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Originally posted by blackhole: I wonder if plugins count as personal, domestic use.
If you distribute it, it's definitely not personal domestic use. Also, as Ambrosia Software is not in New Zealand, the copyright holder would still be able to make them take down your plug-in and any links to it you posted on their board even if what you had done was legal in New Zealand.
------------------ David Arthur (url="http://"http://davidarthur.evula.net/")davidarthur.evula.net(/url): MissionComputer and the Talon plug-in for the original Escape Velocity
Originally posted by Bryce: Do you think you really have a chance of wining a lawsuit against the studio?
yes, and it happens all the time. of course, most studios settle before it gets to trial.
------------------ The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
There are actually two issues with copyright as far as Paramount's pictures are concerned. One of them is copyright, the other is trademarking. If you're writing software, there's also the issue of patent.
As far as copyright is concerned, copyright subsists on exact copies but not on new works which plagiarise the original. Who decides which is which? Usually lawyers. There was a time when it was sufficient to change two bars per page of a piece of music to avoid copyright suits. These days you would simply be done for copying the all-but-two bars. On the other hand, a tune which is merely 'like' another tune is generally acceptable. There have been enormous law suits about this.
As a starving musician, if you write a tune, registered-post it to yourself as a way of validating the date you wrote it, and then you share it with someone else who goes on to have a hit with something quite similar, you will probably be able to persuade his record company to give you a joint credit as the songwriter. Contrary to popular belief, you are actually more likely to persuade the record company than you are to successfully sue them in court. There are two reasons for this. The first is that record companies need to be seen as good citizens in the music world, otherwise the supply of new talent will go elsewhere. The other is, if they are convinced that you were the main brain behind the hit, they will probably be interested in employing you again. On the other hand, if you couldn't demonstrate that you had shared your song with the other person, and that it wasn't available publicly, you would be in a much weaker position: copyright does not protect you against someone coming up with the same idea, only with copying yours.
On the other hand, as a starving visual artist, you may find yourself in a much weaker position if you do a piece of work which is then lifted almost wholesale by an advertising company and used in their advertisement. This is because copyright does not protect the idea, only its execution. But see below on patent.
As far as Paramount would be concerned, the issue of trademarking is probably more important than copyright. If they have trademarked the name for a particular series, and you then make a plugin of that series, they are obliged to do something about it to defend their trademarking -- otherwise they risk it lapsing into the public domain. Their copyright cannot be affected by misuse, but the trademark is more vulnerable.
Frequently, a trademark protects a name within a particular market which would otherwise be in the public domain. For example, the company I used to work for owned the Lucas trademark for the automotive and aerospace industries. Their trademark, however, would not limit the activities of George Lucas, unless he decided to start manufacturing commercial air or spacecraft, instead of making films about fantasy ones.
As far as the Paramount issue is concerned, they would certainly see their trademark as being under threat, since TV and computer games would be classified together as the entertainment industry.
Patent is the only way of protecting ideas, and it usually only applies to ideas which have some kind of practical industrial or technological application. It's also very slippery. At one point I wanted the company I worked for to register a patent on a particular kind of braking compound. More experienced managers objected: the information contained in the patent application would have given our competitors a huge head start in developing the next generation of products.
Sometimes secrecy is the best policy.
------------------ M A R T I N T U R N E R (url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/cgi-bin/vftp/show.pl?product=evo&category;=plugins&display;=downloads&file;=FrozenHeart104.sit.bin")Frozen Heart(/url) (url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/cgi-bin/vftp/show.pl?product=evo&category;=plugins&display;=downloads&file;=FemmeFatale.sea.bin")Femme Fatale(/url) (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/cgi-bin/vftp/dl-redirect.pl?path=evo/plugins&file;=Frozen Heart - the No.hqx")Frozen Heart - the Novel(/url)
Originally posted by Martin Turner: **< snip>
**
What about the data (not counting grahpics) of plug-ins?
Case in point :redface: : In "Reign of the UE," there is a ship called a "Mine" with a "weapon" called a "Mine Explosion." For the weapon, I bascially copied the "Mine Detonation" (or soemthing like that) weapon from Frozen Heart and pasted it in my plug, modified some of the numbers (namely the destructive power of the mines), and left it at that. I did not copy any of the graphics or the storyline, just the weapon.
Is that OK?
I hope it is.
