Using Mario Sprites

Games Business and Law Business

Started by YellowShadow July 03, 2008 12:49 AM

9 comments, last by Hodgman 15 years, 9 months ago

100

Author

July 03, 2008 12:49 AM

I was wondering is it legal to use Mario sprites in a Pacman like game I'm making that I'll be releasing for free? What will Nintendo do? Will they do a cease-and-deist thing or will they sue me? Any input? Thanks, YellowShadow

-----------------I develop games :)

Daaark

3,556

July 03, 2008 12:54 AM

Quote:Original post by YellowShadow
I was wondering is it legal to use Mario sprites in a Pacman like game I'm making that I'll be releasing for free?

It's not legal, no matter what the circumstances are.

Why not just ask for an artist?

Twitter :: DeviantArt

YellowShadow

100

Author

July 03, 2008 01:12 AM

Alright, thanks for clearing this up for me :)

-----------------I develop games :)

Hodgman

52,717

July 03, 2008 01:14 AM

Quote:Original post by YellowShadow
I was wondering is it legal to use Mario sprites in a Pacman like game I'm making that I'll be releasing for free?

No, they belong to Nintendo. Passing them on to other people without making money from it doesn't change anything :(

Quote:What will Nintendo do? Will they do a cease-and-deist thing or will they sue me?

One of these, depending on how lucky you are:
A) They don't realise what you're doing, and so nothing bad ever happens and everyone lives happily ever after.
B) They realise, send you a C&D notice, you pull down your work, end of story.
C) They realise, send you a C&D notice, you don't pull down your work, then you get sued.

. 22 Racing Series .

YellowShadow

100

Author

July 03, 2008 01:42 AM

Quote:Original post by Hodgman
Quote:Original post by YellowShadow
I was wondering is it legal to use Mario sprites in a Pacman like game I'm making that I'll be releasing for free?
No, they belong to Nintendo. Passing them on to other people without making money from it doesn't change anything :(
Quote:What will Nintendo do? Will they do a cease-and-deist thing or will they sue me?

One of these, depending on how lucky you are:
A) They don't realise what you're doing, and so nothing bad ever happens and everyone lives happily ever after.
B) They realise, send you a C&D notice, you pull down your work, end of story.
C) They realise, send you a C&D notice, you don't pull down your work, then you get sued.

Again thanks for clearing this up for me :). Now onto the look for some free-to-use sprites :)

-----------------I develop games :)

Tom Sloper

17,201

July 03, 2008 09:36 AM

Frequently Asked Question #61.

-- Tom Sloper -- sloperama.com

StoneFrog

122

July 17, 2008 02:56 AM

Now maybe I'm thinking of something else, but isn't it legal to use for parody/satire?

Obscure

175

July 17, 2008 03:34 AM

Quote:Original post by StoneFrog
Now maybe I'm thinking of something else, but isn't it legal to use for parody/satire?

Only if you have the ten/hundreds of thousands of dollars to go to court an prove that something actually is a parody. You can't just use something in your game and then claim that it is a parody in order to gain protection. The IP owner can still come after you and you would have to defend yourself in court (incurring huge legal bills) to prove it.

Dan Marchant - Business Development Consultant
www.obscure.co.uk

V-man

813

July 17, 2008 09:21 PM

I've heard from someone Nintendo is very protective, specially of Mario.
May I suggest the Linux Penguin.

Sig: http://glhlib.sourceforge.net
an open source GLU replacement library. Much more modern than GLU.
float matrix[16], inverse_matrix[16];
glhLoadIdentityf2(matrix);
glhTranslatef2(matrix, 0.0, 0.0, 5.0);
glhRotateAboutXf2(matrix, angleInRadians);
glhScalef2(matrix, 1.0, 1.0, -1.0);
glhQuickInvertMatrixf2(matrix, inverse_matrix);
glUniformMatrix4fv(uniformLocation1, 1, FALSE, matrix);
glUniformMatrix4fv(uniformLocation2, 1, FALSE, inverse_matrix);

Daaark

3,556

July 17, 2008 09:51 PM