Do i need a permission to make a mod based on certain movie?

[bliink]

Ok how about dozens of mods out there that are based on movies or are games sequel. I didnt see copmanies are worry about it.

Can you give us an example? there might be exceptions, or they may be so small they just havent been noticed yet.

 

[Maxi]

Ok how about dozens of mods out there that are based on movies or are games sequel. I didnt see copmanies are worry about it.

If you really look closely, those that exist all have permissions or haven't yet been noticed by the gaming companies

 

[CriYam]

If that is true...
clicky
How comes the mod team in that first newspost recieved a Cease and Desist order for the free mod they were developing for Doom 3?

Especially given that the System Shock property is in a total limbo where Electronic Arts refuse to option a sequel from any development house. The System Shock series is not even commerically viable, with the last game released 5/6 years ago and rarely on store shelves. If EA are able to legally stop that mod team from doing anything, your statement is incorrect.

Because if you read the page you linked it said they were making an exact copy. :/ Hello. They were PORTING the game over.

Go check out the front page for mods like return to mana. It's set in the secret of mana world but uses original characters. No problem there. Check out the Jurassic park mod, jurassic park theme, new characters and dinosaurs no problem.

 

[Pesmerga]

Sorta.

You can legally do anything you friggen want to. But a company can send you a cease and desist order if they have the slightest reason to. If you don't agree, you'll go to court. Hypothetically, any company could sue you if they have even a tiny peice of reason to do so. But it's like calling a review in a football play, it comes down to the judges (refferees) to who is right. It costs money to have a lawyer. Lots for good ones. So it's unwise for a company to sue you unless they have sufficient reason to stop your actions, most likely under the pretense that you'd be hurting their company's profit. But if you do go to court because you absolutely know you can win the case, do it. (Although it's most likely that the company will win) So yes, it would be most wise to get the permission of the company before starting your mod.

 

[marksmanHL2 :)]

Ok how about dozens of mods out there that are based on movies or are games sequel. I didnt see copmanies are worry about it.

Companies get worried when they think they are going to loose money or reputation (Leading to money...)


If a mod for star wars was made really really badly it would reflect badly upon the whole franchise for example.


If a mod was made for say the terminator film that was really good.... they might not like it because their sales of the really shit "Terminator - rise of the machines" (or whatever it is) game would plumet.


Maybe they wouldnt like it because they had a game in development that you're mod would take potential sales away from because it could do a similar product for free.




There are quite a few reasons obviously...

 

[hERd]

U wanna examples? Go on moddb.com and see it by urself!

 

[Pesmerga]

Ok, just talked to a really knowledgable person on the subject. This is the final hand of justice.

Any work that is copyrighted, legally (theres a big proccess in getting a copyright for your work), cannot be stolen. If it is stolen, the theif is declared criminal for copyright infringement, and the copyright owner can go to court and sue. Depending on how similar the stolen work is, the judge will most likely sue you. If you steal the work and the company does not sue, you are deemed criminal anyway, you just got away with it. So to answer your question, yes, you must get permission/liscense to continue your work. Otherwise, you'll be criminal if you release the work to the public.

And Muhammed said to his people, there is no god but God!

 

[Angry Lawyer]

And, trust me, lawyers aren't that much of an expense for large companies. They can - and will - 'fox' you.
Moddb contains one hell of a number of links to dead mods. They really need to put some better filtering in there.

-Angry Lawyer

 

[Maxi]

Isn't ANYTHING that you write, any story, any image, automatically copywrighted? just not trademarked?

 

[kupocake]

Because if you read the page you linked it said they were making an exact copy. :/ Hello. They were PORTING the game over.

It says nothing of the kind. The exact words in fact are "SS2: Rebooted was shaping up to be a horrific recreation and update of the already eerie game System Shock 2 from previous years ago."

A recreation and update is not "an exact copy". System Shock 2's graphics were hardly its strong point upon release: details of what exactly they were doing were scarce, but they were hardly going to reuse many - if any - art assets from a game that would have translated terribly to such an advanced engine.

Besides, EA's problem was with affiliating the name with their mod: http://www.ferrago.com/story/4197
"it took a scant ten days between the project being announced and EA asking the team to "drop the name and any affiliation the mod has with System Shock or System Shock 2".

Go check out the front page for mods like return to mana. It's set in the secret of mana world but uses original characters. No problem there. Check out the Jurassic park mod, jurassic park theme, new characters and dinosaurs no problem.

Ever thought that Square-Enix simply haven't found out about it? I mean, you think Hironobu Sakaguchi visits English HL fansites in his lunch breaks to see if anyone is violating his IPs? We're talking about the difference between making a full-blown Star Wars mod and making a tribute to the Secret of Mana games with a name that is only close enough to the original IP's because it uses a single four letter word.

 

[hERd]

i think it is

 

[Yombi]

Isn't ANYTHING that you write, any story, any image, automatically copywrighted? just not trademarked?

No, a copyright is different from IP. Copyright you have to apply for just like patent.

IP is the one that automataclly applies to the original creator.

 

[Maxi]

No, a copyright is different from IP. Copyright you have to apply for just like patent.

IP is the one that automataclly applies to the original creator.

ahh.. righto... Thanks!

 

[hERd]

Ok lets say someone has draw an image. Thats all. Can I then model 3d model of it? If so can i say its my IP?

 

[Yombi]

Ok lets say someone has draw an image. Thats all. Can I then model 3d model of it? If so can i say its my IP?