God bless,
UE Patriot
------------------ (url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/cgi-bin/vftp/show.pl?product=evo&category;=plugins&display;=date&file;=ReignOfTheUEv12.Bin")Reign of the UE(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/cgi-bin/vftp/show.pl?product=evo&category;=plugins&display;=date&file;=PersonsOFTheEVOWebboardv2.Bin")Persons of the EVO Webboard(/url) Christus natus est in Bethlehem.
Originally posted by Martin Turner: **As far as Paramount would be concerned, the issue of trademarking is probably more important than copyright. If they have trademarked the name for a particular series, and you then make a plugin of that series, they are obliged to do something about it to defend their trademarking -- otherwise they risk it lapsing into the public domain. Their copyright cannot be affected by misuse, but the trademark is more vulnerable.
Frequently, a trademark protects a name within a particular market which would otherwise be in the public domain. For example, the company I used to work for owned the Lucas trademark for the automotive and aerospace industries. Their trademark, however, would not limit the activities of George Lucas, unless he decided to start manufacturing commercial air or spacecraft, instead of making films about fantasy ones. **
Unless, of course, you do invent the warp drive and make the starship enterprise. Paramount's agreement for startrek production states that if someone comes up with the device then they must be granted permission to use the name. Oh, and someone did invent the tricorder =P
Funny things I know
And again, this is where the USA and the rest of the world diverge. Over here they cant get you for making a EV plugin called 'star trek', so long as you havent deliberatly set out to confuse people over which is which. (eg, if I was Mr McDonald and opened McDonalds' takeaway fish & chips, Mcdonalds cant do anything, so long as I dont try to make myself look like them. If I was Mr Smith, things are different).
Oh, and just as another thing, things with the letters 'tm' in superscript after them are not legal trademarks, they must be registered trademarks to mean anything (an R in a circle).
Originally posted by Martin Turner: ** Patent is the only way of protecting ideas, and it usually only applies to ideas which have some kind of practical industrial or technological application. It's also very slippery. At one point I wanted the company I worked for to register a patent on a particular kind of braking compound. More experienced managers objected: the information contained in the patent application would have given our competitors a huge head start in developing the next generation of products. **
Yes, I agree on that, but patents on computer products is tricky, because you dont really have anything physical to patent. All you have is a lot of 1's and 0's.
Anyway, dont get too worried, if you get a cease&desist; notice, just do it.
------------------ --sitharus (url="http://"http://www.damnsw.net/~triplet/forums/")Carracho Help - Updated, upgraded and better!(/url) EV Development IRC channel: #evdev on irc.ambrosia.net Insults are the arguments employed by those who are in the wrong. Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Originally posted by UE Patriot: **What about the data (not counting grahpics) of plug-ins?
In principle I think the code itself would be copyright. I know that Sony tried to sue Virtual Game Station and were unable to because they couldn't prove that any of the Playstation code had been used.
However, for Frozen Heart I've said (somewhere) that the ideas for different ships and weapons are for anyone to use, as long as they don't use the graphics or the scenario.
So, yes, it's ok.
I don't get it. Why should a multi-billion dollar company care if some kid makes some models of a StarWars ship in a plugin? As long as we don't sell it or jeopardize their buisness........After all, if I took the time to, I could name a LOT of professionally made (and sometimes sold) games that used concepts, ideas, themes, and even graphics and sounds from other programs and games.
If this is really something to be worried about, perhaps I should rework some of my plug-in.....ah well, life's too short to worry about that.
-Lequis
------------------
Originally posted by Lequis MX: Why should a multi-billion dollar company care if some kid makes some models of a StarWars ship in a plugin?
Because it's theirs. Regardless of whether George Lucas 'needs the money', he created (url="http://"http://www.starwars.com/")Star Wars(/url), and has the legal and moral right to control it.
However, to take this particular example further, Lucas has a reputation for being quite lenient with fan-created Star Wars works, and often foregoes his right to take action against them. On the other hand, Paramount has frequently come down heavy-handedly on people who make use of the (url="http://"http://www.startrek.com/")Star Trek(/url) franchise.
Yeah, but we're not saying that we did it, so it's ok, right? If we give them credit?
...Ah well.
Originally posted by Lequis MX: Yeah, but we're not saying that we did it, so it's ok, right? If we give them credit?
Well, by giving credit it doesn't just up and make it "right", but it sure wouldn't hurt. Best rule of thumb is to ALWAYS give credit where credit is due, no matter how minute (especially in this case). While a note in the read-me wouldn't stop a cease-and-desist order, it would look better in court should they try to sue (fat chance, but still, they won't be able to say that you were trying to take credit for their creations).
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