29 replies to this topic

[JuurianChi]

Copyright infringement is a serious thing in this business, and even if you do end up making a game that uses Game Freak's resources and character designs it would be much more rewarding to create your own characters.

[dannyjenn]

Why do people think that giving credit allows them to infringe on copyright?

How should I know? The best rational explanation I can come up with is a line of reasoning like this: "OK, I stole this, but I told you what I got it from. So if you don't want the crap I've produced but like the stuff I stole, you can go there and get the real stuff. See, I gave them free advertisements, they should be glad!"

But of course there's a big flaw in this reasoning: still, you're infringing copyright and doing stuff without prior permission.

Actually, I think the line of reasoning is more like the difference between plagiarism and citing the sources. Like, if I "steal" a paragraph from a text and give credit then that's perfectly legal (assuming I didn't take too much)... if I "steal" a paragraph from a text and give no credit then that's copyright infringement and completely illegal.
Still, that reasoning assumes the false premise that copyright infringement is a "fair use" to begin with and legal if it is credited, which it is not.

There is one thing to note though, fair use does allow for parodies. If you made a Pokémon spoof with very similar characters in terms of looks and names, and even if you were to use similar graphics, then chances are it would still be perfectly legal, even if you get no permission. There are even times when using the actual graphics from the real game is legal (I haven't seen this in fan games, but I've seen game graphics legally used elsewhere). But those are the minority of cases so it'd be stupid to assume that you can get away with infringing on copyright for any reason whatsoever.
On a side note, companies (Nintendo for one) are very tolerant of fan art and fan fics. Logically speaking, fan games are not much different, but history has shown that Nintendo is not as tolerant of fan games as they are of fan art.

Edited by dannyjenn, 07 June 2012 - 12:43 PM.

[JuurianChi]

Why do people think that giving credit allows them to infringe on copyright?

How should I know? The best rational explanation I can come up with is a line of reasoning like this: "OK, I stole this, but I told you what I got it from. So if you don't want the crap I've produced but like the stuff I stole, you can go there and get the real stuff. See, I gave them free advertisements, they should be glad!"

But of course there's a big flaw in this reasoning: still, you're infringing copyright and doing stuff without prior permission.

Actually, I think the line of reasoning is more like the difference between plagiarism and citing the sources. Like, if I "steal" a paragraph from a text and give credit then that's perfectly legal (assuming I didn't take too much)... if I "steal" a paragraph from a text and give no credit then that's copyright infringement and completely illegal.
Still, that reasoning assumes the false premise that copyright infringement is a "fair use" to begin with and legal if it is credited, which it is not.

There is one thing to note though, fair use does allow for parodies. If you made a Pokémon spoof with very similar characters in terms of looks and names, and even if you were to use similar graphics, then chances are it would still be perfectly legal, even if you get no permission. There are even times when using the actual graphics from the real game is legal (I haven't seen this in fan games, but I've seen game graphics legally used elsewhere). But those are the minority of cases so it'd be stupid to assume that you can get away with infringing on copyright for any reason whatsoever.
On a side note, companies (Nintendo for one) are very tolerant of fan art and fan fics. Logically speaking, fan games are not much different, but history has shown that Nintendo is not as tolerant of fan games as they are of fan art.

Thinking in terms of someone trying to replicate an experience you created, on a dangerous platform that you don't support. I can see why Nintendo wouldn't want someone using their resources for any kind of game.
While parodies are acceptable under fair use, you really must grasp the concept of "parody" in order to not raise ire. For example: instead of using actual Pokemon graphics, why not create a game that mimics pokemon graphically? A feat that isn't really that hard to accomplish. and protects you from infringement.

[SebSchmidt]

@karajma007
Why do you have to use the Nintendo characters? It's much more fun to create your own characters, world and story. And when it's finished you'll feel much prouder if it's 100% your own creation, I guarantee that.
That said there's nothing wrong with using elements of Pokemon's classic gameplay, and Nintendo can't sue you for that! =)

Edited by SebSchmidt, 09 June 2012 - 12:22 AM.

[Overloaded]

From what I understood, it's ok to create Nintendo games, as long as you don't make profit from them? I am asking this question because, I am making a Mario game.

Edited by D4RknEZz, 15 June 2012 - 08:41 PM.

[Dangerous_Dave]

From what I understood, it's ok to create Nintendo games, as long as you don't make profit from them? I am asking this question because, I am making a Mario game.

It's illegal to use anything without permission. It makes no difference whether you are making a profit or not.

[Overloaded]

From what I understood, it's ok to create Nintendo games, as long as you don't make profit from them? I am asking this question because, I am making a Mario game.

It's illegal to use anything without permission. It makes no difference whether you are making a profit or not.

Have you any ideas what should I do? Do I have to contact them? And how can I contact them?

[Dangerous_Dave]

Have you any ideas what should I do? Do I have to contact them? And how can I contact them?

If you are making a cloned Mario game and want to release it legally, you would need to obtain permission from Nintendo.

My suggestion is to instead make something original. It's more fun, anyway.

[dannyjenn]

From what I understood, it's ok to create Nintendo games, as long as you don't make profit from them? I am asking this question because, I am making a Mario game.

It's illegal to use anything without permission. It makes no difference whether you are making a profit or not.

Have you any ideas what should I do? Do I have to contact them? And how can I contact them?

I'd say don't contact them. Most likely contacting them is just going to be a waste of time... no one with any sort of authority at Nintendo replies to mail so for it to even get premission it'd have to go through a ton of people which is unlikely. Second off, you'd need to contact Nintendo of Japan. Third off, contacting anyone will be risking having them say "no" and you'll have to stop making it or end up sued.
I'd say make the game and just don't release it when you're done (which is not technically illegal if you're doing it to learn from). Or if you really want to release it, what most people do is that right before release they just go through the game and swap all the text "Mario", "Peach", "Toad", etc. with some other names and all the sprites / backgrounds with custom sprites. Also watch out for other things that are trademarked... it may or may not be okay to use mushrooms (I'm really not sure, but I know that the mushrooms in Mario are based on the mushrooms from Alice in Wonderland so I doubt that they're trademarked... you'll need to change the colouring though...). Point is Nintendo has "Mario" copyrighted / trademarked but they can't do anything about platform games in general, even "similar" games... just don't make it look so similar that they have reason to believe that it's infringement if they ever were to find out about your game (which is probably not going to happen anyway...)

Edited by dannyjenn, 16 June 2012 - 12:18 PM.

[Andy]

You would have to get permission, from the owners of Pokémon. If you can’t get permission, why not just make your own monsters up? There are Pokémon, Digimon, Tamagotchi etc…

Make an Origimon.