vaskafdt Posted November 11, 2012 Share Posted November 11, 2012 I have seen a few mods here that contain armor from different franchises like assassin's creed, the witcher, tera. i have read the rules and i have seen that porting armor from other games and uploading here is a big NO NO... i was wondering where the rules stand on uploading armor that is inspired by a famous franchise namely the DC comics and Justice league.. assuming that the meshes are all built from scratch or edits of vanilla skyrim armor, and the textures are all hand drawn. oh and also a separate mod of the tardis from the Doctor Who franchise. i have seen very few batman and superman mods here.. and i wanted to know if they are here because they went under the radar, or they are here because it is allowed. thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabbit1251 Posted November 11, 2012 Share Posted November 11, 2012 It is permitted if you create the meshes and textures yourself. In that case it becomes a case of "fan art". You cannot use any matériel from the originals (textures, meshes, sound, etc).You must not attempt to gain any compensation for your work, but that usually doesn't happen in these cases. Rabbit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bben46 Posted November 11, 2012 Share Posted November 11, 2012 With a few exceptions where the maker of the game has authorized their creations to be used. Ripping (copying directly from the other game) is not allowed due to copyright law. However, anything you make from scratch - and we have ways to tell - is allowed. :thumbsup:So, any armor or clothing that is based on a comic, and not a video game, is allowed as it is not ripped. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vaskafdt Posted November 11, 2012 Author Share Posted November 11, 2012 Thank you for your replies, bben46 and Rabbit 51. I just wanted to make sure, I'm starting a project where I want to make a bunch of A list superhero outfits (mostly as a 3ds max learning experience.. I went through a bunch of tutorials and the only way to know if i got any good is to post some work and see how people react to it) would have been a shame to do all this work and find out i can't even post it because someone owns the way Superman looks.. in that case I would have gone for something else.. btw.. while I think i got the technique for making armors and clothes pretty much understood... where would be a good place to see how I should skin cloaks so they don't stick to the legs (like my last pitiful attempt).. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stemin Posted November 12, 2012 Share Posted November 12, 2012 Even if all your stuff is original, there's still the possibility of copyright infringement. Technically characters, etc. belong to the original authors. There is precedent for this from the authors of Harry Potter, The Pern series and if I'm not mistaken recently, Warner Bros. shut down a LotR Skyrim conversion just recently. Nexus will allow it if your meshes and textures are original as stated above, but real copyright issues are more complicated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JanusForbeare Posted November 12, 2012 Share Posted November 12, 2012 Nexus will allow it if your meshes and textures are original as stated above, but real copyright issues are more complicated. This is a very good point. Did any of you hear about the Marvel vs. NCSoft (City of Heroes) lawsuit? It ended in a settlement, but it shows that Marvel has set a precedent for aggressively defending their copyrights against almost any form of potential infringement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acidzebra Posted November 12, 2012 Share Posted November 12, 2012 (edited) Yeah, that's just the thing. Fair use, fan art, fan tribute, parody, derivative works, I think making a custom mesh for use in a different game as a form of fan art/tribute is eminently defendable - but does anyone have the deep pockets needed to actually take it to court? Once the owners decide to throw their weight in the ring with a cease & desist, you're looking at either complying or a prolonged legal battle - with no guarantee of actually winning. What modder is waiting for or even capable of that? Of course, I have no idea how that would even work if it's international - US copyright holder vs. guy in, say, Poland making a Superman mesh and putting it on the Nexus. But the fact that they can stifle people's loving tributes with nothing but the threat of legal action, well, it sort of grates. Edited November 12, 2012 by acidzebra Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ManleySteele Posted November 12, 2012 Share Posted November 12, 2012 Yeah, that's just the thing. Fair use, fan art, fan tribute, parody, derivative works, I think making a custom mesh for use in a different game as a form of fan art/tribute is eminently defendable - but does anyone have the deep pockets needed to actually take it to court? Once the owners decide to throw their weight in the ring with a cease & desist, you're looking at either complying or a prolonged legal battle - with no guarantee of actually winning. What modder is waiting for or even capable of that? Of course, I have no idea how that would even work if it's international - US copyright holder vs. guy in, say, Poland making a Superman mesh and putting it on the Nexus. But the fact that they can stifle people's loving tributes with nothing but the threat of legal action, well, it sort of grates. I'm sorry, but I have to disagree. Any form of publishing copyrighted material for distribution to third parties is an infringement. I understand your feeling that it can be viewed as a tribute. Unfortunately, your scenario does not fall under the fair usage guidlines for copyrighted material and fair usage is the only exception to copyright. If a person is making their living from any form of intellectual property, they view most forms of copying as stealing. The fact that a person did not simply paste the original art onto some other mesh is no defense. Drawing the same material yourself is still copying. Copying material without the permission of the original author is illegal. I don't mean to come off as a know-it-all, although I realize my post sounds exterely pedantic. My own experiences with copyright violators is that they feel copyright is good unless it's their ox being gored. (Many seem to think that copyright is for everyone but them.) Copyright is the only protection that prevents the big intellectual property companies from stealing the smaller producers property with impunity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acidzebra Posted November 12, 2012 Share Posted November 12, 2012 (edited) By your reckoning, a kid drawing a picture of superman (a copy) and giving it to his grandparents (a third party) or heaven forbid, scanning it and putting it on the internet would be copyright infringement. I think there should be a distinct line between letter of the law (in which this is true) and spirit of the law (in which this is obviously not infringement). There's a lot of grey area there, maybe we can both agree on that. I do personally think copyright is horribly broken, for the reasons I outlined and more. Patent trolls, big players being able to stifle competition with mere threats of lawsuits which they know the other party can't afford, and ridiculous extensions to expiration terms effectively killing the public domain - but that's a whole different discussion. By the way, I do not think fair use (which this is not, we're agreed on that and I never claimed it was) is the only exception - there is also parody which is a subset of derivative works, another two possible exceptions with their own tests. None of which apply here, but just for completeness sake. Edited November 12, 2012 by acidzebra Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stemin Posted November 12, 2012 Share Posted November 12, 2012 (edited) By your reckoning, a kid drawing a picture of superman (a copy) and giving it to his grandparents (a third party) or heaven forbid, scanning it and putting it on the internet would be copyright infringement. I think there should be a distinct line between letter of the law (in which this is true) and spirit of the law (in which this is obviously not infringement). There's a lot of grey area there, maybe we can both agree on that. There's no gray area in the law. Intent of the framers, or the violator doesn't often matter either. Just because something seems too silly to convict doesn't mean it can't happen. If you're intent on pursuing something like this, you should do so going into it knowing it's a risk and you better have the common sense to pull the material if you DO get noticed. I already gave 3 examples of when this has happened, and it will happen again. Edited November 12, 2012 by Stemin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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