Copyrights?

[smilez]

Hey everyone, I'm thinking about making a mod for halflife 2 based on a popular movie. What copyright restrictions could I face in making such a title? I assume I wont be able to use the real name of the movie / major characters, but is there any reason I can't use the theme/stylings of a movie? Or should I find out which production company owns the copyright and try and get in contact with them?

Thanks if you can help

 

[x84D80Yx]

ive known mods to email the company for permission. like with that spiderman total conversion for q3, they emailed marvel + activision for rights to make the mod. if not they would have gotten shutdown quick, marvel is getting tight on models/maps/mods being made without their permission. id suggest you email the people with rights to the movie, the'll probally give you the ok if you ask not unless they are some monopoly-evil-beings

....wanna let us on a lil clue of what movie your trying to base the mod on? ^_^

and btw, you have any experience with making mods or anything that helps the mod besides having the ideas for it? ...would be helpful

 

[smilez]

I have over 6 years c/c++ experience and can subdivision model in XSI and am learning 3ds MAX at the moment. I know how to use hammer, cooledit pro, photoshop..etc but havent made a mod before. I also know the workings of the directX SDK and more importantly the Halflife 1 SDK

It has never been done before, but I would love to see a co op mod based on a collection of popular old horror movies. I am aware of the Invasion Earth 1987 mod being made but that seems to be set on the idea of alien invasion / goofy looking 1950's aliens with ray guns.

For my mod, a large map based on an individual horror movie would be released at the start of each month and players could have fun getting through a small mission, then antisipating what to expect next month.

A sample of the monthtly missions could include :

The Blob (1955)
A human eating alien blob attacks a 1950's town and using the object-as-water technology of source the blob would come to life and you would have to destroy it before it consums everything

Night of the Living Dead (1968)
A group of survivors holds up in an old country house trying to survive from hords of flesh eating zombies trying to get inside. The blocking-the-door technology seen in the trap down movie would work here

Frankenstein (1931)
He Lives! Frankenstein comes to life and starts killing innocent town folk.. can he be stopped?

Michael Jackson's Thriller (1982)
Breakdancing zombies, haunted houses, Michael Jackson.. need I say more?

Creature From The Black Lagoon (1954)
A fish like man comes out of the swamp and kidnaps a beautiful woman.. you must go underwater and try and recover her and destroy him

and so on... I think all of those missions would be possible using the halflife 2 technology, but as the topic of this thread implies the biggest problem is with copyrights. Let me know what you think!

 

[ComradeBadger]

I like this idea, could be very camp .... make sure you track down the current holders of rights to these films, and be really nice and hopefully they will be nice and let you do this. Best of luck mate, hope this sees light of day

 

[x84D80Yx]

whoa, you have a shit load of experience heh. im pretty good with photoshop (thats about all im good with), id like to work with yah. but umm... the movies, i dunno cause some of them are really kinda old so i wouldnt even know where to start who has rights to them. id try checking out www.imdb.com ...i think the night of the living dead would be the best on your list but i think they already have people making arcade games off the movie. so i doubt you could get rights to it. michael jacksons thriller heh, (actually pretty entertaining lol) ...but i really dont see it being a mod. michael jackson with guns lol... i never saw the originals of the other movies tho i know what they are.

and btw lemme know your other ideas....and you dont directly have to make a movie-to-game mod....you can actually just use ideas from the movie. for an example. the old bfp mod was a dbz mod, untill they got into copywrite issues, so they turned it into a weird alien game where they had the same powers and stuff. you could kinda do the same, but just not have the orginal characters from the movie. whew i typed alot, so ima go....

 

[smilez]

Can't you use the theme / characters of a movie "by parady" without permission? Otherwise none of those hollywood send up movies would have been made without the producers going through movie by movie and getting permission (which probably wouldnt have been given).

I have two other ideas..

- The first idea is a caribbean games mod, roughly based on the old california games for C64. The user would be able to surf, hang glide, play beach volleyball, fish and carry out similar wacky adventures against other players with an arcade game style scoring system. The maps would be compelete islands you can walk or drive around and do what ever you want. Plus girls in bikinis never hurts...

- The second idea is very complex, it involves you being a lab assistant in an DOD weapons experiment that goes horribly wrong and just before the weapon destroys the earth you get caught in a time loop (ala Ground Hog Day) and you have to find out what caused the loop, what is the problem with the weapon and you have to stop it from going ahead.

I have checked and both are technically possible with halflife 2...

 

[dawdler]

Originally posted by smilez
Can't you use the theme / characters of a movie "by parady" without permission?

A parody is almost always not using orignal names anymore. For example, if you make a mod named "Tomb Raider: The Mysterious Falafel" or whatever for HL2 with Lara Croft on her tombing adventures, its likely to closed instantly. But if you make "Raiders: The Mysterious Falafel" with Mara Crawton as lead character, it isnt even borderline anymore

 

[HiroProtaganist]

yeah technically U.S law permits using copyrighted material for parody work but you might have to go to court to secure that right. Disney has been known to sue artist with SLAPP (Straegic Lawsuit suits Against Public Participation) to stop them from paradying their work. You'll win the xcase but you'll have to pay a lawyer to fight it for you.

 

[Majestic XII]

Sounds like a cool idea, go for it

 

[x84D80Yx]

Originally posted by smilez
Can't you use the theme / characters of a movie "by parady" without permission? Otherwise none of those hollywood send up movies would have been made without the producers going through movie by movie and getting permission (which probably wouldnt have been given).

I have two other ideas..

- The first idea is a caribbean games mod, roughly based on the old california games for C64. The user would be able to surf, hang glide, play beach volleyball, fish and carry out similar wacky adventures against other players with an arcade game style scoring system. The maps would be compelete islands you can walk or drive around and do what ever you want. Plus girls in bikinis never hurts...

- The second idea is very complex, it involves you being a lab assistant in an DOD weapons experiment that goes horribly wrong and just before the weapon destroys the earth you get caught in a time loop (ala Ground Hog Day) and you have to find out what caused the loop, what is the problem with the weapon and you have to stop it from going ahead.

I have checked and both are technically possible with halflife 2...

hey bro, i like both ideas alot. but one thing, on your first idea...i dont see how you could actually surf. i havent seen the source engine actually have waves on the water BUT! you said its possible (and your a coder so i beleive you) i do like the sound of it...would be cool to go adventures and stuff on a tropical island, maybe the main character being a kid or a teen. and other thing i kinda see a problem in the future...i know both seem cool a hell, but usually people play fps games or games in general to shoot up people or atleast have cool weapons. in your first idea, i wouldnt see many enemeys with weapons unless your thinking of a tommy vercitti type guy facing off the cops in your second idea, it would be nice to have people after you. and you have to fight em off and stopp the loop in the process. but i dunno, i like your 2 ideas alot. keep us updated and maybe more ideas in that wonderful mind of yours heh

i dont see anything wrong with a parady of a movie.. they really couldnt mess with you (law wise)..

 

[smilez]

ok thanks for the info.. I'll go ahead with the horror movie mod and will can the others. I've started modelling a 1954 Chevy "Bel Air" Convertible in XSI.. should be good

 

[x84D80Yx]

cool, what horror movie you gonna do? or make a parady of?

 

[smilez]

Not sure yet

 

[smilez]

Ok so who owns the copyrights to a movie? The production companies or the distributors? What if the production companies are no longer in existance because the movie is so old? Thanks if u can help