If you'd amended the source, then it wouldn't be the same version and the license would be invalid. If you want to use the perpetual license, you can't do anything with the source.

Except that is what the license Epic you allows to do

https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/eula/unreal

> 2. How You Can Use the Licensed Technology

> Epic grants you a non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable license to privately use, reproduce, display, perform, and modify the Licensed Technology in accordance with the terms of this Agreement (the “License”). This means that as long as you are not violating this Agreement or applicable law, you can privately use the Licensed Technology however you want. If you want to share the Licensed Technology or anything you make with it, Sections 3 and 4 below address when and how you can do that.

In section 3/4 it goes to that you can compile your game and give the output to outsiders if you pay the roylaties when applicable or share them royalty free on epics github (basically you make a pr to merge your stuff upstream) or on unreal marketplace (sell it)

Well, you can always modify source code and use it privately - you hardly need a license for that.

The additional sections that allow distribution are the important bits and I guess the devil is in the details.

The point is that if you're a game company. You have a way to legally make modifications to the engine even if Epic goes belly up.

No you cant.

Who could stop you and how would they know about it?

> Well, you can always modify source code and use it privately - you hardly need a license for that.

You do need a license to modify the source, use it internally, and then sell a binary you've produced with the modified source.

It's the "sell a binary" bit that introduces the need for a license.

Why is there so much misinformation around this. None of what you said is true.

Possibly because people like you respond with no actual information in your post that people could learn from?

I am less impressed with the defensiveness you're responding with when ignorance is pointed out than I am with the people pointing out the ignorance.

I'm not intending to be defensive (I'm sure there's loads of people on here with more knowledge about licensing terms), but usually a corrective post is something that we can learn from. Just saying something is wrong with no more info seems against the spirit of HN.

Misinformation is more against the spirit.

Well misinformation wasn't my intention.