Just throwing this out there: as a legal precaution, it might be better to go ahead and pre-emptively stop bundling the Zelda assets along with the editor, and instead replace them with an "asset extractor" feature - by which I mean I built-in program or option that allows the user to present the Quest Editor with a copy of a ROM (legally-acquired by self-dumping their own copy, of course) for ALttP, and have the editor automatically extract the assets from it as a one-time procedure.

Given that romhacking.net already has several tools available for modding ALttP, including a ROM editor, I'm sure that the location of the various assets inside the ALttP files MUST have been mapped by now.

It would also have the added benefit of allowing the Solarus community to continue forward with as much focus on Zelda fangames as they wish with very little concern about Nintendo's stance on the editor - the worst Nintendo would be able to do at that point would be to try and shut down individual creators' projects - an extremely expensive process for them since it would essentially amount to them paying their ridiculously-overpriced lawyers to spend endless extra hours playing Whack-A-Mole.

Even further, there's no reason that the Asset Extractor program couldn't be expanded at some future point - such as allowing it to extract assets from as many other game ROMs (on as many other systems) as the community would like to build extraction maps for.

[Diarandor]

What are you saying? The engine and editor do NOT contain assets from Nintendo games (as you can check in their respective repositories). It is all completely separated.

The fangames are a different matter, and they are never mixed with the engine or editor.

(after some more digging)

OOPS!

Okay, sorry, my bad. I didn't understand the situation properly - I was going by this quote in the PCGamer Article:

despite the fact that Solarus provides a free Zelda resource pack with assets from older Legend of Zelda games.

I thought it meant that the Zelda resources came pre-bundled inside the editor, but I realize now that I misunderstood it. My apologies!

(Dear Mods: feel free to delete this thread, as it was posted in error. My apologies for the trouble.)

[Christopho]

We do provide a Zelda pack, but separately. Not in the main Solarus download page.
No problem ancapgamer, we should keep this thread because it can clarify the situation for everyone

[Diarandor]

The problem comes from comments of trolls posted below that PCGamer article, so there is no need to apologize.
One must be careful because nowadays, half of the things on internet are lies... fortunately, the other half is just porn and cat videos.

Thanks, guys. I appreciate your patience.

After some thought, I still like the idea of an "asset extractor" built into the editor - it seems like a helpful way of sidestepping around IP laws without having to notably sacrifice functionality, and without putting the Solarus team in a place where they have to put their own hides at risk for being the primary source of Zelda asset packs for the engine. I especially like the idea that  a proper "asset extractor" could open up the possibility for the ROM Hacking community to contribute asset location maps to the source code of Solarus - thus opening the engine up to the possibility of being used to make fan-games for lots of franchises besides just Zelda (while still keeping Solarus itself completely free-and-clear, legally-speaking).

I'm still early-days on in teaching myself CompSci and programming, but I think perhaps I might add that to my list of possible "passion projects" to pursue as a way of gaining skill. I don't want to be the guy who contributes an idea and expects everyone else to implement it, so I think I'll try to put it together myself, once I get that far along.

Anyway, sorry, I shouldn't ramble on so much. Thanks for not giving me the full "internet treatment" for my mistake. I'll try and get around to contributing something helpful as soon as I'm at that level.

(edit: grammar)