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Topic: what is legal? (Read 6774 times)
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Staffy Star
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Suppose that I would create a computer game just for fun, not take any charge for it. Just for you guys. What would be legal? Could I take the ships from star control? Races?
I figured it would be ok since "The ur quan masters" actually is a game like that... or?
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TiLT
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Short answer: No, you definitely couldn't take the graphics from either of the Star Control games or even The Ur-Quan Masters.
I'll leave it to someone else to give you a long answer.
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UAF
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Actually while usually the answer is "no" in the case of StarControl it's "yes".
That's because TfB allows it. You can ask them to be 100% sure, but they pretty much gave a general 'go for it' answer in the past.
And after all, it doesn't hurt them in any way.
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Shiver
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Short answer: No, you definitely couldn't take the graphics from either of the Star Control games or even The Ur-Quan Masters.
What exactly is legitimate about TimeWarp, then? They did their own graphics, but just about everything else in that game is ripped out of Star Control and it's very widely distributed as far as freeware games go.
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Arne
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As far as I know UQM is using some sort of licence.
I know of people who have had their projects shut down by the copyright/trademark owners.... but it only likely to happen when there's a new game with similar mechanics in the pipe. Hmmmm...
I think satire or fan-art is pretty much legal, but maybe not if the Trademark Dilution Revision Act ( Status ) goes through. Basically I think it can make it illegal to ...dilute (slander?) trademarks, like the macDonalds clown or whatever. Makes me think of the Danish cartoon spectacle a while ago.
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Arne
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What intellectual property rights are you talking about Halleck? To my knowledge IP is just a deliberately fuzzy umbrella term for copyright, trademark, patent, etc. Fan games would fall under derivative works, probably not fair use, If I were to guess. I think it's infringement regardless of if you make money or not of it.
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Halleck
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As I understand it, if you create a work you automatically own the copyright to that work under US copyright law. However, you may not own the idea or characters that the work is based on; that's the intellectual property of the originator. More specifically, the property rights to the character are retained by the creator of that character, giving them (as I understand it) command over how that character can be merchandised and "exploited", among other things.
So, if you do a drawing of an Orz, you own the copyright to that drawing. However, TFB basically gets to tell you what to do since they own the property rights to the character of the Orz, up to and including sending a "cease and desist" notice for infringement. However, I believe your work is protected by default from others under copyright law.
So, while TFB could potentially stop all "infringement" of their property rights, they choose not to do so and have even publically expressed support for fan game projects. Many corporations operate in the same way: paramount doesn't sue star trek fans for making models of the star trek ships as long as they're not making money off it. It's free publicity and I'd think that it would generally help to increase the fan base without really impacting sales, so most companies don't bear down, though they could.
This is how things work as I understand it, but I am not a lawyer.
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« Last Edit: May 02, 2006, 08:16:10 pm by Halleck »
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Arne
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I think TfB has (maybe) trademark protection for their characters, and copyright for the actual drawings or whatever. Unless I'm misinformed, Copyright is just the right to copy, it has nothing to do with property since nothing tangible is owned. Trademark is some sort of monopoly on using a design in general.
When you say property rights you might just mean Trademark since that's what remains. Unlike Copyrights, Trademarks have to be registered to be enforceable don't they? I've played some 40k and in White Dwarf there's usually long lists of "BloodThristHammer, WarKillahMongo, OrkGibblaGrinkdaBork is a Trademark of [company name]". Doesn't this mean TfB should register Spathi, Druuge, and all the others as Trademarks? Have they?
I have no clue about this. I wonder if little Billy drawing a Splorg also means he can sue people drawing Splorgish things. He certainly have Copyright on his Splorg, but what about the Splorgians? That might require some sort of Trademark registration, unless the Copyright law have some sort of clause for 'very similar looking things'.
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« Last Edit: May 03, 2006, 03:11:38 am by Arne »
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Novus
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Fot or not?
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I think TfB has (maybe) trademark protection for their characters, and copyright for the actual drawings or whatever. Unless I'm misinformed, Copyright is just the right to copy, it has nothing to do with property since nothing tangible is owned. Trademark is some sort of monopoly on using a design in general.
Essentially, a trademark is a name, logo or suchlike protected from use by anyone other than the owner. Also, while "Star Control" is a registered trademark in the US (owned by Infogrames) (check with the USPTO), none of the UQM race names seem to be.
I have no clue about this. I wonder if little Billy drawing a Splorg also means he can sue people drawing Splorgish things. He certainly have Copyright on his Splorg, but what about the Splorgians? That might require some sort of Trademark registration, unless the Copyright law have some sort of clause for 'very similar looking things'.
Most countries actually have such a clause. See, for example, the Wikipedia article on derivative works.
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Deus Siddis
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If Maxis' "Spore" turns out to be everything it is said to be, I wonder how that will effect copyrights, as fans create undocumented, trademark breaching art that gets automatically distributed across the web. Not that I'd ever think of doing something evil like that, myself. . .
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Arne
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I see, I suspected there was something along those lines (seems like a very judge-case-by-case law). Strangely there's no good translation of the word 'derivative' into Swedish (se:plagiat en:plagiarism maybe), I've just heard the English/American term for it every now and then. Reminded me of this Oswald/Mickey/Astroboy page I found:
Doesn't Trademarks also cover characters though? Mickey Mouse is not only Copyrighted, but also Trademarked and it doesn't seem to be just the name or °o° logo from what I can tell. When the Copyright period ends for a specific cartoon it will be public domain but the characters are still Trademarked (most likely forever, knowing Disney's zeal).
And Sid. That very thought crossed my mind. Also, what happens if people use Spore as a creature design tool? I wonder how the EULA for Spore will look. More importantly, will you be able to do nude women creatures with bouncing breasts?
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Staffy Star
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Yes Im swedish also. But i think I will make up aliens on my own.
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Pages: [1] 2
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