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| Message Board > Malarkey > Copyright and Trademarks |
| November 10, 2005, 12:20 | |
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PEader
お前はもう死んでいる 1486 posts 
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If you were going to release a commercial Tetris, Pac Man or Bejewelled would you need to pay some sort of royalies or licensing fees? Anyone have any idea how to go about doing such a thing and the sort of prices involved?
____________ I see 57,005 people. |
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| November 10, 2005, 13:49 | |
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Rincewind
programmer 1545 posts 
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Interesting question. I *think* you'll surely have to pay some money to somebody, considering pacman is still sold in all kind of forms. Perhaps it would be wise to ask the producer of a random commercial pacman game. I don't think it'll be much BTW - there's for example 'pacman 3D' which they almost sell for nothing in the stores. But why not make your own game? Or try to achieve similair gameplay in another form? Or was this meant to be a fast way to make money. :p ____________ Personal website: http://www.loijson.com |
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| November 10, 2005, 15:07 | |
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Frimkron
Frustrated Megalomaniac 703 posts 
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I'd say yes if its a blatent exact copy. I mean there's lots of bejeweled type games around at the moment but they all play slightly differently. And Tetris clones - you never see an exact copy of Tetris being sold although there's been Columns on the mega drive and all of those like it. Actually in the case of Bejeweled, I doubt Bejeweled was even the original.
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| November 10, 2005, 19:23 | |
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PB
Defender of the faith 630 posts 
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I don't know at all how these things work legally, but I thought that copyright could expire, maybe this is the case with pacman. But of course if you need to know for commercial reasons, you should check with a reliable source...
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| November 11, 2005, 06:40 | |
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Woody
HEAD BLACK MAN 722 posts 
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Copyrights only expire after 50 years or Peter stuffs 50 whores in garbage bags whichever comes first or some insane idiotic rule that accomplishes nothing but cause the software industry to die a slow painful death. IPSO FACTO QED.
____________ boredome is the bitter fruit of too much routine |
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| November 11, 2005, 11:13 | |
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PEader
お前はもう死んでいる 1486 posts
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Quoting Woody: Copyrights only expire after 50 years or Peter stuffs 50 whores in garbage bags whichever comes first or some insane idiotic rule that accomplishes nothing but cause the software industry to die a slow painful death. IPSO FACTO QED. Using my Castle Grayskull powers and with some help from the "Masters of the Internet" I have found two web sites pertaining to copyright law one site called Gutenberg.nl tells us of EU copyright law which seems to be 70 years after the death of the author or 70 years after first publication "if no natural persons have been identified as authors on the work" i.e. a company owns the copyright. The other web site, Intellectual Property states the Computer Programs are classified as original literary works. They also give different duration for copyright depending on the type of work. But 70 years is the longest the copyright can last in EU countries which are part of the EU copyright directive. What would you think would be a reasonable price to pay, hypothetically speaking. If you made a Tetris game what way do you think the royalties would be paid and how much? I can't decide whether you'd pay a one off fee for the name or continually pay some sort of licensing fee as long as you distribute the game. I guess it is all at the discretion of the copyright holder. If you licensed something, say you made a crossword game, but licensed a well known crossword maker's work. What way would that work? I would say it works the same in computers as it does in the literary world but does anyone here know for sure? Basically how does licensing work in games like with EA and FIFA. What sort of price structures are there or are they wholely arbituary. Surely there is some sort of industry standard. Quote: But why not make your own game? Or try to achieve similair gameplay in another form? Or was this meant to be a fast way to make money. :p Well why not license someone elses well known intellectual property to fit in with your game and make it more easily recognisable? Goldeneye is more appealing to me then a fictional setting like Doom's. [Edited on November 11, 2005 by PEader] ____________ I see 57,005 people. |
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| November 11, 2005, 11:17 | |
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PEader
お前はもう死んでいる 1486 posts
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Another point worth talking about is royalty payments the opposite way i.e. to us the game maker from publishers (or people wanting to license our IP). The more I think about it the more I think that there is no real standard for licensing/royalties.
____________ I see 57,005 people. |
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| November 11, 2005, 14:42 | |
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Frimkron
Frustrated Megalomaniac 703 posts
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Sorry to not answer any of your questions at all, but this reminds me - what copyright stuff do we need to put on our game pages to let people know they're not allowed to steal them?
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| November 11, 2005, 15:36 | |
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PEader
お前はもう死んでいる 1486 posts
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Quoting Frimkron: Sorry to not answer any of your questions at all, but this reminds me - what copyright stuff do we need to put on our game pages to let people know they're not allowed to steal them? Why didn't you put that in a new thread then, possibly in the site bugs and ideas section? Man you so going to be moderated one of these days. ____________ I see 57,005 people. |
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| November 11, 2005, 16:35 | |
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PB
Defender of the faith 630 posts
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Sorry, I can't split the thread 
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| November 11, 2005, 18:46 | |
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Frimkron
Frustrated Megalomaniac 703 posts
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I'm admin - I'm allowed!
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| November 11, 2005, 21:25 | |
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PEader
お前はもう死んでいる 1486 posts
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Quoting Frimkron: I'm admin - I'm allowed! And so the downward slide starts. ____________ I see 57,005 people. |
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| November 11, 2005, 21:33 | |
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PB
Defender of the faith 630 posts
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Quoting Frimkron: I'm admin - I'm allowed! Ok, so what's the purpose of a moderator? ____________ |
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| November 11, 2005, 22:19 | |
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Frimkron
Frustrated Megalomaniac 703 posts
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What? Ok enough spam - it was a joke. Let's leave Mr Peader's thread alone now. ____________ |
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Message Board > Malarkey > Copyright and Trademarks