HL2 Ripoff: making the Zero G gun?

[roquefort]

It is true though I wouldn't recommend making a full-copy of the gun itself. If so, the modder should give full credit to Valve's Half-Life 2 team, and keep the credits for making the replica. As long as you change the appearance at some points or even change the name, I guess you're okay. If it so happens the modder decides to make the gun go SuperPower and able to grab any big object when you enter -say- a plane of Oblivion, I'm sad to announce THIS would make it plagiate, and illegal. Making a fan-made replica is not illegal, though. It would be like asking to empty half of TESNexus content because some are afraid to be sued. Just to tell, you can find an Aperture Science Companion Cube (Valve's Portal), the many swords of Final Fantasy, clothing ripoffs from Final Fantasy 7 Advent Children, clothing and weaponry ripoffs from World of Warcraft, YuGi'Oh cards, Elves and Dark Elves from Lineage II (NCSoft, MMORPG), Ape-men from Planet of the Apes, Chocobos from Final Fantasy... I missed a few, but you get my point.

 

 

I would ask about legality and fan-made freewares to professionals, if any of you really KNOW the gears and facts about that, because I doubt opinions based on self-reflections or fears of legality issues would be of any use here, thank you in advance.

 

 

Hi Doc -- Plagiarism isn't illegal as it's not direct copying (though it's certainly unethical outside of fan-fic, fan-art and so on). I doubt there'd even be a problem with calling your thing a zero-g gravity gun unless Valve have actually trademarked that name (trademark law is yet another trap for the unwary creative ;)), and if it was a direct steal from Valve's code and/or textures.

 

See http://www.copyright.gov/ for loads of info about copyright. This is a US govt website, but most nations follow these rules.

 

Of course it's always up to a court of law to make a final decision on individual cases, and generally it's best to play safe and not skate close to the edge, legally speaking.

 

Isn't there a gizmo in Bioshock that works very much like the gravity gun? Catch things & throw them back..

[DrPator]

It is sure to be similar anywhere in North America. Thanks for the link and the info roquefort.

 

The concept of the Gravity Gun by itself was not invented by Valve, I'm sure of it. Or if it was, Valve simply didn't care to take it as his own. Because Doom 3 Resurrection of Evil and Bioshock also got one. So I think Valve will not mind if you make a gun / a tool that can do "Go Fetch" and "Throw". Of course if you start creating portals and get to fight a monster called Glados, now it's another story.

 

--edit--

oh and the texture sure doesn't need to be the same, who cares really.