Fans Petition to Save Ambitious Lord of the Rings Mod
- Thread starter Fanghawk
- Start date
The creators are alive and well and working on The Hobbit. This ties into the films not the books. Anyway I.C.E.should sue their arses for taking the MERP name in vain. If you are going to call your mod MERP you need to base it on MERP not some johnny come lately movies.Nurb said:
Love, its the one thing that these suits just don't understand. To them everything is about money and profit. The very notion that there are people out there doing things for love is beyond them. They simply cannot comprehend people doing things that don't benefit them personally. My advice to the mod developers would be to try and negotiate with Peter Jackson personally. If he was half the person he seemed to be when he made LOTR, he would understand.
This right here is why I hate the **** that is copyright laws. Yeah I know artists need some protection for their work but all these crappy IP laws seem to do is help corparations and ruin things for everbody else.
I hate IP laws and wish they would change soon but they won't and this probably won't get made now. This is saddening.
I hate IP laws and wish they would change soon but they won't and this probably won't get made now. This is saddening.
You are addressing the wrong company. Like anything Dungeon and Dragons is addressed to Hasbro, Anything Tolkien is owned by SZ. THe man bought the rights for ALL MEDIA outside books (I beleive) from tolkien directly. He made a promise to respect the spirit of the books and that's all. It cannot be public domain because someone still owns the intellictual rights, either Christopher who is "continuing" the series and the SZ who allowed WB to use the IP. THey also let Turbine use the IP, but could not really do anything before the Fellowship of the Ring. That's why in the MMO, Things from the "Hobbit" are really not mentioned, neither is the SIllimarillion (sp.)and so on.
WB has use of the property, and in order to keep that property excusive they have to defend it.
THe problem is, while the modders won't make any cash, Bethesda will. For there are people who didn't jump on the Elder scrolls bandwagon (cough cough ME!) that would purchase it for a LotR mod. And WB and SZ will not see ANY of that cash.
Which is all ironic since the Mojang and Bethesda "scroll" nonsense. Not that had anything to do with the Modders.
BUT BUT IT ISN'T FAIR!
Maybe not, however, there is alot of people who's intellectual property has stomped upon when they are still alive let alone dead, because they gave it up or lost it (fairly or unfairly).Do you have the right to defend what you own or created? I think so. If I rewrote LotR using modern language and posted, free, on the internet would I be infriging the IP? Maybe. It's a dangerous game to play IP chicken with a big company. Chances are that they have a leg to stand on and the lawyers to back it up.
IF I wrote something original, took the time to copyright it and had it printed as a book, only to find someone using it in a game as a free mod because he loved it...I'd be flattered, however, if people bought the game just to play the mod, I'd be slightly upset. My property is being used and all I have to show for it is my revenues from my books. I will never see any money from the game because I don't have a contract with that game. Worse, what if they changed how the characters act? Is that fair? I wrote the character to be moody and violent, there was a reason. Why is a bunch of modders rewriting my book?
At the end, WB is protecting its IP rights. It paid for these rights and has to pay the "Rental fees" on it and has to obey the rules that were set down by the owners of the IP. Modders don't have that, they can do anything they want. And with a game as popular as Skyrim, that's a lot of cash that the IP owners will not see. Plus, interfering with current and upcoming games that they produced because the mod is better and you already bought skyrim. Is that fair?
Whether or not you agree with them, do understand why they are doing it. They are protecting an investment, a legacy of a man, and keeping a promise. THey are not being mean to the poor, poor Modders.
WB has use of the property, and in order to keep that property excusive they have to defend it.
THe problem is, while the modders won't make any cash, Bethesda will. For there are people who didn't jump on the Elder scrolls bandwagon (cough cough ME!) that would purchase it for a LotR mod. And WB and SZ will not see ANY of that cash.
Which is all ironic since the Mojang and Bethesda "scroll" nonsense. Not that had anything to do with the Modders.
BUT BUT IT ISN'T FAIR!
Maybe not, however, there is alot of people who's intellectual property has stomped upon when they are still alive let alone dead, because they gave it up or lost it (fairly or unfairly).Do you have the right to defend what you own or created? I think so. If I rewrote LotR using modern language and posted, free, on the internet would I be infriging the IP? Maybe. It's a dangerous game to play IP chicken with a big company. Chances are that they have a leg to stand on and the lawyers to back it up.
