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Legal Question


emomobile

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Considering that Square-Enix shut down a from-scratch modern remake of Chrono Trigger, I'd say it's a safe bet that they'd hit you like the fist of an angry god if you directly ripped and used their own materials without consent. If you hobbled some models together by yourself, that might be another story (though, again, considering the CT thing it's doubtful they'd let this slide).

 

EDIT: Curse you, Dez! :Shakes fist ornily:

 

EDIT: Bingo.

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Yes. Those are custom meshes and textures, not ported. There are lots and lots of items for Oblivion that are made to look like things from other games, not just the Final Fantasy ones. I've done a Diablo axe myself. The reason people don't get in trouble is that they create their own content that LOOKS like other game content rather than porting that content directly.

 

A few people have illegally ported items and shared them around, but those are generally hosted privately and passed out through word-of-mouth to avoid attention.

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You will probably be in less trouble if you dont make any money off of it, but you could still get in trouble.

 

Your best bet is to not talk about using the models then upload the mod from a fake e-mail and not on your own computer. You might not get credit for it, but that is kind of the point.

 

I dont personally have moral qualms with using graphics from other games, but if you make money off of it the creators should be entitled to their share.

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If you do a direct port from another game, not only will your mod be shut down you will be too.

Copyright infringement is an instant ban offense.

 

If you absolutely must have some object from another game, you will have to make it from scratch, And make sure your meshes do not match theirs. Save your work at several stages for proof in case someone challenges it.

 

Bben46, Moderator

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If you do a direct port from another game, not only will your mod be shut down you will be too.

Copyright infringement is an instant ban offense.

 

If you absolutely must have some object from another game, you will have to make it from scratch, And make sure your meshes do not match theirs. Save your work at several stages for proof in case someone challenges it.

 

Bben46, Moderator

 

Just to make a small correction/clarification; You are allowed to rip to your hearts content, as long as you follow a set of rules(For your own safety and to follow the law.);

 

1. You do NOT discuss ripping methods etc. in public, at least not in here.

 

2. You do NOT and I repeat, NOT share your ripping work with anyone. As long as the ripping is done for your personal use only, you're still on the legal side, but if you share your work even with a member of your family, you are doing something illegal. The law prohibits you from sharing your ripped off work, even if you used just a single straw of hair from some other game and does not care whether the person whom you shared it with is a member of your family or not. The punishments for breach of copyright/piracy law vary from country to country from fines to jail time.(150-90000€ and/or 3 months to 40+ years in prison, depending on the severity of your crime and your own country of residence.)

 

3. You should under no circumstances, ever, speak to even your friends of your ripping hobby. Few years back two friends of mine talked to too many people of their warez hobby and they got reported to the police. They lost their computers and were fined over 15000€. If you get caught of ripping, the police have no real way of knowing if you shared your work with other people or not, thus the case going into court will be based on how much ripped off material you do have on your PC and the potential damage it may have done to the game company that owns the targeted game.

 

4. You should read and adhere the local copyright law, prior to even starting your ripping work. The copyright/licensing/piracy laws are pretty much globally the same, but punishments vary from country to country AND some countries do have totally different laws regarding the issue.

 

5. If you do this yourself, note that I discard any legal responsibility of your doings based on this, as you are doing it at your own risk and it is your own responsibility to read and obey your local laws. I may know the law in my own country, but that may be different for the country where you live.

 

edit; **** net disconnect and erased half a page of text, re-writing now...

 

edit2; Almost done, just a quick save on the text.

 

edit3; Should be done.

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:blink: This sounds very dramatic! So, if someone rips content from other games he will be chased by CIA, KGB and Mossad until the end of his life :D

 

Fact is: do what you want with your game contents, just don't cry it out loud in public ;) so, if someone offers you help with your request, you're lucky, if not, than bad luck, you'd have to try on your own. It's that simple.

 

To avoid encounters with law, it's not allowed to share ripped contents on sites like Nexus and it's prohibited to make direct ripping requests on this (and most) forum. It's your problem what you come up with in private on the other hand.

 

 

Personally, I think transfering contents from other games is somewhat dull :rolleyes: it makes no sense, since the context if complete different - the atmosphere is all gone. At the same time it's sooo uncreative and boring seeing the same stuff everywhere, it's like listening to the radio: copied and quoted stuff over and over - where is the art in copying? :ohmy:

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Remember that copyright law and trademark law are two different things. Someone mentioned that making your own custom mesh is OK, but that's true only from the copyright angle. If you build your own Mickey Mouse mesh and pass it around you'll likely have Disney's lawyers on your tail for trademark theft.

 

Trademark, unlike copyright, has to be registered though, so you might find that the things you want to imitate haven't been so registered. Better make darned sure though :thumbsup:

 

http://www.copyright.gov/

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