Hi, I am new to this forum, so just wack me on the head with a big trout if I am totally out of context :) I am doing lately some remakes (http://www.lodgia.com/games), for example space invaders and crazy comets. I am doing them totally for free. But as I am thinking of doing something more complex, based on a remake, It could be nice to get a few $s for all the hours of effort put into it. Seeying that may humble game has been downloaded several hundreds of times, maybe there is some money in shareware after all.. (Yes, I know some people think all software should be free, but what about the pour souls programming it?) Anyway, how long are things from a old-and-long-dead game, like space invaders, still subjected to copyright?? My freeware game has space invaders in the title, but what is copyrighted and what is not? The name? The graphics? The attack pattern? And how much does it have to differ to avoid legal mumbo-jumbo? Any ideas on this are very welcome. /Dusty Murray aka Chaos51 @ www.lodgia.com

First of all, I'm not a lawyer or any other kind of legal expert. If you want to be sure consult someone with a professional background in law.


Before you remake a game you should probably try to find out the following:

a) If there is there a (valid) copyright (most likely) and who is the current copyright holder?
b) If there is there a trademark (the game's name for example), who owns it?
c) Maybe there are even one or more patents covering the game or techniques used therein (mp3 for playback comes to mind).


Your first source of information would be the owner's website, the game manual, the EULA or a similar license agreement.

As for the rest you should check out your countries law on how long a copyright is valid, if it can be sold etc.

Thanks guys,


This is basicaly what I feared, better to be cautious then sorry I suppose,
Ok I look into renaming and rebranding the games.
Also I check the trademarks, and copyrights as well.

One thing that I am stil curious about is, if you make a game, and have it completely for free, does the same copyrighttrademark stuff still hold?

And a second thing, if you do a remake, dedicated, to the original, still claiming the original is best, but your just honouring the memory. Does that have any legal bearings?

Anyway, Benelio, I dont know which game, and what company you are talking about, but I have some ideas.... If thats true, it's fascinatining to meet someone who actually worked on the original of such a game... :)

/C51

Quote:Original post by chao51
One thing that I am still curious about is, if you make a game, and have it completely for free, does the same copyright/trademark stuff still hold?

And a second thing, if you do a remake, dedicated, to the original, still claiming the original is best, but your just honouring the memory. Does that have any legal bearings?

Yes. Whether you offer the game for free or not does not have any influence on the owners copyright. Even if you "honour" the original by mentioning its name the owner is free to sue you. They could even claim you are using their name to advertise your game or that due to the lacking quality of the remake you are damaging the image of their brand.


Simply said, whenever you create something you implicitly have a copyright, or "the right to copy" your work. Anyone else copying your work without your explicit permission is violating your copyright. You can waiver those rights by putting your work into the public domain, or using a license (the infamous GPL for example) that expressly allows others to copy your work.

If you want to go a step further you can establish a trademark. This registers the name/image/character as your icon of trade. Usually the name of a company, their logo, the characters used in their games and even the games engine (think: Steam™) are trademarked. You can usually tell by the little icon "™".
Like I said before I'm not a legal expert, so my understanding is a bit vague, but basically a trademark is an "upgraded" version of copyright ("more official"). You usually need to pay a fee to register a trademark and and even larger fee when violating someone elses trademark [lol].

The last of the bunch is the patent (think: MP3). Unlike the trademark it doesn't protect a certain symbol but rather an abstract idea or a certain process. What exactly can be patented depends on where you live. For example, software patents are possible in the US, but, so far, not in Europe (which is the source of a lot of heated debate). Also a patent must not be valid worldwide, so while you might get into trouble someone in Zimbabwe might not when reproducing a patented work (same thing goes for trademarks and probably copyright).


Like I and others said before, be very cautious about remakes.
Even if your game is original, a company might feel the need to sue you if for example they think your character too closely resembles one of their own. Even if they have no chance of winning the cost of the lawsuit alone might be enough to break you. However unless you're threatening their market shares this is an unlikely event.

That being said, get up to date on copyright laws before you put something online, and best consult a lawyer before trying to sell stuff. Better safe then sorry =) (...and, possibly, broke).