Hi, Was wondering if anyone knows some of the Nuances regarding copyright laws. Such as: 1. Can anyone use old classical songs from deceased artists in their games (i.e. Beethoven). I hear these tracks in soooo many movies. 2. If I take a digital picture of some building can I use that in my game (i.e. Empire State building or some old famous castle) 3. What if I go to my friends house and take a digital picture of a hand gun (or any item) he has, can I use that picture? I see coke cans in FPS shooter games do they pay royalties for this or not? Any other advice or URL''s you could supply would be useful. I find searching the web I always end up in some site with laywer jargan and can''t make heads or tails of what their point is. I think they generally keeps laws vague so the lawyers can argue forever. Thanks. Rob rhuala@yahoo.com PS. I think it would be useful if people posted stuff they were pretty sure of not the "I heard from a friend of a friend that you could only...". Just a thought.

I think you can use classical songs cause there public domain, as for the digtal pictures I cant see why not, the Empire state building is used all over the place and I doubt they pay royalties. I guess just using a coke can can fall under fair use...but I''m not sure

"The most likely way for the world to be destroyed, most experts agree, is by accident. That''s where we come in; we''re computer professionals. We cause accidents."
-Nathaniel Borenstein

music:
classical compositions may be public. however, while the movements may be public, the music is not -it was played by a specific orchestra, recorded by a specific group, and published by a specific group.

buildings.... im really not sure... if they are govornment owned or public then you can. however, if they are commercial, then you may need permission to advertise.

using cans and such is not allowed without consent. if you use cans, then you would be adverstising a product.



im not sure of a good resource, but try www.copyright.com

quote: Original post by rhuala
Hi,

Was wondering if anyone knows some of the Nuances regarding copyright laws. Such as:

1. Can anyone use old classical songs from deceased artists in their games (i.e. Beethoven). I hear these tracks in soooo many movies.

If the author has been dead for 75 years, you can use it. However, you cannot use any old performance, since each performance is also copyriwitten by the performer. If you want to get out your violin and record it yourself, you can use it.

quote:
2. If I take a digital picture of some building can I use that in my game (i.e. Empire State building or some old famous castle)

Provided you take the picture yourself, yes. If it''s a picture you found on the web, no.

quote:
3. What if I go to my friends house and take a digital picture of a hand gun (or any item) he has, can I use that picture? I see coke cans in FPS shooter games do they pay royalties for this or not?

You have to contact the manufacturer of the item in question. Certain objects (like coke cans or Colt handguns) have their appearance trademarked.

AFAIK, you dont need any permission to take a picture of an object even it the look is trade marked. Trade Marks are designed to protect the branding exercses of companies being underminded by cheap knock offs that look like the real thing. Taking a picture of the object doesn''t hurt the branding of that object. Hoever that being said, using the image to create a gun for a game might be an issue, I dont know how that would work.

Trademarks are enforced in terms of product placement, through pictures or movies. This is the reason why independant films always have the "COLA" pop can, or the labels turned away from the camera. They can''t afford all the fees.

Like in Counter-Strike, they have to replace all weapons names like hk mp5, etc. for the 1.4 version...

When you are asking yourself about whether or not its OK to do something...it probably isn''t. Thats the sad nature of Copyright. Somebody owns almost everything.
So rule of thumb=Always assume you need permission for everything, then be happy when you find out otherwise. It beats getting hauled into court for federal fines when you only borrowed one little thing.

quote: Original post by krikkit
Trademarks are enforced in terms of product placement, through pictures or movies. This is the reason why independant films always have the "COLA" pop can, or the labels turned away from the camera. They can''t afford all the fees.

The flipside of this is that you might be able to make some money too - it''s called "product placement" - so don''t just assume that you have to pay Coke-a-Cola to use the image of their can. You might be able to finesse a way for them to pay you to use the image of their can. For instance, Coke and Pepsi pay cities and schools to advertise their products all the time. They even get into bidding wars over it. If your game is at the level where it has a good possibility of getting into the hands of a lot of teenagers, you might want to look into this further as a means of defraying costs. If not, don''t touch it with a 10-foot pole!

About the building thing: you have to pay a fixed fee if you use a photo of the Eiffel tower in a commercial product, unless it''s a postcard or promotes tourism (I believe they''re to be paid to the city of Paris). It is especially expensive when it is night (the tower is illuminated etc). Therefore it might be the same for other well known (or not) buildings. The safest way is probably to ask (and hope no greedy person will ask a fee).