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What is the ruling on Ships of other IP holders (disney, GW, etc)


Anopheles

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If we build a Millenium Falcon (and someone's gonna, if not already) will we be able to show pictures of it, or vids?   Will there be rules against building them in the first place?   Don't have a dog in the fight, just thought it'd be nice if we knew before eagles swooped.    Apologies if asked before.

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I'm not sure, what NQs opinion/statement on this is, but i think why not?

Fans where recreating ships from their favorit IPs for a long time. Out of Lego, building it in Minecraft or drawing fan art.

The only case, I could see a problem is when the IP is a direct competitor to DU, like Star Citizen.

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I think the only implications come from whether or not the creator is making money off of someone else's IP.  So while it might be OK for us to make them, I doubt we could sell them for actual money or that NQ would be able to use them in any promotional materials for the game.  Otherwise, I don't think the law can stop people from making stuff like that just for fun.  If so then Twitter would have been shut down a long time ago.

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Such a strange topic that comes up every now and then.  I have no experience in the area, as I'm not a copyright law expert by any means.  But it's just interesting to see a resounding "nope, it's illegal and Disney could sue NQ" sometimes... yet other times people say the opposite.

 

I don't mean strange as in an unwarranted topic... but strange because it has varying answers haha.

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I'm not a lawyer either, but I figure it would work sort of like a cover band playing another bands music.  If it's a tribute, and you aren't claiming that what you are selling IS the original thing, and you're not claiming that it's your own original work, then it's probably cool.

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11 hours ago, Hades said:

But it's just interesting to see a resounding "nope, it's illegal and Disney could sue NQ" sometimes... yet other times people say the opposite.

That's because there is so much gray area, you can still get sued even though you're not breaking the written law. And platforms like youtube will block content, even when it follows fair use.

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  • 3 weeks later...

NQ doesn't really have any choice.

 Law just forbid you to use copyrighted materials and trademark companies usually see reproduction as a very bad idea (even if it is free publicity for them... but that's another discussion).

 

See some recent input from Nyzaltar here: https://board.dualthegame.com/index.php?/topic/14481-warhammer-40k-themed-clan/&tab=comments#comment-98467 .

 

~ Merwyn

Edited by Mod-Merwyn
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9 hours ago, Mod-Merwyn said:

NQ doesn't really have any choice.

 Law just forbid you to use copyrighted materials and trademark companies usually see reproduction as a very bad idea (even if it is free publicity for them... but that's another discussion).

 

See some recent input from Nyzaltar here: https://board.dualthegame.com/index.php?/topic/14481-warhammer-40k-themed-clan/&tab=comments#comment-98467 .

 

~ Merwyn

But it doesn't forbid you from makeing something similar in looks for purposes like parody or commentary etc.

 

:3

 

You could make a weird looking MFalcon or Starship Enterprise.

Just name it Dreamship 2 and have it look slightly different.

 

 

Problem solved.

 

No one can blame you for artistic inspirations. But a carbon copy of Copyrighted materials is just ... stupid.

Respectother peoples ideas, but use them to fuel your mind.

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2 minutes ago, Sofernius said:

But it doesn't forbid you from makeing something similar in looks for purposes like parody or commentary etc.

 

:3

 

You could make a weird looking MFalcon or Starship Enterprise.

Just name it Dreamship 2 and have it look slightly different.

 

 

Problem solved.

 

No one can blame you for artistic inspirations. But a carbon copy of Copyrighted materials is just ... stupid.

Respectother peoples ideas, but use them to fuel your mind.

What Is Fair Use?

In its most general sense, a fair use is any copying of copyrighted material done for a limited and “transformative” purpose, such as to comment upon, criticize, or parody a copyrighted work. Such uses can be done without permission from the copyright owner. In other words, fair use is a defense against a claim of copyright infringement. If your use qualifies as a fair use, then it would not be considered an infringement.

 

 

--

 

Just keep it away from a 1:1 carbon copy and  be fine i guess.

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Well you can sue anyone for anything. Doesn't mean you will win.  You MUST prove a monetary loss or some kind of harm to your IP before you can win a case like that though.  Sony are just being assholes.  But I doubt their attorneys would ever advise actually taking something like in that post above to court.  What damages can they actually prove?  But I understand NQ's position.  They are a new company and its probably a good idea not to poke the bears in the industry if they don't have to.

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So it seems a safe way is to obtain permission from the "IP holder" if there is no better or relatively safe way to justify something, or to safely assume usage is fine.

 

Out of curiosity, did we have any cases where IP holders or managers contacted NQ and claimed an issue? I kind of remember there being one actual case with Star Wars (one of the Empire groups, but not sure if it was just done by NQ preemptively) and think I heard something about Star Trek.

 

Having exact numbers helps us determine whether this was an actual issue already or to assess whether we are acting all preemptively because something could happen. It also helps to assess where (in what "IP") it happened.

 

Apparently, Warhammer seems to be fine according to a recent post where someone called them to see what their stance is.

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6 hours ago, CoreVamore said:

What is ok today can be not ok tomorrow depending on a companies directors and lawyers....

 

Much safer just to be original and breath freely.

 

Thing with the last sentence is (and I would agree):

 

In the context of the thread we all think of organizations copying existing themes fully and potentially "battling" corporate lawyers. Sure, it's easier (in a way) to create your own thing.

 

But copyright itself remains a potential aspect for all as soon as they start using any sort of media work made by someone else. Even if that is not a corporate lawyer employed by Corp X. Could get you in trouble either way though. So I think copyright itself and contacting IP holders to get indefinite or timed, full or partial, permissions to use X is vital still.

 

Did it in the past myself, here and there. Feels good and you are on the safe side. Especially smaller artists are lenient.

 

And in some other cases you simply do not have to ask yourself because there might be some precedent or clause allowing you to use X with or without restrictions.

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