IF I wrote something original, took the time to copyright it and had it printed as a book, only to find someone using it in a game as a free mod because he loved it...I'd be flattered, however, if people bought the game just to play the mod, I'd be slightly upset. My property is being used and all I have to show for it is my revenues from my books. I will never see any money from the game because I don't have a contract with that game. Worse, what if they changed how the characters act? Is that fair? I wrote the character to be moody and violent, there was a reason. Why is a bunch of modders rewriting my book?
At the end, WB is protecting its IP rights. It paid for these rights and has to pay the "Rental fees" on it and has to obey the rules that were set down by the owners of the IP. Modders don't have that, they can do anything they want. And with a game as popular as Skyrim, that's a lot of cash that the IP owners will not see. Plus, interfering with current and upcoming games that they produced because the mod is better and you already bought skyrim. Is that fair?
Whether or not you agree with them, do understand why they are doing it. They are protecting an investment, a legacy of a man, and keeping a promise. THey are not being mean to the poor, poor Modders.
Thing is, from what I can see/understand they aren't even breaching any laws at all.Dandark said:
So the Oblivion mod that's a total conversion to LOTR is fine, but the Skyrim version isn't? And it's a non-profit mod, meaning that they spent hundreds of hours on this thing and expect no one to pay them for their time. Oh you can just shove that C&D WB, you're just scared that a couple of dudes with some free time can do it better than you.
Consider that petition signed.
And before I hear someone lecturing me about, yes I know that they are technically infringing on their blah blah blah.
It's still bullshit.
Consider that petition signed.
And before I hear someone lecturing me about, yes I know that they are technically infringing on their blah blah blah.
It's still bullshit.
They're not making any money from it. It's like suing for making your own Hobbit costume.Azuaron said:
Do you have anything to back that up? The obvious point of reference is the Bethesda-Mojang case, but both were dealing with IPs set to make money, not fan hobbyists.Boudica said:
There are innumerable Star Wars fanworks and Lucas is happy to leave them alone, but he's gone to court on several occasions to stop those that are out to make money.
If WB actually wins this thing, who knows what could happen to other mods out there...
...if they take my Goldeneye: Source away from me, I will choke a *****...
...if they take my Goldeneye: Source away from me, I will choke a *****...
Technically, they're perfectly within their rights. This is one reason why copyright law in the US is such bullshit.Tanis said:
As far as I'm concerned, there should be UNIVERSAL protection for non-commercial use of any IP, but the current laws give Warner Bros. the authority to shut them down just for having the name attached to it.
It happened to the unofficial Sonic game, the unofficial Chrono Trigger sequel and yes, the owners of the Galactica IP could kill that Freespace mod too, if they wanted.
Oh, you can't blame Warner Bros. for any of that. In particular, they haven't "bought up" the rights to LotR so much as bought the film rights (and probably some videogame rights) and with them some trademarks. That's really where it looks like MERP's getting hit, too: the trademarks, which is a whole different mess of laws than copyright.Entitled said:
And, given the litigious nature of Tolkien's estate, if they ever found out about the mod they'd shut it down, too, but from a copyright stance.
Personally, I think copyright should last no longer than death of the creator + 20 years (preferably 10 years). This gives their children/estate enough time to resolve the story if need be (e.g., Robert Jordan) while giving them the cash flow to do so. If a company "created" the media, they can have it for 50 years.
But, until we can shove copyright reform through Congress, these are the laws we have, and complaining at a company for protecting the rights they've been legally granted is like complaining at pedestrians for using crosswalks (they should use jetpacks, amirite?)
Anyway, the modders aren't "right", morally or otherwise. They haven't even taken the, "It shouldn't be copyrighted anymore," stance, just the, "Oh, come on, why do you care, you should just let us do this," stance. And even if they had taken that stance, it's still morally wrong to take the legal rights of IP owners without asking just because you want to or because you disagree with the law. This is not one of those laws where civil disobedience is appropriate or useful.
Hand still in the cookie jar, throwing a tantrum.
