Free Legal advice

[Feinerine]

Would I be allowed to use the character's appearance in a picture without censor bars over their face? I've noticed those are common in anime and such

[Necivo]

I used a CC NC SA sprite in a demo of my future game but the future game will be sell with a price but without this sprite. Can I use it this sprite ?

[dfbreezy]

Would I be allowed to use the character's appearance in a picture without censor bars over their face? I've noticed those are common in anime and such

If you want to use another character legally, it's best to either use a similar design and play it as a parody or a satire. It's 100% safe. In any other situation, it's best to always seek permission if that character isn't under any form of CC.

Of course, there are loopholes and there's the fact that realistically, no one is going to chase you for simply mentioning their character or displaying them once or twice, but you never know.

Japan's copyright laws function very differently from the West. Here, stuff like 'Doujins' would get you alot of trouble, even if they aren't commercial. But Japan... "overlooks"... this. So it's not advisable to follow their style of manipulating and maneuvering around copyright.

[dfbreezy]

I used a CC NC SA sprite in a demo of my future game but the future game will be sell with a price but without this sprite. Can I use it this sprite ?

Yes, you can. CC NC SA is non-commercial, so you can't use the sprite in a product that is being sold, even as a PWYW. But if it's for a demo, it's safe, because a demo doesn't have a price attached to it. Make sure to;

- Attribute the owner of the IP
- Make a disclaimer that some artworks are under CC and highlight those artworks.
- Remove the sprite from the demo when moving on to the main game.

For extra knowledge and surety: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

[PencilSlothCreations]

Ooooh, what a useful thread! I have also dabbled a bit in business law, so I can see where you're coming from. I'm going to subscribe to this thread for future reference especially since I am currently working on a fan-game.

[Bryy]

Thanks for posting this. Will use you as a resource later.

[Mutive]

It's so kind of you to do this!

(And I love your advice so far!)

One thing I'm thinking that could be super helpful is if you drew up sample contracts that could be used for assets, if you're kind enough to put in the work. (i.e. profit splitting, commissioning work, whatever) I could see those being super helpful to a lot of the community!

[dfbreezy]

It's so kind of you to do this!

(And I love your advice so far!)

One thing I'm thinking that could be super helpful is if you drew up sample contracts that could be used for assets, if you're kind enough to put in the work. (i.e. profit splitting, commissioning work, whatever) I could see those being super helpful to a lot of the community!

Here is something that should be quicker and more useful. https://www.printablecontracts.com/

[Mutive]

Here is something that should be quicker and more useful. https://www.printablecontracts.com/

Oooh, very awesome, thanks!

[pumpkin spike]

Have a question that's on my mind, not sure if it's actually pretty obvious or anything...

The idea for my game originated from someone I talked with briefly online. We were going to work together to create a story, but before any writing was done, both of us got distracted and disappeared from each other. Now, I'm planning to do this story on my own. I have no way of contacting them since their account appears to be inactive since shortly after we stopped communicating.

I don't remember how much we've actually discussed on the idea and which parts were my ideas (since it has been years). And for some reason, most of the messages, except the last two, were deleted (I'm guessing it was an oversight from a younger me).

My question is do I still credit this person?

I absolutely don't mind crediting this person at all, but I'm just wondering if there are any legal hoops that I would have to jump through afterwards o.o

[dfbreezy]

Have a question that's on my mind, not sure if it's actually pretty obvious or anything...

The idea for my game originated from someone I talked with briefly online. We were going to work together to create a story, but before any writing was done, both of us got distracted and disappeared from each other. Now, I'm planning to do this story on my own. I have no way of contacting them since their account appears to be inactive since shortly after we stopped communicating.

I don't remember how much we've actually discussed on the idea and which parts were my ideas (since it has been years). And for some reason, most of the messages, except the last two, were deleted (I'm guessing it was an oversight from a younger me).

My question is do I still credit this person?

I absolutely don't mind crediting this person at all, but I'm just wondering if there are any legal hoops that I would have to jump through afterwards o.o

Don't worry, ideas are not protected under copyright unless they have been expressed ion a tangible form (i.e making a lemma post, Fuwa post, FB pst etc). If the idea stayed between the two of you, there's no legal obligation to credit the fellow.


But I'd say still do it. There may be no legal repercussions, but if you feel he's your bud, you have a moral obligation.

[pumpkin spike]

Have a question that's on my mind, not sure if it's actually pretty obvious or anything...

The idea for my game originated from someone I talked with briefly online. We were going to work together to create a story, but before any writing was done, both of us got distracted and disappeared from each other. Now, I'm planning to do this story on my own. I have no way of contacting them since their account appears to be inactive since shortly after we stopped communicating.

I don't remember how much we've actually discussed on the idea and which parts were my ideas (since it has been years). And for some reason, most of the messages, except the last two, were deleted (I'm guessing it was an oversight from a younger me).

My question is do I still credit this person?

I absolutely don't mind crediting this person at all, but I'm just wondering if there are any legal hoops that I would have to jump through afterwards o.o

Don't worry, ideas are not protected under copyright unless they have been expressed ion a tangible form (i.e making a lemma post, Fuwa post, FB pst etc). If the idea stayed between the two of you, there's no legal obligation to credit the fellow.


But I'd say still do it. There may be no legal repercussions, but if you feel he's your bud, you have a moral obligation.

A very general version of the plot had been written down in a post that was the start of the story idea from the other person to see if there was any interest early on.

Yeah, I plan to credit them, if I could I'd like to find this person and talk with them again ^^

[Westeford]

I have a few questions.
My current project is non-commercial, but I'm treating it like a commercial project. All the assets I'm using are either created by myself, or free to use for commercial projects. Anyway to my questions.

1. Say I settle with making my project non-commercial. If I put a link to my patreon in game, would the project still be non-commercial?
It wouldn't be placed in the middle of gameplay, it would be in an information page on the main menu.

2. My project takes blatant inspirations from the Danganronpa series. The basic premises are the same (students stuck in a school, must kill to escape) The titles are similar (Dangan Ren'Py). The court room trials function similarly, and the mascot characters (Monokuma vs. Monokompy) have different designs, but similar color schemes.
I assume that if I want to make this a commercial project, I would have to change some of the names and character designs. But could I legally sell this despite the other clear inspirations?

Hopefully I made sense. Thank you for your time.

[Imperf3kt]

I'm not a lawyer, but my understanding is

1
Perfectly acceptable - you aren't selling the game or asking for donations in order to download it, are you?
This should be simply nothing more than an advertisement, far as I can tell. It's no different to putting your twitter or email on an info page.

2
Yeah this is borderline infringement as far as I know.

Copyright law states an idea cannot be copyrighted, that includes game play mechanics. But the implementation of those can be copyrighted.
There are, however, hundreds of examples of this where no legal action was taken.
To name a few:
Pubg, Fortnite (actually, legal action Was taken, and Pubg lost)
Flappy birds, angry birds
Clash Royale, RWBY: Amity Arena
2048, 2048 (same name for the clones, even)
Tetris
Minecraft
And thousands more

I don't know enough to comment about the characters, but I think they surpass the "inspired by" exception, based on your descriptions.

[Corban]

I asked this question on the thread here with more detail, but I didn't think to ask here.
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=54413&p=508pp063#p508063
Basically, I'm wondering if I can use the same transforms (character entrances and hops), just a small piece of code, from another game and use it in my own.
Thanks for your time!