Re: [Epic] (Off Topic) Quake 2

From: Thane Morgan <thane_at_...>
Date: Tue, 17 Mar 1998 20:30:11 -0700

Miller, Chris wrote:
>
> > > I'm not saying I disagree with you, but it's clear that some
> > companies
> > > are a little bit more anal on this matter than others, and noone is
> > more
> > > anal than Games Workshop.
> >
> > In two words Horse Hockey. LOTS of companies are more anal about this
> > than GW. Lets start with TSR, before WotC got them at the fire sale.
> > NO USE OF TSR COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL ON ANY INTERNET SITE EXPECT THEIRS.
> >
> > Lets talk Fox and what they are doing to "Fan" pages of their shows.
> >
> > Lets talk Paramount and what they are doing with "Star Trek" fan
> > pages.
> >
> ---------> You are 100% correct - TSR was ripped constantly for this,
> Fox is busy cutting their own throat knocking off Simpson's and X-Files
> and used to hassle Tick sites as well. Paramount is again busily trying
> to choke off trek sites.
>
> Honestly these companies are stuck (to a point) trying to protect their
> copyright (which they can lose if it's just all over the place) while
> allowing fans to "fan" their stuff ,but some don't seem to care about
> that last part.
>
> > While I don't know if GW is planning on doing a WH40K shoot-em-up 1st
> > person game, I have heard that they are or were working on it. This
> > means that a Quake TC is not a "fan" thing, but a direct competitor.
> > "Lets see, you want to use our copyrighted material and images,
> > release
> > a something that will be competing with our product and you don't want
> > to pay license fee. Ah, no thank you so much for asking".
> >
> > Maybe I am a bit anal about this as I make my living off of
> > intellectual
> > properties also.
> >
> > As I understand GW's policy on fan work is that you can use terms that
> > are copyrighted by them (like, say, Warhammer 40,000 or Eldar), and
> > can
> > use limited amounts of there rules/written stuff (like say, stats
> > tables) but you can NOT use their images or large amounts of their
> > fiction (i.e. you can post a couple of pages of THEIR fluff). The no
> > image rule tends to rule out the Quake stuff with out a license
> > agreement.
> >
> --------> I think the big problem is that if he releases it for free
> they'd be hard pressed to show damages of any kind, as long as he
> acknowledges their rights. He's not making money off of their property -
> it's free. They might have some grounds on copyright issues, but again,
> there are similar existing packages out there now - I';ve seen at least
> one Space Wolves vs Tyranids conversion for Civillization II and I'm
> sure there are others, and I don't believe anything was done over it.
> Now if GW was planning to license a conversion to someone, they could
> certainly jump in and do something, but has anyone heard of that
> happening? Like to see it, but hasn't happend yet AFAIK. You'd think as
> long as they can protect the copyright they'd be all for a quality job
> done by fans on something they have no plans to do themselves, but you
> never know.
>
> Chris Miller

I'd have way more sympathy for GW's case if they didn't play so close to
the edge of copyright infringement themselves. Tyrannids look like
complete Alien/Predator rip-offs; elves are clearly Tolkien elves, even
having the two branches from the simarillian for High Elves and the
"Wood" elves of Lor(i)en. The concept of space marines has been around
since the forties, their emblems are generic enough that anyone could
use them. The only semi-original race is the Orks being fungus derived,
though of course fungus aliens is hardly original.

Thane
Received on Wed Mar 18 1998 - 03:30:11 UTC