If someone wanted to make a game where the universe was taken from a movie/book, etc, how would one go about obtaining permission to do so? I heard you can take the premise, but you cant have the same story. Any input would be appreciated.

You''d have to find out who owns the copyright, and contact them.

I am not a lawyer, so I''ll leave the legal aspects, but even if you are entirely within the law, it remains courteous to ask permission from the creator of a world before you borrow it.

If permission is requested and denied, then it might be worth doing a little research and finding other universes that have elements sufficiently similar to those in the universe you want to copy. I repeat that I am not a lawyer, and my personal opinion is just that, an opinion, and has no legal weight, but I can''t see any reason why you couldn''t take elements from half a dozen published works and combine them into a coherent whole in a new and original way - particularly given that, if you go back far enough, you should be able to find works on which the copyright has expired.

That said, most authors will be quite happy to grant permission to base something on their work - though I would understand a reluctance to appear to endorse products that may be of inferior quality. And, of course, if you plan to make any money on the game, it''s quite possible that the author could expect some sort of fee - particularly if you use their name or otherwise clearly link the game to their work(s) - after all, you''d expect your sales to be improved by using their name...

You need to contact the copyright holder. Also if you intend to use names, logos, etc. you need to be aware that Trademark law comes into effect as well. If you are copying a system (like a ruleset or something) you may even be in the realm of patents.

Basically, find the company that owns this stuff and ask about getting a license to use it.

About "taking the premise" be careful...

If you have a story where a young farmboy meets a smuggler and together they beat all opposition then blow up the evil king''s space station, you might run into trouble unless you can show effort to make it a truly original idea.

Someone please correct me if I''m wrong, but don''t you actually have to make something commercially available for copyright/trademark laws to come into effect? That is, I could code up a game demo using Middle Earth, hobbits, etc. without permission from the Tolkien estate, as long as I don''t attempt to make money off of it, correct?

Nope, making a commercial product has nothing to do with copyright, licenses, or trademarks. Some companies have special licenes for small freeware distrubtion. But you still need permission, to use it.

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Writer, Programer, Cook, I''m a Jack of all Trades
Current Design project
Chaos Factor Design Document

This is from the copyright office''s site:
http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-fairuse.html

Every developer should read at least the FAQ at that site, at the minimum.