that apply to those products and services, and Hi-Rez reserves the right to withdraw its permission for such additional content creation and distribution at any time. For purposes of clarity, you may not create additional content for Tribes: Ascend.
No. If we discover you are attempting to sell your account on a third party website, we may permanently disable access to your account without notice. Similarly, if you purchase an account from a third party and we discover you were not the original registrant, we may permanently disable that account without notice. Be smart and earn your own way.
No. Hi-Rez reserves the sole and exclusive right to extend and expand its properties to other media. An easy example of this is the SMITE® comic book series. Please understand that our goal is to provide you with a consistent universe, and that our control over this area is designed to create higher quality content for you to enjoy. If you believe you can contribute to that journey and have the appropriate credentials, please visit the careers section or mail us your resume, Attention: Human Resources Department.
No, silly. Hi-Rez does not support or condone the use or distribution of unauthorized third party programs that provide users with an “edge” through cheating, hacking, or other inappropriate means (in Hi-Rez’s sole discretion) under any circumstances.
Written consent must be received from an authorized representative of Hi-Rez, and the correct way to get it always starts through email communication with [email protected], followed by our reply. If someone contacts you and gives you permission on the forums, through reddit or other social media, or by unsolicited email, you are safe in assuming that it’s probably illegitimate. Save yourself a headache later and contact us directly before presuming you have written consent.
I’m a developer and would love to get access to some of your data for a free, non-commercial website or application I’m building based on your game(s). How can I get this?
Currently, we only offer this service for our video-game SMITE®. You may apply to become a registered developer for SMITE at this website. Please note we do not accept all applications that we receive. If your application is accepted, we will send you custom credentials to login and access our available tools. Access is at all times conditioned on your acceptance and full compliance with the API Terms of Use.
I sent an email to [email protected] but never heard back. What’s up?
Feel free to send another email in case we missed your note. However, if your question is covered by this FAQ, is illegible, jumbled, in a foreign language, or inappropriate, we may not respond at all.