Jump to content

VTMB Jeanette


Billy_the_kid

Recommended Posts

Copyright and licenses only last for a set period of time. Basically that means someone might be able to make it if the license has run out(Quite possible if the original company no longer exists, but if it's merged etc. most likely the new one will still hold the copyrights.), but you'd have to confirm it first. The actual character may not be a 'hard one' but confirming the licensing issues with the voice files is an other story.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you can get a confirmation that the copyright is invalid, it is legal to do it, until someone re-purchases and starts upholding it. However that would also give a limited amount of time for a person to work on it, as after someone purchases the copyrights again, distributing it would be illegal without their permission.

 

There is one loophole in this, if you create the 'product' within the time that no one holds the copyright to it, you are free to distribute it as long as no profit is made out of it and the product will not be updated with new resources, as that would basically cause you to start re-distributing the materials after the copyright and licenses have been renewed, even if the older version had the exact same things. This also has it's own loophole; Updates could be done as 'fixes' that have no link what-so-ever to the copyrighted files(The voice files in this instance.) so basically it'd require a person to have the original 'product' from before the license to the copyrighted material was renewed.

 

Now to turn that later paragraph to the terms of a general modder; If the mod is created, with the voice files, during the time when no one holds the copyright/licenses to it, you're allowed to distribute it. All additions however would have to be done as plug-ins to the original plug-in, without re-distributing the copyrighted material in the newer version. There is a ton of legal crap involved and there are cases when this doesn't apply, but in general this is how it works.

 

I personally don't have any idea why I wrote this all up, most likely since I thought someone might find it useful. Also this is according to the laws that are applying here in Finland and may vary in different countries(General copyright rules are almost the same everywhere, however some parts of it do vary, but the basic re-distribution law is in effect on all countries for all I know.), so doing some background checks on your home country's legal system might be worth the time.

 

~Elraine

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...