MineCraft Players Putting Themselves at Risk of Copyright Lawsuits

[Logan Westbrook]

MineCraft Players Putting Themselves at Risk of Copyright Lawsuits

Building stuff out of cubes is apparently more dangerous than you might expect.

That tribute to your favorite TV show or videogame that you lovingly crafted out of blocks of stone in MineCraft could land you in some legal hot water if the company that made the original is in a litigious mood.

Using the full-sized replica [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/103834-Minecraft-Player-Needs-Help-Building-Scale-Star-Trek-Enterprise] of the Enterprise-D from Star Trek: The Next Generation constructed by Hal "Halkun" Nicholas as an example, Public Knowledge [http://www.publicknowledge.org/Minecraft-Enterprise] reports that under US copyright law, that replica could be considered a "derivative work" and leave Nicholas open to a lawsuit from Viacom, the studio that owns the rights to Star Trek. What's more, if such a work was created on a public server, the server owner could also be sued for secondary infringement. You might make the argument that there's no commercial gain involved in your mile-high replica of Mario's head, or whatever else you might have built, but that's not a guaranteed defense, and would require actual legal counsel to see if it's applicable.

But before you go tearing down the fortress you built in the shape of Sonic's left sneaker, be aware that this is just something that could happen, not something that definitely will happen. With the vast number of derived works based on videogames, TV shows and movies, it seems incredibly unlikely that studios, developers and publishers would single out MineCraft players for a legal smackdown. You might receive a cease and desist letter, but even that seems like a lot of effort to go to for something so trivial.

Source: Game Politics [http://www.gamepolitics.com/2010/10/14/enterprising-minecraft-player-could-be-risk]



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[UltimatheChosen]

Personally, I suspect that companies probably won't do this for fear of alienating some of their fans. Besides, it's basically free advertising for them.

 

[SnipErlite]

I sure hope nobody enforces this...I mean come on, Minecraft is awesome and they should be proud somebody is willing to devote so much time to pay tribute to them

 

[LawlessSquirrel]

It seems like it would be bad publicity for a company to sue a minecraft player for fan work, but I guess some of them really aren't that concerned about publicity when there's fans to sue.

I'm actually a little surprised that there hasn't been much suing over minecraft, I guess these companies are more understanding than I give them credit for.

 

[Blackadder51]

Oh what, that is fucked =(

 

[SilentHunter7]

Cracking down on something so beloved as MineCraft, over something so trivial will generate so much negative PR, that the cost would severely outweigh the benefits. Tl;dr: only an idiot would C&D someone's MineCraft creation.

So as long as everyone stays away from Activision IPs, we should be good.

 

[Gray Monk]

Only a complete asshole would do thisw to someone when there is much bigger problem's then drawing a picture that some guy somewhere reckons he owns it.

 

[Irridium]

Personally, I suspect that companies probably won't do this for fear of alienating some of their fans. Besides, it's basically free advertising for them.

It doesn't matter. They still tend to be rather sue-happy.

An example would be Nintendo asking fans to take down pokemon screenshots of the new Black/White games.

 

[crotalidian]

Now that he has lost his trademarks can someone create a 300ft high, Hollywood Style Sign of the word EDGE!

 

[dickseverywhere]

its 'elf n safety copyright law gone mad!

 

[Areani]

Ridiculous. If someone actually does sue there's just no way they'll gain anything from it, other than showing that they're complete douchbags.

 

[Javex]

There's no real commercial gain here for Minecraft players. Honestly, I'm not sure the executives of major companies even know what Minecraft is. Hell, I only heard about it a couple weeks ago.

 

[Jaqen Hghar]

I don't think anyone in the gaming world is that much of an asshole to actually sue someone for making something from their game in Minecraft. Oh wait... well, if no-one makes anything made by Activision we won't see this happening.

 

[Fensfield]

Someone should have built EDGE in mile high letters and seen what happened.

 

[PlasticTree]

it seems incredibly unlikely that studios, developers and publishers would single out MineCraft players for a legal smackdown.

Tell that to Nintendo and those Pokémon-fansites.

 

[HentMas]

DUDE DONT SCARE ME LIKE THAT!!

I´m Making the NES Mario in a server where only a couple play, and that genienuely seems like a fricken bomb to Minecraft

future projects include "Hirule Garden" and "Samus Space ship" althought that one will require a ton of gold blocks...

 

[Keava]

Um, what about the Fair Use doctrine in US law? I highly doubt any judge that's not insane would ever consider any of those to be against Fair Use. In the end companies would have to waste more resources on trying to prove actual copyright infringement, risking a blow to their image and PR, instead just taking it as a free advertisement.

Then again it would also be nice if US copyright law would include the term of non-commercial fan art.

 

[Twad]

Personally, I suspect that companies probably won't do this for fear of alienating some of their fans. Besides, it's basically free advertising for them.

That. Exactly. Its not like it will hurt their sales anyway, so it would be stupid to sue for this.

An not ammount of corporate stupidity will stop people from having fun if they feel like it.

 

[BlueInkAlchemist]

"Trivial" is the watchword here. Most attorneys have bigger and fatter fish to fry than Minecraft players.