Parody and Copyright question

Greg DAlessandro

Are you protected by Parody law for commercial use? (for example South Park makes money off their products even with blatant likeness and other negative advertisement. Another example of what I'm talking about is Broforce, it is clearly using many well known movie/tv characters in their game.

Is it considered fair use under copyright and parody regulations? Can you use something's likeness as long as it is being parodied?

Edit: I also heard that using a real gun's likeness was under copyright.

Justin Meisse

Is this just a general question or do you have a parody project you plan on doing? South Park gets away with it because they have the might of Viacom behind it. Broforce changed the names of their characters.

Generally, big IP holders know they can shut you down with a threat because fair use or not, going to court could cost you tens of thousands of dollars.

Greg DAlessandro

I would like to make a game similar to Broforce in the sense that you have well known characters that are parodied. I would re-imagine the characters the way I perceive them. But not if it will cost me tens of thousands of dollars regardless if I win the case or not.

NegevPro

Would it be possible to parody something for a non-commercial product and not have to worry about going to court? A project I'm working on involves the re-creation of a game we don't own the license of, but it's 100% non-profit and the game will be 100% free once we are finished.

illo

whether or not its illegal, if you have to go to court to fight it, you still have to pay for the legal fees.

ZacD

If there's no money involved the most you SHOULD have to worry about is getting a shutdown notice. Parodies and satire have to fit in fair use, which basically means there needs to be some sort of artistic or commentary merit to your work. If you do everything within the bounds of the law, you still can get taken to court, although that is much less likely to happen. Even if you do get taken to court, if it's really a freedom of speech/expression, I'm sure the ACLU or other organizations would love to help your case.

Justin Meisse

NegevPro wrote: »

Would it be possible to parody something for a non-commercial product and not have to worry about going to court? A project I'm working on involves the re-creation of a game we don't own the license of, but it's 100% non-profit and the game will be 100% free once we are finished.

It's easy enough to change the names and designs a bit so it isn't infringing. Xenonauts is a non-infringing game that plays like the original X-Com.

Skinpop

read this maybe?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use#Fair_use_and_parody

NegevPro

Justin Meisse wrote: »

It's easy enough to change the names and designs a bit so it isn't infringing. Xenonauts is a non-infringing game that plays like the original X-Com.

That was actually my backup plan, although the main problem I think is that we ripped a couple of assets (just a few character models) from the original. Since we're doing a non-profit project with a pretty low budget it is pretty hard to find people who are willing to work for free (especially on a project that may never see the light of day) so I've been trying to learn both programming and art at the same time.

I suppose in the worst case scenario remaking some of the original characters from scratch could be a plausible solution. Thanks for the Xenonauts example, I'll check it out.

Justin Meisse

I've been around the modding/indie scene long enough to know it's not a question of if you'll get shut down but when. 1997 Alien Quake shut down letter

Here's something to consider from that letter: " Therefore, you are hereby ordered to remove all your Alien Quake files from your computer storage. You must also remove all references to Alien Quake from any WWW pages or internet sites you keep or maintain. All distribution of Alien Quake is illegal and you should know that the Alien Quake team are under obligation to report the name and URL of any distributor to 20th Century Fox."

that means everything gets shredded, no portfolio pieces and you are basically have to police other people from sharing it because Fox or whoever will hold you personally responsible for some stranger uploading a torrent.

ExcessiveZero

Yup as justin has said, it's one of those things where you should be able to parody, under the wording of the law but you can't because of fat cat bullies with judges and lawyers and mobsters with the tiny bats and hammers that break your fingers, understand the reality of the world you are living in and be careful to act within it, lest you find yourself broke in jail and with all your time wasted.

rube

Parody and Fair use have very specific meanings, and most people don't seem to know what they are. Just recreating something does not make it a parody. A quick look at youtube will show almost every copyright infringing video comes along with a 'fair use' argument that really doesn't mean anything. Either way, if you really want to create a work of parody I'd at least get a brief consultation with a lawyer with some experience in that area. It won't be cheap but it could be cheaper than having to throw out everything you've done.

NegevPro

I suppose I'll have to have a long talk with everybody on my team about this then. We've basically been working under the table for two years now and have a very large amount of art and code assets done, along with licenses for a huge amount of software. Our project is essentially based on a game that was based on a public domain work of literature and the only direct connection we have to the game(which we don't own the license of) are a handful of models and part of the story (our game is supposed to be a fanmade sequel of some sort).

I was thinking that maybe if we just replace the ripped assets we could theoretically be safe but it looks like things are going to be more complicated than that. I'll definitely have to speak to a lawyer about this. Thanks for the information guys.

GarageBay9

Justin Meisse wrote: »

I've been around the modding/indie scene long enough to know it's not a question of if you'll get shut down but when. 1997 Alien Quake shut down letter

I still have one like that from around then, about my Al()ens Total Conversion for Total Annihilation...

A little research basically showed it was because they were about to release AvP II and wanted to corner the market.

Even more interestingly, I have an email from H.R. Giger's agent supporting my project and mentioning the legal ownership of the Alien design is a bit murkier than Fox would like everyone to think.

Meloncov

If you're seriously considering making this game, talk to a lawyer. In the grand sceme of things, a couple hours of legal consul isn't all that expensive, and will more than pay for itself. If the game is clearly a parody, copyright law is fairy permissive, but I wouldn't commit any serious resources to the project before you have a clear idea of what you can or can't get away with.