Did you come up with the concept of the character?

 

[Pesmerga]

Doesn't matter. If the drawing is not copyrighted, theres no proof of who drew it. And theres no proof that the 3d model copied it directly.

 

[Yombi]

Doesn't matter. If the drawing is not copyrighted, theres no proof of who drew it. And theres no proof that the 3d model copied it directly.

Unless there iis a signiture

 

[Pesmerga]

Oh, yeah, I meant signature. Sorry

 

[Yombi]

Oh, yeah, I meant signature. Sorry

Oh and i forgot to mention that you can use prior sketchs as proof aswell. As long as they have been dated and signed that is. But i think only concept designers do things like that

And my little sister haha she dates and signs all her drawings :upstare:

 

[Angry Lawyer]

you think Hironobu Sakaguchi visits English HL fansites in his lunch breaks to see if anyone is violating his IPs?

No. His lawyers do it for him.

-Angry Lawyer

 

[colic]

I helped make a map for enemy territory which was based on Indiana Jones it had many things that were similar too it, but no skins or anything were used. As we knew there was no chance of actualy getting permission to use the title we used the name of the map as raiders. Even though our site did mention indiana jones . It seems ages ago since this was done and the site with some pics is here

http://www.hummerdesign.com/et/

 

[Yombi]

I helped make a map for enemy territory which was based on Indiana Jones it had many things that were similar too it, but no skins or anything were used. As we knew there was no chance of actualy getting permission to use the title we used the name of the map as raiders. Even though our site did mention indiana jones . It seems ages ago since this was done and the site with some pics is here

http://www.hummerdesign.com/et/

heh yeah. Not every single thing is caught. But we're saying that if it becomes populur it draws attention from the origianl creators.

Good example was a GTA 3 mod where they used real stores, cars and billboards.

Most of the companies asked to have their products / names removed from the game. Even some of the drawings. I know, most of that is copyrightedl and not IP but just an example of what they do when something becomes popular.

 

[Parasite]

There are waaay to many of these "can I do this with a mod thread" too keep getting such a cluster **** of answers. ALMOST EVERY MAJOR STUDIO HAS MOD POLICIES IN PLACE! GO LOOK FOR THEM!!!

And those of you saying "**** em, do what you want" dont seem to realize how seriously hollywood and the games industry are taking them. Mods arent an underground hobby anymore, theyve gone mainstream.

Lucas Arts definatly has a mod policy in place, send them an email. Iirc, basically, you can use all species, locations, vehicle, weapon etc. But you can not use 'thier' characters, specific vehicles, weapons etc.

IE, you can have a Generic Wookie land an X wing on endor and pull out a generic lightsaber, but you can have the millenium falcon land, Luke Skywalker step out and bust out his signature lightsaber.

 

[Edcrab]

Yeah, development houses all have their own ruleset to be adhered to. Games Workshop, for example, is notorious for trying to defend their creative rights with all manner of trademarks (ever seen the copyright lists following an unofficial or even official GW creation? Wah).

That said, if anyone ever took drugs and decided to try and use my ideas, I'd be pretty protective...

 

[EVIL]

if your mod suxx and the copyright holders are noticing the name gets damaged, they can sue you. prolly will, cuz they loose money.
I have seen alot of promecing decent mods getting brought down by company's that dont wan't to face the risk of getting the copyrighted name involved, damaged.

but hell, if your going to ask I doubt they lend you premission unless your already got loads of experience and know what you are doing and can assure the company the mod will be ****ing sweet.

 

[CriYam]

Random gibberish.

Give me a break.

 

[cadaveca]

A copyright covers certain things...and the word itself tells you what it means. When you file a copyright, you claim that you are the sole creator of the "IP"(intelluctual property, or original idea), and that you have sole rights on reproduction and use of the material, or "IP". If someone has not already filed for the same idea, you are granted those rights for a certain length of time.

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c108:H.R.3632.ENR:

has the current version of the law.

Anyway, when you create your mod, should someone hold a copyright of one of the ideas you use, they could sue you. That doesn't mean that they will, but you can almost guarantee that anything with a large fanbase will trickle slowly back to it's copyright holders, and they just might sue, if it's popular enough. Sending an email to find out whether it's an issue or not only takes a few minutes, and when they reply, you can save it for future use.
Doing all of this is why writers have agents. It's a complex process to plublish anything written, and games are considered 3d representation of written works, or written code.

 

[Ahnteis]

No, a copyright is different from IP. Copyright you have to apply for just like patent.

IP is the one that automataclly applies to the original creator.

Nope. Copyright is automatic. You have to register TRADEMARKS.

Making a mod based on someone else's intellectual property is not an inherent right. The IP holder must grant you permission. Now, sometimes they will just ignore your mod--but that's all that is happening. Unlike trademarks, copyright can be selectively enforced. They could ignore you for years and then shut you down right before you finish the next version of your mod.

MANY mods have been shut down. It's more common to see mods closed when the company makes their own products in the same market although that is by no means an ironclad rule.

The Star Wars franchise for example is an extremely valuable franchise. There are a lot of commercial games based on it. Because of this, they are likely to shut down any unauthorized game based in their universe. They don't want to compete with "free".

There's a FAQ about mod-making somewhere -- I think at PlanetHalflife(?) -- that mentions this very subject.

 

[Sid Burn]

Just dont let them know if you plan making money on that mod. Anyway, I really think a starwars mod will be cool!

 

[kupocake]

Random Gibberish

Give me a break.

So i'm right then?