I am thinking of developing a racecar simulator or alternatively a flight sim. Cars and tracks shapes are copyrighted? And military vehicle shapes such as modern and WWII aircraft or battleships , submarine and tanks? IL-2 sturmovik's developers had been granted copyright permission for their models? I mean reproducing real life vehicles and tracks as a 3D model. [Edited by - simmer on October 3, 2009 5:20:27 AM]

Well, technically all designs are copyrighted when they're produced.

There have been cases of US arms companies going after people who produced model kits of their vehicles -- I'd guess that in the case of WW2 era things, the manufacturers don't exist or don't care.

Car companies are *incredibly* protective of their images. Some car racing games have been forbidden from doing damage simulations on cars because the car companies don't want it happening and refused to licence their designs otherwise.

If you put Porsches in your game, you WILL be getting letters from their legal team.

I would suggest making look-a-likes instead. Porsche-shaped enough that people will recognise them as sports cars, but not Porsches. If you see what I mean.

Know the difference between copyright and trademark.
And this article will answer the OP's question: http://www.sloperama.com/advice/faq61.htm