[C4:AC] Legal Updates

[Leon Trotsky]

Ufo2000 uses original game files, and those folks haven't got into trouble.

http://ufo2000.sourceforge.net/

I thought it was a similar case, I'm sorry if I'm wrong.

[LoD]

Raion: for the record, the name "Civilization" is not copyrighted. You cannot copyright or reserve rights to a common word. You can, however, declare it as a trademark, with apropriate logotype etc. - that's what they did. It means, very broadly speaking, that the trademark owner can sue you if you use a similar graphic design for the name of your own product. Now, what is deemed "similar" depends largely on how much money are you willing to spend on lawyers ;p...

Leon: probably because the the IP rights' owner either released them for the use in the project, or haven't yet decided to file a lawsuit. As a counterexample, take a project based on a smiliar premise, called Freecraft. Once Blizzard learned of them, they got medieval on their a**es.

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Regardless, it's interesting to see how this turns out.

[binTravkin]

They will have it tuned mighty fine.
25 days is not like an eyeblink..

[Padmewan]

Technically, the two words "Alpha Centauri" cannot be copyrighted nor trademarked. "Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri" is a different matter.

Of course, the bigger problem is that the plan is to reproduce faithfully all of the content of SMAC/X, the name of the project would be the smallest problem.

btw I'm a (non-practicing) attorney, and while I can't give this team any legal advice or counsel, I'd be interested in helping out.

[DanQ]

In a follow-up message to my liasion at Firaxis Games sent yesterday inquiring about an update on the official policy's development, I received the following response today:

I apologize; I assumed that [..] had answered your question.

The official policy is that because we do not own the I[ntellectual] P[roperty], we cannot legally help you with your project EXCEPT with generic programming and game mechanics, etc.

My reply this evening:

Hi [..].

> I apologize; I assumed that the producer had answered your question.

Ah -- thanks for the speedy reply.

> The official policy is that because we do not own the IP, we cannot legally help
> you with your project EXCEPT with generic programming and game mechanics,
> etc.

Understood.

To confirm them, EA has no objections to the use of the name "Alpha Centauri" that will legally prevent the group working on this project from using this in their work's title?

Will continue to keep apprised of further developments.

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Dan; Apolyton CS

[DanQ]

Originally posted by DanQ
To confirm them, EA has no objections to the use of the name "Alpha Centauri" that will legally prevent the group working on this project from using this in their work's title?

Above is the question I most recently posed to my Firaxis contact on this matter above. I have received his response already , and it was in the affirmative plus that they cannot "advise... one way or the other". Fair enough!

My response:

Appreciate that.

Is there a contact at EA you can direct me/administrative contacts of this group to on this? Whether the answer is yes or no, thank you once again for all of your assistance in this matter.

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Dan; Apolyton CS

[Senethro]

Thanks as always for the update and work Dan.

[MMC]

What about the laws that allow Fan Fiction etc... As long as you do nothing illegal or offesive with the material, and you don't attempt to claim any original works as your own, you should be covered for a non-commercial mod (so no trying to sell it)...

Paramount haven't sued anyone for not asking when they wrote Star Trek Fanfiction, or created a community based around Star Trek... And although EA can be a little more picky, I don't see that they should have a problem with this mod.

Of course that doesn't mean asking them is a bad idea - just not entirely necessary.

[Hotblack]

There are no laws in the U.S. that allow fan fiction or other dirivitive works of copyrighted materials. These things are allowed at the discretion of the copyright owner, not a legal right of the user.

That being said, most game publishers will allow mods (scenarios, graphics, etc) so long as there is no attempt to make money from it. That's why there is so much Star Trek fan fiction and game mods -- they allow it. Paramount has, in fact, shut down many web sites and threatened many people with lawsuites for mis-using their IP.

If you are going to use someone's copyrighted materials it very much is necessary to ask them first, or, in the case of computer games, at least make sure the license agreement includes a game mods/scenarios clause of some sort.

-- I'm not a lawyer, just passing on past experience based on involvement in other game mods...

[Xian]

Originally posted by Hotblack
There are no laws in the U.S. that allow fan fiction or other dirivitive works of copyrighted materials. These things are allowed at the discretion of the copyright owner, not a legal right of the user.

FALSE. The Untited States has "fair use" laws that allow you to break copyrights as long as the use is non-profit and/or has educational value. You can even use break copyrights for satirical value for profit (if that wasnt true many a TV show would be out of business!)

The problem is big corporations and their lawyers (particularly those from US based entertainment that crosses platforms ie TV to movie or movie to video game) have obscured fair use laws and gernally don't respect them. But nonetheless it is, in fact, the law that ALL mods are and always have been allowed to use copyrighted material since they are very obviously not-for-profit and have educational value. It is not that they "let" mods and fan works happen, it is that they do not attempt to break the law and threaten defenseless people with "cease and desist letters."

This is sad but true: Aliens TC, System Shock for D3... all of these mods were not actually illegal, even those that used copyrighted material. The EULA's that game companies/publishers write do not hold up in court and have no legal basis.

Google "fair use" rights

[The_Reckoning]

Here's a positive note: If they do want this mod shut down, it'd be because they're planning a SMAC-related game and don't want any market distraction.

I know Blizzard did shut down a few Starcraft to Warcraft III mods, since they were planning on bringing out WC3 a few years later.

[Jerh9e1k5]

So what's happening now? Is this going anywhere, or has it been put on hold indefinately?

It would be very nice to see this project go full steam ahead. Perhaps even just changing the name entirely and coming up with new graphics for everything? (There seem to many graphic artists around these parts)

[korn469]

Did this project die?

[GeoModder]

Edited.

[Senethro]

It died alone and unloved. Lets pretend it didn't happen.