Ok,
Well media laws and copyright get's REAL technical, so it is nearly impossible to know the correct ones.(I do cause my step-dad works for an advertising agency. he told me)But I will try the best I can to answear this well...not so good post(no offense at all! might just want to explain it better). You are aloud to use those spirits ONLY if you have the owners permission. So you must go to the owner who has the spirits and ask to see if you can. On copyright, technically EVERYTHING is copyrighted, but only somethings go FAR with it. I would ask the owner first though. Like I said, copyright/media laws are VERY VERY technical, and VERY few people actually know them the correct way. One rule I learned on copyright though. ALWAYS think something is copyrighted. It is nice to think that way. I learned that in my Buisness Computing class.


Chad.

First of all, copyright.

Quote:Original post by raptorstrike
If I have a game that uses sprites from another game, calls them the SAME THING but the game doesnt have the same name or whatever would it be legal?

I have no idea what this means. But the answer is probably no.

Quote:Original post by raptorstrike
I mean when does copywrite start and end?

It starts as soon as the object is created. It ends after you die. I'm sure that's not what you wanted to know, but I'm not entirely sure what you're getting at.

Quote:Original post by raptorstrike
If a game is copywrited is the entire content of the game Copywrited?

Yes.

Quote:Original post by raptorstrike
if so how do people who rip sprites post them online?

The copyright holder doesn't press the issue, coupled with a bit of fair use. As long as the sprites aren't used in a commercial endeavor [and even if they are, within reason], everything stays more or less OK.

CM

It's copyright.

Anyway, you can't rip off someone else's sprites and use them as your own. You have to create your own unless of course you have the original author's permission...

I think it was in 1982 that the laws changed from it has to say copyright to it is copyrighted unless otherzie stated.

You can remake a game in all aspects if it is a parody. meaning if your remaking ff7 and cloud is gay and want to date barrit the whole time tiffa is a drug addic and aris is an accountant, that is protected by your first amendment. (assuming your american). As it stands now what your saying IS copyright infringment.

but so is almost any piece of fan fiction.

you might say, while my little fan project won't cause the owner of the copyright to lose money so i'm ok right? wrong, it is still by the books ileagle.

If you write a short story that has mulder and skully (two charstures form a tv show called x-files) even though its in tribute to the show and in theroy helps not hurts the copyright owner, that owner still has the right to seek civil penalties.

Notice you are not protected by the criminal rights system unless you breakcopyright on more than 10 counts and 25 pieces (which is a crimial crime.)

basicly if someone creats a piece of art be it game, music, movie, story, painting etc, they own the copyrights unless they say. "I Release this and all its dirivative works to the public domain."

it preey much has to be written that way. any piece of art you creat that belongs in that "world" i.e. think of a world as a universe that follows the same rules. i.e. the batman universe has the joker bad guys that are well funded but dumb. etc.

My point is if you have a guy in a cape the owener of the batman rights is gonna have a hard time sueing you (if they wanted to). If you ahve a man in a cape called bruce wayne in a city called gothem, with a bad guy who is a clown named jack. even though you changed the jokers name you would lose that case in court.

The grey area here is, well gray. If your useing the orginal images and names, your violating copyright unless you get written permission for your project.

If you ask a question on forums under your name about copyright and your in the grey area issues and there lawyers find it, i.e. you ask "How do i change this content enough to make it plausable that its not a batman clone" etc, then your introuble.

Heres the legal side. If your makeing a derivative work, something that links to a copyrighted materal, your breaking copyright (except in two specfic areas, news and parody (making jokes) these are protected by the first amendment.)

The Real world... If your not selling your product and it doesn't cause the the producer of the infriged copyright to lose money, your ok.

Heres the issue if you remake a mario brothers game, they don't realy care because, there not making money off it anymore. If you make a halo 3 game and release it two days before the real halo 3, your gonna get sued.

Theres the argument at all art is dervitive. Which to a point is true but good luck argueing that in court, agasint a 2-thousand-dollar AN-HOUR Lawyer.

Basicly if its small (in its release numbers) no one is going to deal with you.

***Fair warning there is a way around copyright but....****

As of right now you can creat a game that IS final fantasy 7, in everything from the names to the effects to the exact story line word for word and release the HOW TO PRODUCE Finaly FAntasy 7. including the source and a binary.

This is under the educational clause. You can even make an atomic weapon this way. (which has been done, not including the uranium) If your wondering an agent of the fbi was waiting and when he was done with his thesis the fbi agent took ownership of it.

My point is you can break copyright if your showing how something works but... as my understanding states this has changed in the DCMA.

BAsicly if your parinoid aabout copyright protect yourself with knowledge, as well as ananimity, look into services such as TOR (the onion router) or other proxie services to hide your finger print on the net.

Quote:Original post by cyber857
I think it was in 1982 that the laws changed from it has to say copyright to it is copyrighted unless otherzie stated.

1976, actually. The same change extended copyright protection to unpublished works.

Quote:Original post by cyber857
You can remake a game in all aspects if it is a parody...that is protected by your first amendment.

No, it is protected by copyright law, as detailed by the fair use clauses. The first amendment has absoltely nothing to do with this subject.

Your bit at the end, regarding educational purposes, is rather misleading. While it is true that education and research are both considered fair use, simply saying it is for educational purposes is not sufficient to actually be fair use. In particular, a book titled "Teach Yourself to make Final Fantasy 7" that included a copy of the game would almost certainly be infringing. That is being used to make a profit, which really hurts fair use defenses. It really doesn't matter how much learning people do in the process.

CM

Quote:Original post by cyber857
you might say, while my little fan project won't cause the owner of the copyright to lose money so i'm ok right? wrong, it is still by the books ileagle.

If you write a short story that has mulder and skully (two charstures form a tv show called x-files) even though its in tribute to the show and in theroy helps not hurts the copyright owner, that owner still has the right to seek civil penalties.

To some extent, it's not so much that you're "hurting" the owner, as that you're not "helping" the owner after all the help they gave you.

Quote:
You can remake a game in all aspects if it is a parody. meaning if your remaking ff7 and cloud is gay and want to date barrit the whole time tiffa is a drug addic and aris is an accountant, that is protected by your first amendment. (assuming your american). As it stands now what your saying IS copyright infringment.

but so is almost any piece of fan fiction.

I mean, seriously, who would read that crap (most fan fics aren't that great) if it didn't have the name? 99% of its value is from the work you're building off of.

Put it this way, even Rowling would sell a lot more books if she continues writing about the wizarding world hiding in our own than if she tries something completely new (i.e. if she continues to base future works off the universe created in her past works i.e. off her copyrighted material).

On a side note (and I mean no offense by this) I think it was interesting that the OP got the term wrong ("copywrite" instead of "copyright") but got the past tense sort of right ("copywrited" which sounds like "copyrighted" instead of "copywritten").