tboxx

 

An independent artist created a sonic the hedgehog sprite sheet and as long as I give him credit, I can use it. My questions is: Is there a legal disclaimer I can put on the screen that says this is not made by sega...etc to avoid being sued. I simply want to make a sonic game for fun on the iphone and provide it free of charge to anyone. Will I get sued for doing that or is there a way I can state this is for fun and the graphics were independently. Or is this a shady idea?

 

You absolutely can't distribute a work that is using established IP like Sonic the Hedgehog regardless of who drew the artwork.

 

As to whether or not you would be sued, to be honest, you probably wouldn't be because Sega probably wouldn't notice, but you certainly could be sued, and probably would be if you were in anyway successful. Actually unless you were doing something really malicious, they'd probably send you a cease and desist letter first and then sue you if you didn't comply.

Doesn't have to be malicious.  If there's a trigger-happy lawyer, he could find a legal

letter in his mailbox telling him to stop or show up in court.

I am taking offense to the trigger-happy comment!  You would be surprised at the amount of people who avoid us "trigger-happy lawyers" until the sheriff shows up at their door serving them  a complaint. 

So bottomline is i can have the site, and can sell things i develop on it without a license as long as i report it formtaxes, but if i create a team down the road itd be best to register a business? Also, does it cost anything to register a business in the US?

Paying the correct taxes is definitely very important. 

I would suggest you fill out  a doing business as certificate with the city/town, county or state government (depends on the state as to which level of government handles doing business as certificates.   It costs money to incorporate which means creating/registering a type of business association, (LLC,  C-Corp, S-Corp, LP,LLP etc.)   I know in Massachusetts the fee to register/incorporate a corporation is $320.00 a year and a LLC is about $520.00 a year.  

An independent artist created a sonic the hedgehog sprite sheet and as long as I give him credit, I can use it. My questions is: Is there a legal disclaimer I can put on the screen that says this is not made by sega...etc to avoid being sued. I simply want to make a sonic game for fun on the iphone and provide it free of charge to anyone. Will I get sued for doing that or is there a way I can state this is for fun and the graphics were independently. Or is this a shady idea?

Sonic the Hedgehog  is Saga's Intellectual Property.   I don't believe the fact an independent artist drew the picture changes anything. Nor would a disclaimer of any sort. 

You could get sued. Will you get sued?  That is harder to predict.  

I would also like the contract to say that all the work that they do for the game no longer belongs to them, but belongs to me. Thank you.

That is commonly referred to as a ""Work-for-Hire" clause/contract.

If you buy the royalty free rights to use/edit a 3d model and textures in "any commercial software or application you develop", so long as the buyer doesn't have access to the model(must release as exe, apk, etc), and you can't resell the models on a competing website.

 

There is no mention of 2d derived art in the terms of use, what happens if you make an application that people will screenshot arrangements of your 3d model? Say for a background, or you let them position things to make their own themed image and print it?

 

Now say that application is a sprite sheet generator that has 3d animated models that snaps a sequence of screenshots at different poses, lines them up, resizes and packs into a png file....hence a generator.

 

Technically it's a standalone application and the users don't have access to the models without breaking the law. It's not in direct competition because the modeler doesn't sell 2d art in any way.

 

So I'm wondering both since I've already bought tons of models, but also when I buy in the future what must I verify in the terms before buying to include them in an application like this? What should I verify with the models I've already bought? I think if you ask an artist "can I do this", they'll obviously want more money, but they write the terms of use and it didn't specify anything about 2d art, only the 3d models.

 

How would you approach artists for models you've already bought? Would you restate to them that their terms didn't mention 2d art, then tell them about your app, or what? They don't even list the terms anymore on their site, I have a 3+ year old version but there's currently no terms listed when you buy models.

Do you remember what their terms were  from these old vendors?     If the terms are " If you buy the royalty free rights to use/edit a 3d model and textures in "any commercial software or application you develop", so long as the buyer doesn't have access to the model(must release as exe, apk, etc), and you can't resell the models on a competing website." ....    "Technically it's a standalone application and the users don't have access to the models without breaking the law. It's not in direct competition because the modeler doesn't sell 2d art in any way."  Sounds like you answered the question already.  They don't have access to the model or the texture right?. Unless you can extract a texture from a 2d snapshot.  (I am not an artist so I have no idea ).  The super safe way would be to ask specifically the vendors and explain the circumstances and not use the artwork from the vendors you can't get in touch with.