Croesy Posted June 6, 2010 Share Posted June 6, 2010 [align=justify]Nothing within this thread is intended as legal advice. It is a general outline of the principles of international copyright law. If you are in a dispute about violation of copyright you should consult with a qualified lawyer. This thread is not intended to be comprehensive and focuses mainly around issues related to game ownership. It will give some general information on copyright and answer some issues that have been raised elsewhere in these forums. [/align][align=justify]*I will edit this thread if people think it is necessary for more/less information to be included. Hope this is helpful, and that it does something to reduce the misinformation that was flying around in other threads. If there are mistakes please let me know, so I can change them. * [/align] [align=justify] [/align] 1) What is copyright? Copyright is a form of intellectual property. It allows people to protect fixed expressions of their ideas for a certain period of time, providing a work satisfies certain standards. Those standards, and how they are interpreted, vary from country to country. Generally there needs to be originality and fixation for a work to be protected. 2) What rights are protected? Copyright gives an author a wide range of rights over the use of their work. Without the permission of the copyright holder another person may not: make translations of the work; reproduce the work; perform the work publically; adapt or alter the work. In addition, the author (who may not be the copyright owner) also has the right to claim paternity of the work, and to object to any derogatory treatment of his work. There are certain exceptions which allow use of the work in particular circumstances (for education/news reading/commentary). These are known as fair use or fair dealing. (will extend this section later if needed). 3) How is it protected? Do I need to register? Provided your country is a signatory of the Berne Convention, any work which meets the standards above is automatically protected. Most modern states, including the US, are signed up to Berne. This means you DO NOT NEED TO REGISTER YOUR WORK! You also do not need to use the © sign or place any notice on your work for it to be protected. 4) Should I register my work in the US? Registration in the US, as noted above, is not necessary in order for your work to be protected by copyright law. There are some advantages to registering your work with the copyright office. Most importantly, it allows you to claim attorney fees and statutory damages. It also acts as prima facie proof that you are the copyright holder. Having said this, if you do not register before the infringement you are still entitled to remedies in court. You would still be able to claim actual damages and profits of the infringer and you could still get an injunction to prevent the person infringing from continuing to abuse your work. You can also retroactively register your work. 5) How long does it last? It varies, depending on the type of work and the country involved. For computer code, the Berne Convention sets a minimum period of protection of the life of the author plus 50 years. For all EU countries and the US it is life of the author plus 70 years. 6) What type of work is protected? Copyright can exist in a wide variety of works. They include literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works. Computer code in the US and EU is considered to be a literary work, and is protected under copyright law. 7) Can I just change a few things and claim copyright in a new work? (the derivative works issue) No, you cannot. If you take a song as an example, if you change a few words of the lyrics, the ‘new’ work will not be copyrightable and you will certainly infringe the original copyright. If you make substantial changes or adaptations to an existing work it may attract a new copyright in the new material, if that new material itself is sufficient to attract copyright protection. This does not affect the original copyright.Only the copyright owner can give permission to make derivative works that use copyrighted material. Any copyright which exists in a derivative work only extends to the new material and has no effect on the material of the original. 8) I’m not making any money out of my actions, am I still breaching copyright? Whether you make money/charge is immaterial to a finding of infringement. 9) Does copyright mean I can’t make something similar, or use a similar idea? Copyright does not protect ideas. It protects specific expressions of an idea. So, provided you do not copy the particular expression of an idea, you are free to use the same idea. The precise difference between an idea, and the expression of that idea is sometimes difficult to make. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a_bertrand Posted June 6, 2010 Share Posted June 6, 2010 Thanks Croesy for your legal information. I hope this will for once clear all possible discussions as all seems clear here. I made this topic sticky as I believe it's something which comes every now and then, and therefore we can point out this thread in case. Please not this is not a discussion thread, those are fact. If you find more useful information, then please add them, otherwise create a new thread if you want to discuss some of those points. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dillion & Amanda 4 Lif Posted June 6, 2010 Share Posted June 6, 2010 So pretty much if you take thier idea, do it differently, its not breaking copyright? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dominion Posted June 6, 2010 Share Posted June 6, 2010 full uk copyright law - here if you remade say mccodes line for line and remade the database it would be yours (as long as nothing thats in mccodes is in your script) ? well thats how i know it anyway please correct me if i am wrong and i linked it to mcc due to that being the main reason for the copyright topic on here ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Djkanna Posted June 6, 2010 Share Posted June 6, 2010 Great post Croesy :thumbsup: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a_bertrand Posted June 7, 2010 Share Posted June 7, 2010 Indeed Copyright doesn't protect an idea but how you wrote it (for the song, script, music, book or whatever). To protect ideas there is one thing called patent, and guess what, it's not free, and covers the idea only on the country you buy the patent. More over, normally, patents last 20 years, which means, after 20 years it's free to all to make the same kind of things, as long as they simply don't copy the code. BTW Do you really think games are "unique"? Sorry but for each game coming, there was at least one older game which was doing more or less the same thing. The only unique game I played lately was "Spore", beside that one, every other game are simply "improved" (or not so much) of older game, or simply games which change a little bit of something and then sell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dillion & Amanda 4 Lif Posted June 7, 2010 Share Posted June 7, 2010 BTW Do you really think games are "unique"? Sorry but for each game coming, there was at least one older game which was doing more or less the same thing. The only unique game I played lately was "Spore", beside that one, every other game are simply "improved" (or not so much) of older game, or simply games which change a little bit of something and then sell. I agree. Metal Gear first released on the MSX helped the stealth genre of video games alot, along with its unique storyline. After that there were alot more games released under the concept of stealth, so its just an idea from the past shaped in a different way. More notably, it was when the Solid in Metal Gear came that the series was more recognized, due to its amazing story and somewhat better graphics, at the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColdBlooded Posted June 7, 2010 Share Posted June 7, 2010 Thank you Croesy. That is exactly what my lawyer was writing up so I could post it on MWG but I don't think it will be needed anymore as you have covered basically all the points which has been raised by game developers. I shall update the #1 post with more points which I believe will be relevant within. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NarutoPRG.com Posted June 8, 2010 Share Posted June 8, 2010 Thank you Crosey. I have been looking up copright for a while for my incoming game, and I must say, the information you have provided is well detailed & makes perfect sence. Obviously, I disagree with some parts of CR, but it's the law. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james067 Posted December 5, 2012 Share Posted December 5, 2012 thumbs up... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Someone Posted December 19, 2012 Share Posted December 19, 2012 Too bad for you all I copyrighted echo " and ending a line with "; The good news though, I only charge 1 cent per line if you want to use it. More seriously. Watch out for Zynga, they are notorious for suing. On rather thin grounds, I think they use scare tactics to get their way, as taking things to court can be very expensive for the little guy. An example of rather odd copy right, Facebook patented writing on peoples wall. Or does that go under trademark? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fifahome1 Posted August 29, 2014 Share Posted August 29, 2014 life of the author plus 50 years. For all EU countries and the US it is life of the author plus 70 years. runescape 2007 gold old school runescape Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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