If someone makes deathmatch character based on a copyrighted character (e.g. someone from the Simpsons), if the copyright owner wants to sue and the fan refuses to stop others downloading the character, is the suing likely to be successful?
If some fans modified a game so that it became an entirely new game that was extremely similar to another game, but didn’t sell it, and explicitly stated that it wasn’t official, would it be possible for the copyright owner to sue them? (Assuming that the textures were redrawn by the fans rather than simply reused)
A pic from the modified game I’m having a discussion about:
I hate to repeat the obvious answer but anyone can sue anyone for anything. The company would start with cease and desist letters from their own lawyers and that would probably be enough. An individual probably wouldn’t have the money to defend at all and would have to stop by default.
It is very hard to say who would win if a person decided to defend against a lawsuit. The line between fair use and copyright violation can be very fuzzy. If the game were a parody of a character, then fair use might be more defensible.
Money is a key issue. But its also a question of quantity. I doubt anyone would sue just over copyrighted character skins. Plus I don’t know if the creator of them could be held responsible vs. whoever hosts the site that makes them available for download.
Way way back in the olden days there was a phenomenal mod for Doom called AliensTC (total conversion). Actually, back then Doom moding was a cottage industry but AliensTC stood out because it changed everything (except the game engine itself). Characters, weapons, monsters, levels, sounds.
And even though it was given away the Compuserve forums (this was pre-world wide web) banned it because of copyright issues.
Later when Quake came out a group began doing a TC for that. However by then movie studios began recognizing video games as a real revenue channel and quickly sicked their lawyers on them.
Although understandable, it was too bad because after the Doom AliensTC game it was probably 6 years and several awful official versions before there was a decent Aliens video game.
Character skins were just a smaller example to my main question (the question of mods/TC’s).
About the Aliens TC - well apparently a similar thing happened with Nintendo and the work-in-progress Zelda game for UT2004. Also, I was working on a wolfenstein 3-D TC for Unreal (that used the original graphics and sound) and id’s CEO said I had to stop - even though I made an encrypted installation program which made sure the player had the full version of Wolf3D installed. I also offered to redraw the graphics (and sounds too I guess).
Anyway, I want to know if people who explicitly state their total conversion (TC) based on copyrighted games and/or characters aren’t “official” and aren’t for sale are completely immune from cease and desist letters. (And I’m assuming that cease and desist letters aren’t just bluffs - i.e. the lawyers are able to close down the websites and maybe sue)
Wow. That’s ironic. I read in Masters of Doom (the story of id software) how they developed a perfect clone of Super Mario for the original PC and were dumbfounded when Nintendo had absolutely no interest in it.
Also, didn’t they release the Wolf3D source code a couple years ago to promote game development?
Did id make that? (I had a version a long time ago that was about 60 kb, though it didn’t have music)
Well I didn’t really look at the wolf3d code at all… except at the part where you get a high score and it generates a code. I just paid extreme attention to the original game (the timing, etc) and recreated it in unreal. The wolf3d code is public domain… but the wolf3d textures/graphics/characters/etc aren’t…
You wouldn’t stand a chance – the copyright holder has all the cards and all you can do is fold before you lose everything. It doesn’t matter what you’re doing with the image – selling it or giving away for free – you’re in violation and if they want to sue you for damages, you’re a sitting duck.
More complex. The copyright holder may decide to sue, and the outcome will be up to the courts. They’ll have to prove that you used their copyrighted material and that your changes are a “derivative work.” A ruling would hinge on how close your version is to the original. However, the fact that you didn’t sell it, and that you stated it wasn’t official, wouldn’t mean squat to the court. You do not have to sell anything to violate copyright, and the disclaimer has little legal bearing.
Both are easy cases; the copyright holder could sue and would almost certainly win. Unless I misunderstand what the OP means by “modified,” it means that you’re going to be basing your code on code from the original, yes? If so, then it’s a derivative work, whether it looks like the original or not. Assuming the code is copyrighted, that’s a violation.
Cliffy:
Here’s what I mean by “modified”… in recent times, there are many games that can be modified (Halflife 1 and 2, Far Cry, Unreal, Unreal Tournament, Quake games, etc)… in fact game-makers often encourage this… e.g. in the “make something unreal” contest there is a total of $1 million dollars to modify games in the “Unreal” franchise. But a lot of these “mods” involve copyrighted characters… e.g. they might modify unreal tournament 2004 so that it acts like Nintendo’s Zelda games, etc.
As far as I understand, you can give anything you want, including copyrighted character material, to anyone you please if you make it yourself. There’s no law that says I can’t give a painting of Mario away to my bro, right? Why is internet distribution different?
Quite a few fan sites have received cease-and-desist letters, and a number of them have been shut down. I couldn’t tell you how many have actually been sued, but there’s no question that they could sue for it.
Not true. The logic is that somebody has created something, and they’re making money from it. Just for the sake of argument, let’s say it’s a comic book. You draw your own copy of the comic book and give it away. If people can get your copy for free, they’ll stop buying the original. Using this logic, the copyright holder can show that you have harmed them financially. Take that far enough, and you’ll find yourself facing a lawsuit with serious money at stake, not just a simple cease-and-desist.
Parody, on the other hand, is something completely different, and is protected by law. I think the best parody of all time was Bored of the Rings, and I’ll bet it’s actually increased sales of Lord of the Rings over the years.