MineCraft Players Putting Themselves at Risk of Copyright Lawsuits
- Thread starter Logan Westbrook
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With Tim Langdell out of the way, I would figure we're safe from frivolous litigation... for now.
Exactly. A move like crushing a few bees can make the swarm unhappy, which is in itself not so significative but it does make for bad press of the show.UltimatheChosen said:
IMO, the companies could just make an open letter per season inviting enthusiasts to plug their current product a little bit, a little mention or something here and there. Something little like that could have successful repercussions, and it would be totally free. TV shows and movies would quickly benefit of the constant mass of advertising carrying over the social gaming medium.
Next thing you know, I'll be getting sued by DC Comics for making Batman in my high school 3D Animations class... >.>
Seems someone got to the sentiment first.thefreeman0001 said:
See, it's when you read stuff like this that you realise how screwed up copyright laws are starting to get.
Sure, there's some argument about 'control' of your work, but sooner or later this just crosses a line into outright stupid.
Suing people over stuff like this just shouldn't be allowed.
Could happen? Well of course it could happen; various companies could technically bust down on most fanart and fan fiction since it technically violated copyright. Doesn?t mean they are actually going to do it, for a number of reasons. Wouldn?t be worth the time and hassle nor the bad press to bust down on people doing this stuff for the fun of it, when money gets involved, then it?s a different issue.
Now, as much as it is a possibility, it's not particularly likely to happen.
Not likely to happen, at all.
They don't go around sueing Gmod ragdoll makers, now, do they?
Not likely to happen, at all.
They don't go around sueing Gmod ragdoll makers, now, do they?
We'd better not sit around and draw things either! We could all get in trouble! Copyright law gets so frickin' stupid sometimes. I can understand if someone were making money off of what they created when it was someone else's idea, but it's just an artistic representation of something that's not used for any profit. Hell, let's go round up people from a Trek convention and accuse them all of violating copyright law.dickseverywhere said:
That was an issue of releasing info that wasn't supposed to out yet. You'll notice that Nintendo has no complaints about people posting screenshots of Pokemon Heartgold or Soulsilver.Irridium said:
There's a significant difference between a stationary sculpture and something that's actually used as a major gameplay element.Moriarty70 said:
Precedent indicates most franchises and companies aren't worried about fan alienationUltimatheChosen said:
Also, a lot of rights holders have been downright petty in the past when dealing with things like this.
I call bullshit. I'd need to get a few of my lawyer friends to look at it, but with no financial gain this is to my knowledge the equivalent of building a scale model out of paper and displaying that. The people making this claim are idiots.
EDIT: Just read the article and, indeed, their one citation for precedent is:
A) A lawsuit put forth by J.K. Rowling, who is growing progressively more notorious for doing this sort of thing. No word in the link they provide as to whether or not her lawsuit was successful, and in the event that it wasn't, the group in question could countersue for their expenses and potentially much, much more.
B) Rowling sued over something being used as an attraction at a charity event. The fact that it's non-profit is irrelevant - it's intended to promote financial transactions and without proper licensing is indeed a violation of copyright.
So yeah, uh.
These people are idiots.
FURTHER EDIT:
Checked to see if the people erecting the replica of Hogwarts were sued successfully, and it turns out that while the lawsuit was successful and the court declared them obligated to dismantle the replica after the festival was over, no fine was levied. Warner Bros claim that they only included a fine in their initial push because they thought it was mandated by Indian Copyright Law (turns out it wasn't), but I'm skeptical here.
Also of note is the fact that the replica was being erected for a commercial (albeit still non-profit) event that happened to be timed alongside the religious festival.
EDIT: Just read the article and, indeed, their one citation for precedent is:
A) A lawsuit put forth by J.K. Rowling, who is growing progressively more notorious for doing this sort of thing. No word in the link they provide as to whether or not her lawsuit was successful, and in the event that it wasn't, the group in question could countersue for their expenses and potentially much, much more.
B) Rowling sued over something being used as an attraction at a charity event. The fact that it's non-profit is irrelevant - it's intended to promote financial transactions and without proper licensing is indeed a violation of copyright.
So yeah, uh.
These people are idiots.
FURTHER EDIT:
Checked to see if the people erecting the replica of Hogwarts were sued successfully, and it turns out that while the lawsuit was successful and the court declared them obligated to dismantle the replica after the festival was over, no fine was levied. Warner Bros claim that they only included a fine in their initial push because they thought it was mandated by Indian Copyright Law (turns out it wasn't), but I'm skeptical here.
Also of note is the fact that the replica was being erected for a commercial (albeit still non-profit) event that happened to be timed alongside the religious festival.
In general, though, that involves stuff that could conceivably hurt them. For instance, fan translations of games that were never ported to the US could hurt sales if they eventually DO decide to port it, so it's understandable that a company might stop that.Zachary Amaranth said:
This stuff is just stationary sculptures of things. Unless Sega is planning on releasing "Sonic and the Immortal Sculptor", they don't have much to worry about.
...I hope I didn't just give Sonic Team an idea, since I'm sure they'd consider that a brilliant move for some reason.