Copyright Question :\

ToothyMang · Jun 2010

I am curious if I would be sued for making secret characters in my game that are blatant copies of other game characters, or based off of game concept art(easter egg characters etc). I know other companies have done it before, but I just wanted to know. Does anyone know much in this field?

Edit:
I now see how silly this entire post was. Thanks guys

Moosey_G · Jun 2010

Are you making money off of the game?

ToothyMang · Jun 2010

Yes possibly. It's an Xbox indie game.

danshewan · Jun 2010

I'd wager that's almost definitely grounds for legal action by the copyright holder of the IP you're considering using, secret characters or not.

crazyfingers · Jun 2010

ToothyMang · Jun 2010

:poly118:

ZacD · Jun 2010

Aren't spoofs and satire protected by law? if they made fun of the characters maybe you could use them?

crazyfingers · Jun 2010

ZacD, technically you're right, but if you look at the history of video games they adhere to strict standards.

The only time you'll see a character of extreme likeness in a for-profit game from another company without their permission is through user-made content.

Zack Fowler · Jun 2010

Even that can result in legal action (happened to that one superhero MMO), which is probably why MM pulls potentially IP-infringing content from LittleBigPlanet. Toothy, I'm curious as to where you've seen this done before.

Kevin Albers · Jun 2010

Yes, there is something legally wrong with what you want to do. Of course, to get a real answer you need to talk to an actual lawyer, who will probably tell you that you could get in serious legal trouble if the game makes any money.

ZacD · Jun 2010

WoW has a ton of video game satire and shit in it...

http://www.eeggs.com/items/47546.html

Moosey_G · Jun 2010

I don't think anyone is going to be suing Blizzard though. Blizzard can get away with things that indie developers can't.

Zack Fowler · Jun 2010

Importantly, all those WoW references are just that, references translated into something in-universe for WoW. So as an example of something you could maybe get away with, if a new Zelda game came out that featured an NPC chef who while cooking wore a full suit of medieval armor painted green they could probably call him Mr. Chef. If they then made Mr. Chef a playable character then that would probably be crossing the line.

Of course, this is just an observational discussion. For a real answer you would need to ask a lawyer.

denvarte · Jun 2010

@ ZacD and Moosey_G
blizzard is RICH, it has millions of subscribers paying $12 dollars+ per month, meaning: they can afford to have plenty of legal help in proving their content is satire and whether or not something they want to put in is legal and they won't get in trouble.

As an indie developer you should remain as careful as possible and just steer clear of anything you think is borderline.

Moosey_G · Jun 2010

I think that pretty much concludes this discussions

ZacD · Jun 2010

No one has any lawyer friends?

TWilson · Jun 2010

Yea just don't do anything clearly sue-able. I do enjoy playing with the fine line though and have had to hire a lawyer. Nothing came of it fortunately.

Rockstar plays with this line regularly as well. They are the big boys though. Gta4 = black donellys + heat if I remember right. Red dead has references to many westerns I'm sure but an obvious one is. There Will Be Blood. They borrowed the name Plainview for their oil camp which was the main characters name, Daniel Plainview. As well as the long drawn out notes occasionally sort of like 2001: a space odyssey if you haven't seen the other.

eld · Jun 2010

Exactly, first know what a satire is, satires are legal, but they're not an excuse for you to add those other game characters you want, in any case, dont go there.

Well played satire, with no actual LINKing to the original trademark:

In any case, if you had to ask the question, that means you shouldn't do it.

Copyright Question :\

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