Is this legal?

#1 You absolutely do need copyright protection to use Spaceman Spiff in a game. A better (and more fun) alternative is to make your own characters for your game.

#2 You need permission to use ANY character/logo/image/etc that belongs to someone else. Even if it is a person who showed up in a comic strip ONE time and never again, you still need permission to use that character.

#3 Well, technically it depends on whether they ever declared any intellectual rights to the character... You could make a game without any intention of selling it or making money off of it without any real risk (the company could send you a cease and decist letter, but they couldn't really back it up with anything, and if they took you to court, they couldn't charge you with anything or even force you to stop), but if you want to make some cash, you gotta set up the rights. Also, since Calvin and Hobbes is copyrighted material, I'm pretty sure that they have a clause saying that all material within is covered by the Calvin and Hobbes copyright.

#4 Actually, they have legitimate legal recourse for intellectual property whether you make money or not. And C&H definitely is protected property.

#5 So how do I get copyright permission?

#6 You'd have to ask the people who make C & H.

#7 Good luck on this one.

Bill Watterson the creater and right owner to Calvin and Hobbs doesn't like his characters to be used. To quote the Wikipedia on Calvin and Hobbes

Quote:
Because of Watterson's strong anti-merchandising sentiments (Dean, 1987) and his reluctance to return to the spotlight, almost no legitimate Calvin and Hobbes licensed material exists outside of the book collections

#8 @David Blake:

No one has ever gone to jail for violation of copyright that didn't make money as far as I know, and except for some form of stealing, no one has ever been fined for it. In a civil case, all that can be sued for is money, and a copyright case isn't going to go beyond that, and if no money is made off of a copyright, nothing will happen.

In the end, creating a videogame and distributing it for free is no different in principle than a kid drawing fanart, making a few copies of it, and giving them to friends.

#9 Oh well

#10 But cease and desist orders have been kicked in the faces of fans for years. And they work simply because anyone who has ever heard a rumor of derivative works knows that they don't have a leg to stand on when it comes to using other people's property. You don't even have to get litigious. Companies have to ride a line between the old-school clamp-down of IP law and alienating the fanbase. But when it comes to content, the ones who make derivative works without permission are in the wrong legally, regardless of commercialism.

#11 There's no point letting this descend into legal novices arguing points they don't have the facts for. However put simply in most cases you can't use legally use other people's material. On top of that it's just not worth it, for the extra leap in creativity you can create your own work which gives you a lot more artistic and commercial freedom.

#12 A rough rule of thumb ... if you have to post a thread on some forums entitled "Is this legal?" then the answer is no.

#13 No one has ever gone to jail or been heavily fined for success rip offs...there are no successful rip offs of popular products. The creator almost always sues to stop production and sues for any profits already generated. They win 99.99% of the time. That means you wasted time creating the product, you have to give the money you made to the creator, and you get to pay your legal fees and almost always their legal fees too.

Either get permission or do not do it.

#14 Sorry to steal this thread but if you were to spoof the character would that be alright? i mean you see it a ton in movies.

#15 Bill Watterson hates the idea of merchandising, even more-so when it is his own creation. He did a few comics about it. You could do a game with the same concept, as long as you don't try and use the same names and images. Maybe 70 years (I think it's 70) after his death you'll have a shot. No one that I am aware of has gotten permission to use Calvin and Hobbes.

#16 If you spoof it then it becomes comedy and is free/your material (depends on how unique the material and if you copyright it). The problem is you have to make sure that your spoof can be seen as comedy/individualized parody. IANAL, and as such I am not certain of the laws requirements for the spoof to work as a workaround the copyright laws. I would be willing to assume that there is a very fine line.

#17 It would be difficult to create a parody of comic strip characters that are already intended to be humorous.

#18 Mmm... I recall something relevant to this.

http://www.planetquake.com/features/articles/editorials/foxed.shtml

Covering the legitimacy of using other peoples intellectual property in mods.