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Quiz and Copyrights

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larienna
larienna's picture
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Joined: 07/28/2008

I had an idea of making some sort of quiz game about the Nintendo NES console and it's games. It would be some sort of classic quiz game where you move your pawn around the board and earn point.

Of course, there will be classic textual questions. But since we are talking video games here, I also tought of making non textual question like:

- Show a sprite picture and ask from which game it comes from.
- Play a music sample " " " " " " " "
- Show a screenshot " " " " " " " "

Now the problem is that the art of the game is copyrighted.

My questions are :

1-I am allowed to use this artwork in the game if it is only used by the quiz questions.

2-Am I allowed to use the artwork on the board, pawn or on the back of the cards.

zaiga
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Joined: 12/31/1969
Quiz and Copyrights

You cannot use copyrighted material without obtaining permission form the owner. So...

1) No

2) No

Oracle
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Joined: 06/22/2010
Quiz and Copyrights

It's a bit more complex than zaiga said.

The Fair Use portion of the copyright act gives you permission *except* from copyrighted material without permission under certain criteria. For example you can take a screenshot of CNN showing the president tripping during a speach and post it on your blog.

Your game would probably qualify as fair use, but I'm not a lawyer, so talk to one before you act on what I'm saying.

Unfortunately the legal system rarely supports what's right and legal. You might talk to a lawyer and decide your game is perfectly legal and well within the bounds of fair use. Then when you publish your game, Nintendo comes along and says "stop selling that game immediately or we will sue you for $10 Million" what will you do?

Even if you are 100% right and will probably win in the end, are you going to spend > $100,000 defending your case or cust your losses and not sell the game?

FastLearner
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Joined: 12/31/1969
Quiz and Copyrights

Fair Use covers commentary and criticism. There's no way this is either, imo.

-- Matthew

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