CopyRight infringements.
by Ian Roach · in General Discussion · 05/12/2002 (9:54 pm) · 9 replies
Hello everyone.
Im curious bout copyright laws.
Im planning to make a game using torque based on a popular TV show (dont wanna reveal it just yet) and ive emailed the appropriate company to see there opinions e.t.c
Now we all know whats happened to mods in the past (Such as the excellent Bid For power)
My question is this - If i went ahead with the project can i be sued for copyright infringement if im not making any money from such projects (i.e the game is free)
Also are companies generally quiet tolerable towards letting people use there franchises in games.
Fox interactive is the only company i know who actually encouraged mod developers (Die hard game was originally a halflife mod but then become a lithtech game)
Whats ure opinions ?
Im curious bout copyright laws.
Im planning to make a game using torque based on a popular TV show (dont wanna reveal it just yet) and ive emailed the appropriate company to see there opinions e.t.c
Now we all know whats happened to mods in the past (Such as the excellent Bid For power)
My question is this - If i went ahead with the project can i be sued for copyright infringement if im not making any money from such projects (i.e the game is free)
Also are companies generally quiet tolerable towards letting people use there franchises in games.
Fox interactive is the only company i know who actually encouraged mod developers (Die hard game was originally a halflife mod but then become a lithtech game)
Whats ure opinions ?
About the author
#2
You're damned if you try to use popular ones. You'll get sued like there's no tomarrow for the ones that are popular (and will probably get the game treatment in the upcoming years or already have) and if not you'll at least get a "cease and desist" order from the copyright holder's lawyers.
You're damned if you try to use the lame ones. You'll alienate so many people that you're not going to sell anything.
You're limited in design. You have to stick to existing things that might not always transfer well in a game. One of the most fun parts of indie game development is that you can pretty much go anywhere with your design.
You try to sell, and chances are (read: guaranteed) you'll be sued unless you give up a large portion of sales, and might not even be allowed to continue.
So why not just take the style and theme of whatever you want to borrow from (lemme guess, Sopranos, Xfiles, or 24?) and just remove all recognizably copyrighted things?
05/12/2002 (11:03 pm)
I was going to write a long and meandering post about using copyrighted things, but I'll keep it short.You're damned if you try to use popular ones. You'll get sued like there's no tomarrow for the ones that are popular (and will probably get the game treatment in the upcoming years or already have) and if not you'll at least get a "cease and desist" order from the copyright holder's lawyers.
You're damned if you try to use the lame ones. You'll alienate so many people that you're not going to sell anything.
You're limited in design. You have to stick to existing things that might not always transfer well in a game. One of the most fun parts of indie game development is that you can pretty much go anywhere with your design.
You try to sell, and chances are (read: guaranteed) you'll be sued unless you give up a large portion of sales, and might not even be allowed to continue.
So why not just take the style and theme of whatever you want to borrow from (lemme guess, Sopranos, Xfiles, or 24?) and just remove all recognizably copyrighted things?
#3
Are you kidding me? Fox is the *worst* company when it comes to copyrights...they shut down websites, etc. Where do you think the term "foxed" came from? If I were you, I'd stay away from the copyrighted material territory and go after something original. 9.5/10 projects based on copyrighted material end up falling through anyway; you're just asking for trouble.
05/12/2002 (11:27 pm)
"Fox interactive is the only company i know who actually encouraged mod developers (Die hard game was originally a halflife mod but then become a lithtech game)"Are you kidding me? Fox is the *worst* company when it comes to copyrights...they shut down websites, etc. Where do you think the term "foxed" came from? If I were you, I'd stay away from the copyrighted material territory and go after something original. 9.5/10 projects based on copyrighted material end up falling through anyway; you're just asking for trouble.
#4
If its free you may use any copyrighted characters etc if you state what is copyrighted by whom
05/13/2002 (7:19 am)
In Sweden(I dont know how it is in the US) its like this:If its free you may use any copyrighted characters etc if you state what is copyrighted by whom
#5
Logan
05/13/2002 (7:34 am)
Ramus I think you are talking about "fair use" in that instance and not copyright. Fair use is what allows us "use" copyrighted material for places like a website for your favorite cartoon show when you were growing up, it does not allow you to distribute copyrighted material (especially not in a commercial project).Logan
#6
I used to be an assistant coder for M41, a total conversion project for Tribes 2 based on the warhammer 40,000 universe. We received a cease and desist order (oddly enough, not from the makers of W40k, but from THQ the company licensed to make War40k games...) with a threat of legal action if we continued and ignored their warning.
Personally, I think this is quite absurd and they were afraid our TC would out-do their game... I mean, for crying out loud they just released Dance Britney! A DANCE GAME BASED ON THE MOVES OF BRITNEY F'IN-Spears... can you get any more pathetic?
sorry, 'scuse the rant.
~ Sang
05/13/2002 (9:10 am)
I'd reccommend against using anything copyrighted...I used to be an assistant coder for M41, a total conversion project for Tribes 2 based on the warhammer 40,000 universe. We received a cease and desist order (oddly enough, not from the makers of W40k, but from THQ the company licensed to make War40k games...) with a threat of legal action if we continued and ignored their warning.
Personally, I think this is quite absurd and they were afraid our TC would out-do their game... I mean, for crying out loud they just released Dance Britney! A DANCE GAME BASED ON THE MOVES OF BRITNEY F'IN-Spears... can you get any more pathetic?
sorry, 'scuse the rant.
~ Sang
#7
As everyone else has said, you're pretty screwed with copyrighted material. You could potentially write a game anonymously and at least get to play the game you want to. But the chances of an indie getting any major rights are slim :(
The most frustrating thing is, some copyrighted material would (ok could) make fantastic computer games, that get wasted away. Warhammer 40k is a really good universe that just hasn't had any (commercial)games truely worthy of it. For F's sake surely it's gagging for an FPS?!?
Something i'd been wondering about, if you're writing car racing game or something do you need permission from all the manufacturers to feature their cars?
05/16/2002 (4:43 am)
Bet they make a load of money from the Britney game though.As everyone else has said, you're pretty screwed with copyrighted material. You could potentially write a game anonymously and at least get to play the game you want to. But the chances of an indie getting any major rights are slim :(
The most frustrating thing is, some copyrighted material would (ok could) make fantastic computer games, that get wasted away. Warhammer 40k is a really good universe that just hasn't had any (commercial)games truely worthy of it. For F's sake surely it's gagging for an FPS?!?
Something i'd been wondering about, if you're writing car racing game or something do you need permission from all the manufacturers to feature their cars?
#8
05/16/2002 (5:42 am)
Yep...same with realistic games, you need permission from the gun manufacturers (H&K, Remington, Beretta, etc.). That's why the names of some of the guns in CS aren't the real names. And that's why some racing games have cars named Frod and Maxda. You don't see much of this much anymore (or at all), but it used to happen.
#9
05/16/2002 (5:58 am)
The car thing is why Sony licensed all major car manufactures for their PSX so the devs didn't need to pay... 
Torque Owner Anthony McCrary
And they like to make money.
:(
Why not just make a similar game? Instead of using the copyrighted material?
At least if would be somewhat orignal that way.