Ok I don''t know where the line is drawn on such things as copyrights but say I want to make an online text based war/strategy game based on the Star Wars universe. Could Lucas Arts sue me for this? Even if on the site at the bottom of every page I had a comment saying that "Tie Fighter" and "Stormtrooper" and such are owned and copyrighted by Lucas Arts Ltd.? And that the game was completely free. Now I''m positive that would be illegal if I tried making a profit off of it but what if it''s totally free? Do I have the right to make this game? Thanks for the info.

They can only sue you if you sell the game for a profit. Worst case scenario is they send you a "cease & desist" order, but I really doubt it since you''re not trying to make a profit. Even greedy ol'' Hasbro didn''t try suing the many people who''ve made Asteroids clones and things, only those who sold games similar to that.

But anyway, go ahead, and if LucasArts tells you to stop, then just change your theme and artwork but retain the game code, or something.

~CGameProgrammer( );

Yes. Yes it is illegal. So why do you want to do it? Think up an idea of your own.

Now there have been freeware games based on other games made: Zelda Classic and Dweeb Wars (that''s right; there''s already a Star Wars spoof). But what''s the sense in making a freeware game based on a multi-million dollar idea THAT BELONGS TO SOMEONE ELSE!

You''ll make some money off that...

You ''can'' as long as your names/specific things do not hold any resemblence to Star Wars and anything part of Star Wars itself. I don''t believe that Lucas Arts Ltd. holds rights to the Star Wars idea, but I know they to the name. So, I wouldn''t call it something with Star Wars in it. Think of it in terms of the Tetris stuff.

For example, instead of Tie Fighter you could use Thai Fighter or Ti3 Fighter

But you also have to consider, that the odds of Lucas Arts Ltd. caring about you making this game are pretty slim. Look at Dream Quest 2000, it is pretty popular (at least I''m pretty sure) and they use Final Fantasy II graphics and they have never had any problems with Nintendo or Square.

Am I wrong on the naming thing anyone?

"Maybe it was Julie." -Rocketman

I heard that because of a precedent set in some court case about a Tetris clone, you''re not allowed to make any Tetris-style game with the suffix ''tris''. So the naming thing might be dodgy.

Harry.

Go ahead and make the game. I guarantee to that LucasArts won''t even care.


-Forcas

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"Elvis is alive. He is Barney the purple dinosaur. He is the pied piper that leads our children into the wages of sin and eternal damnation."

I don''t understand why people think you can''t be sued if you are distributing copyrighted material for free. Evrytime a question like this comes up someone invariably makes a comment indicating it''s okay to copy as long as you don''t sell, which completely makes no sense. I would be more worried about free rip-offs of my material than I would about commercial rip-offs. Picture this:

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You create a terrific universe, complete with a rich history and intriguing characters. You put everything down in a series of books and they sell like hotcakes. Later, you decide to make a game based on your universe. About the same time you release your commercial game, another group releases a game based on your universe (complete with all the names you copyrighted) for free. The free version atrracts thousands of players, while yours (at $40.00 a pop) bags just a handful.
============

In the above scenario, wouldn''t you want to sue if you asked them to stop distributing their game and they refused? Many people would. Would the legal system deny you the right to sue? Absolutely not.

While this scenario is not the same as it would be if any one of us coded a text based Star Wars game, the fact remains that Star Wars is copyrighted material. This means only the owner of the copyright has the right to reproduce or distribute anything related to that material and are the only ones who can authorize anyone else to do so - FOR PROFIT OR NOT!

When I was in the fifth grade, we had a school flea market. My class made bookmarks based on PacMan characters. The bookmarks were free for everyone who came to the flea market. My teacher taught us about copyrights and contacted the owners of the PacMan copyright (was it NamCo?) to ask for permission to make and distribute the bookmarks.

The group doing the remake of Ultima 1 contacted Richard Garriot and asked his permission to create a game based on his material. Did they do it because they''re polite people? Of course not (though I''m sure they''re nice guys ). They did it in order to make sure they would avoid any legal entanglement.

Please remember: YOU CAN BE SUED FOR COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT EVEN IF YOU ARE NOT SELLING ANYTHING!







GamesToGO: The Console Gamer''s Paradise

First the game companies sued ROM pirates...

Then the record companies sued Napster...

Then Hasbro sued the game companies for stealing ideas...


When are people going to learn? Yes, that big copyright thing is just there for nothing. It doesn''t do anything or say anything. It doesn''t affect anyone. You can do whatever you want with other people''s products. That''s right. Yeah...

One reason they may not want you to use their name is cuz let''s say that BalAhan (just gonna use you as an example) makes a star wars game. But the game is second rate and cheesy. It has the Star Wars name so gamers might associate a second rate and cheesy game with Lucas Arts because it''s the same name. Their are other reasons of course, but that may be one.

(I''m not saying you would make a cheesy game BalAhan )

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"We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of the dreams."
- Willy Wonka

While it may be illegal, I'd say it's way more justified than say.... Napster. And you have to ask yourself this..... would lucasarts care? Not, "Would it be legal for Lucas Arts to sue?" I think it was good that your teacher taugt you about copyrights and all, but would you care if a group of fifth graders made bookmarks based on characters from game that you made?


-Forcas

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"Elvis is alive. He is Barney the purple dinosaur. He is the pied piper that leads our children into the wages of sin and eternal damnation."


Edited by - Forcas on March 1, 2001 11:11:35 PM