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Topic: what is legal? (Read 6618 times)
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Megagun
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Moo
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If you're willing to spend the money, buy the audio of Caryl Shaw's at GDC, where she talks about the pollinated content and how it works, etc.. Pretty interesting stuff..
Anyways..
In Spore, you'll be able to mark a creature as "offensive content" or just mark it as "bad" (illegal). If 10 or more people have marked it as bad, it gets reviewed by a Maxis employee, and if it breaks any copyright or whatever, it gets removed from the database. When someone repeatadly uploads bad content, he or she gets his right to upload removed..
Also, everything you create with the ingame tools will probably be the sole property of Maxis or EA..
In addition, you want walking penis? Fine, as long as you don't upload it. You can create anything you want, but you can't upload everything you want....
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Deus Siddis
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If 10 or more people have marked it as bad, it gets reviewed by a Maxis employee, and if it breaks any copyright or whatever, it gets removed from the database.
What if it is a care-bear?
I think they will have trouble keeping track of what content violates a copyright and what doesn't. There's also the issue that the masses of crazy people probably won't mark evil content as such, because they like to defend their cities with X-Wings and Battlemechs piloted by the aforementioned lipidous unclad womanoids.
Also, everything you create with the ingame tools will probably be the sole property of Maxis or EA.
Oow, you might be right. Then they can use us as free modelers or at least concept artists for their future products, those evil bastards. (que Imperial Deathmarch theme)
In addition, you want walking penis? Fine, as long as you don't upload it. You can create anything you want, but you can't upload everything you want....
But if your 8-year-old gets attacked by an army of said appendages, can you sue maxis for the psychological harm?
This sort of thing might get Jack Thompson rich(er) and Hillary Clinton elected. There's always been moding, but this will make it part of the core gameplay, in a massive way. It will be interesting to see how this aspect turns out, and if Maxis can keep up with the challenge.
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Novus
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Fot or not?
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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.
"Derivative work" translates as "bearbetat verk", although the expression seems to be less common than the corresponding English one. The rules are pretty much the same in Sweden (and in Finland, where I live) as in the US. Plagiarism is, essentially, passing someone else's work off as your own, which usually involves both copyright violation and fraud.
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).
As long as Disney keeps selling Mickey Mouse stuff, I believe they can keep the trademark as long as they like (I haven't studied trademark law in much detail). However, using the trademark in conjunction with the original product should still be allowed. So, if I understand this correctly, when the first Mickey Mouse cartoons enter the public domain, you can duplicate them and sell them and whatever legally, but you can't make your own without violating the Mickey Mouse trademark (note, however, that trademark protection is only granted for specific forms of applications; Mickey Mouse-shaped potatoes may be OK).
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.
If I write a book in Word, can Microsoft dictate what I do with it? No. If I write a program in Visual C++, can they tell me how I may license it? No, except if I want to distribute their code (e.g. libraries) along with mine. The clincher here is whether your work includes some of their work or not, at least from a copyright point of view (things get really unclear when you use dynamic linking). End-user license agreements are a different kettle of fish, of course; it's unclear whether they are valid at all, and I've never heard of anyone being sued or prosecuted for violating one here in Finland. The problems with EULAs are that they are extra limitations forced on you after making a purchase and it is unclear whether clicking a button constitutes a legally binding way of agreeing to a contract. Personally, I'd say this makes EULAs a form of fraud and/or blackmail, but that is purely an opinion. Don't get me started on "Digital Rights Management" (or, more accurately, "Locking People Out From Doing Things They Paid For The Right To Do"); legally protected DRM makes EULAs look almost benign.
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