UNIT: Chariot Archer - Preview

[SpencerH]

Originally posted by jimmyh

I sure the with translation thing they were actually taken to court, I'm not sure.

They were hit with a special German version of the "cease and desist" that included them paying "legal fees" or some nonsense. I think infogreed sucked up those fees but I did lose track of that thread.

[Gramphos]

As far as I know Apolyton isn't responsible for anything posted on the forums (I think it is something you have to read while registering).

[jimmyh]

Originally posted by Gramphos
As far as I know Apolyton aren't responsible for anything posted on the forums (I think it is something you have to read while registering).

But would Apolyton be responsible for removing such material?

[XMon]

I really wouldn't worry about copyright infringement in this particular case. Companies usually are only concerned with amateur activities such as ours if 1) you're making money off of their "property" or 2) you're preventing them from making money. The bitmap extractor for the AoE/A0K images has been around for a while on a high profile fan site with no grief that I know of, and it would appear that most game companies have not only come to accept "modding" but have actually realized it's good for the industry. If a web site was selling these files to users then the game company would sue b/c money was being made off their back. This happens with the adult mags often. They find web sites that have pics from their magazine and they hit the site with usually a warning first, then further action if ignored. Sometimes they just want a piece of the action. The case in Germany w/Infogrames involved the second matter, they were concerned that this translation would prevent future sales of their product. Another example along these lines would be the napster situation. Or guys posting pics online from the brand new issue of FHM. The music industry is deathly afraid that free distribution of their end product would kill the industry.

I really don't think posting flc files made of images from other games would be of the slightest concern to the game maker. If anything, you're advertising their product. If you're really concerned, I'd email Dan or Markos about it. You could also throw up a free webpage and link to it but I personally don't think that's necessary. Heck, email them to me and I'll post 'em.

I'm not a lawyer but this is just I picked up on the net in the past. I used to have a web site and my host (who was/is in law school) had to deal with some of this stuff (but not because of me!) and I talked with him about it at some length.

Just my opinion.

[Gramphos]

Originally posted by jimmyh
But would Apolyton be responsible for removing such material?

If asked by MS maybe, but I'm not 100% sure here.

[Harlan]

jimmyh,
I agree totally with XMon. As long as you don't sell anything, you should be fine. Take a look at unit graphics and other types of graphics made for Civ2, CTP1, CTP2, etc... Tons of stuff has been pilfered from tons of games. pilfering from somewhere or another is the usual thing, making original art more rare. I myself converted a few Age of Empires graphics to CTP. To my knowledge, nobody's ever been questioned on any of it.

So I wouldn't worry. If MS cared, they would have bothered somebody about it years ago. I for one, would very much look forward to seeing that stuff converted.