Posted by: Clayphoto on September 07, 2003 at 23:54:30

First off, my advise to anybody who has a need to ask that question is this. If you wonder if anybody could sue you for artistic ideas or products you make (scenerio ideas and scripts fall into that range), then you should figure out who is it that you think MIGHT be able to sue you. Then out of professional curtosy, call them up and talk about it. 1st off, it's only good business practice to talk through any possible conflicts before they occur. 2nd, people are more cooperative when you practively discuss an issue rather than after you surprise them. Now directly to your question; The purely legal answer is that if take a piece of artwork that has been copywrited and use it for your own public and/or for profit use without written concent from the owner of that copyright, then you are guilty of copyright infringement. If you try to slip the law by a technicality, you also can be guilty by infringing on the "look and feel" principle. For example, lets say you go out and see the Open Range movie and love a shootout scene from the movie. If you then go out and build a series of buildings that copy the layout of the movie scene, advertise the field as a western themed field, and advertise your next event with a poster using a model that looks like Kevin Costner..... Unless you called up Touchstone Pictures, your a lawyers bullseye. In real life; First off, nothing is illegal until somebody makes the complaint. So if you did our above example and Touchstone never notices or decides they're not intersted in doing anything about you then there's nothing to worry about. Not exactly the best thing to count on though. Afterall, the mose likely way that will work is if your idea is a total flop. Second, literal copying or "intellectual theft" as I described above are pretty easy cases to predict. "Look and Feel" is much tricker and in reality is usually decided by the debating skills of the lawyer teams and the personalities of the jury. If we take the earlier example, lets say that you lay out the buildings very similar to what you saw in the movie, but it is a bit different. You name the field something like "Cowtown Showdown". You have a poster for your event that looks like Open Range's home page picture except it's in full color, and the five men are wearing Dye Jersies, masks, and guns..... Maybe it's illegal, maybe it's not. Will probably depend on the lawyers arguements, the jury selection, and nuances of the law in the juristiction the lawsuit held. In other words, if you read this entire message go get yourself a lawyer. :) : Hi! : I was wondering is the use of names of films or TV series limited in any way? There seems to be several games using names and storylines from popular shows, so is there are any copyright issues? : Or are the organizers getting approval from studios? I think Spplat Attack got permission, but having Shatner as part of the whole thing probably helped a little :). : I think there were some discussion about this some years ago when Henry's ran the Paintball 2Xtremes, but I don't remember that it got to any conclusion. Does anyone remember how it went down? : Kimmo Kainulainen

Follow Ups: Re: Using names of TV series in games? Kimmo Kainulainen 02:15:14 09/08/03 (1) Re: Using names of TV series in games? Clayphoto 09:09:09 09/08/03 (0) Post a Followup Show your name as: DefaultRealnameBothNickname E-Mail address (eg: joeschmoe@aol.com): Show your e-mail address? DefaultYesNo Your Password: Don't have a password? CLICK HERE - Forgot your password? CLICK HERE Subject: Subject:Message: : First off, my advise to anybody who has a need to ask that question is this. If you wonder if anybody could sue you for artistic ideas or products you make (scenerio ideas and scripts fall into that range), then you should figure out who is it that you think MIGHT be able to sue you. Then out of professional curtosy, call them up and talk about it. 1st off, it's only good business practice to talk through any possible conflicts before they occur. 2nd, people are more cooperative when you practively discuss an issue rather than after you surprise them. : Now directly to your question; : The purely legal answer is that if take a piece of artwork that has been copywrited and use it for your own public and/or for profit use without written concent from the owner of that copyright, then you are guilty of copyright infringement. If you try to slip the law by a technicality, you also can be guilty by infringing on the "look and feel" principle. : For example, lets say you go out and see the Open Range movie and love a shootout scene from the movie. If you then go out and build a series of buildings that copy the layout of the movie scene, advertise the field as a western themed field, and advertise your next event with a poster using a model that looks like Kevin Costner..... : Unless you called up Touchstone Pictures, your a lawyers bullseye. : In real life; : First off, nothing is illegal until somebody makes the complaint. So if you did our above example and Touchstone never notices or decides they're not intersted in doing anything about you then there's nothing to worry about. Not exactly the best thing to count on though. Afterall, the mose likely way that will work is if your idea is a total flop. : Second, literal copying or "intellectual theft" as I described above are pretty easy cases to predict. "Look and Feel" is much tricker and in reality is usually decided by the debating skills of the lawyer teams and the personalities of the jury. : If we take the earlier example, lets say that you lay out the buildings very similar to what you saw in the movie, but it is a bit different. You name the field something like "Cowtown Showdown". You have a poster for your event that looks like Open Range's home page picture except it's in full color, and the five men are wearing Dye Jersies, masks, and guns..... : Maybe it's illegal, maybe it's not. Will probably depend on the lawyers arguements, the jury selection, and nuances of the law in the juristiction the lawsuit held. : In other words, if you read this entire message go get yourself a lawyer. :) : : : Hi! : : I was wondering is the use of names of films or TV series limited in any way? There seems to be several games using names and storylines from popular shows, so is there are any copyright issues? : : Or are the organizers getting approval from studios? I think Spplat Attack got permission, but having Shatner as part of the whole thing probably helped a little :). : : I think there were some discussion about this some years ago when Henry's ran the Paintball 2Xtremes, but I don't remember that it got to any conclusion. Does anyone remember how it went down? : : Kimmo Kainulainen [ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ WARPIG Rec Talk ]