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Hmm...

Now I´m probably the bad guy here, but when there are doubts if the permission is bulletproof you should take down the files ASAP.

If the developers haven´t a permission, EA will do something. If not, they would weaken their copyright. And as I wrote earlier, the files contain ripped original data from Privateer.

But right now I hope you have contacted EA...
 
Hellcat showed up on IRC last night. When pressed for a response, he disconnected and hasn't been back.

I'm sure there's a good explanation, because it'd be pretty impossible to do all this work without doing something as simple as clearing it with EA first. I'd just like to hear it real soon.
 
Sky777 said:
If not, they would weaken their copyright.
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While I agree with your main thrust, this is completely incorrect. Copyright doesn't get weakened no matter what other people do. Trademarks are what need to be defended (or in other ways addressed) to maintain their strength.
 
While I agree with your main thrust, this is completely incorrect. Copyright doesn't get weakened no matter what other people do. Trademarks are what need to be defended (or in other ways addressed) to maintain their strength.
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Yes, my bad. You can´t loose your copyright, only the right on the trademark, of course. The Question is: Is "Privateer" a trademark or not.
Copyright infringment besides, is the name "Privateer:The Remake" a trademark violation? As I understand it, they have to defend "Privateer" to keep the trademark (for example I can´t make a game "Wing Commander: The Beginning" or something like that). They can give you the permission/license for one game/remake but they must sue you, if you don´t have the permission.

But I´m not a lawyer. :-)

Anyway, I still hope they have a permission (or they get one *very* soon).
 
wow, this smells bad... I guess the only way to solve this thing is to contact EA and clearify the question.
 
I would leave that up to the Project Lead or his designated representative.

I sure wish someone with authority would calm this whole thing down...
 
warzog said:
Not to burst anyone's bubble, but I ran into a similar problem several years ago.

I was making a computer game, from scratch, based on Avalon Hill's "Magic Realm" board game.
After mentioning it on several forums, and being asked about legallity, I contacted Hasbro, Avalon Hill's current owner, about it.
I was politely told, in no uncertain terms, that while they couldn't prevent me from making the game, they would sue the begezus out of me if I gave even one copy away for free.
I've heard tell that LucasArts has the same attitude about their properties.

While I was working on the "Privateer: The Reckoning" mod for Freelancer, I was told that as long as no money was involved, we were free to proceed.
(But I can't recall if that was official, or not.)
Click to expand...

In general, EA has been pretty tolerant and understanding about people using their intellectual properites -at least, as far as Wing Commander is concerned. UE and Standoff (all heavily promoted on WCNews) have managed to avoid most of the pitfalls, since the extent of their work (and ours, really) involves utilizing music and models already available in the community (or creating new ones), and using the same background, which in effect would make it fanfiction.

PrivRemake is different. Because so much of the stuff (the text, the speech, the graphics and animations, even the story) is ripped directly from Privateer, it's basically a carbon copy of Privateer. The fact that the models and engine aren't the same is irrelevent in this case - it's the weight of the other stuff against this.

I really hope this whole legal business is cleared up, and soon, because EA's law departmebt is infamous about comingdown on fan remakes when they feel it might compromise their IP. No matter how far advanced they are.
 
Sky777 said:
If the developers haven´t a permission, EA will do something. If not, they would weaken their copyright.
Click to expand...
I wish idiots like you would stop playing lawyer on the Internet. A copyright cannot be weakened by lack of or selective enforcement by the copyright holder. Trademarks, yes. Copyright, no.
 
Sky777 said:
is the name "Privateer:The Remake" a trademark violation?
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"Privateer" is a registered trademark of Electronic Arts (serial no. 74298485).
So, no, this game can't legally use the "Privateer" part without permission.

As far as end users are concerned, if a user has a legitimate copy of the original Privateer game (and I do), that user can legally posses and use this remake even if EA doesn't approve its distribution.
 
Riley Pizt said:
I wish idiots like you would stop playing lawyer on the Internet. A copyright cannot be weakened by lack of or selective enforcement by the copyright holder. Trademarks, yes. Copyright, no.
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I think someone already pointed this out (politely).
 
Bandit LOAF said:
I think someone already pointed this out (politely).
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Yes, I should have read the thread all the way through before responding. Then, again, the post to which I replied is a "hot button" topic for me.
 
As far as end users are concerned, if a user has a legitimate copy of the original Privateer game (and I do), that user can legally posses and use this remake even if EA doesn't approve its distribution.
Click to expand...

Most of the folks excited about this project do own at least one copy of the original game, I own 2.

In my mind, EA has abandoned Privateer and Wing Commander. We have been waiting for them to come up with a way to play the original game on these silly windows boxes. Not since Windows 95 have you even had a prayer of playing the great classics without something like DOSbox.

If EA and some of those other gaming companies would get off their asses and provide us with newer versions we can actually play, we would buy it in a heartbeat. But no, they have moved on to glitzier games... I even used to keep a windows 3.1 machine just so I could play Privateer.
 
Bandit LOAF said:
The legal status of your mind doesn't do much to protect my server.
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Well, since you are a host/ISP, the DCMA exonerates you of any infringement, so you shouldn't lose any sleep over it. If you receive an official takedown notice, comply and you won't have anything to worry about.
 
Yikes what a mess. True if you own the original then EA can't do anything about it so at worst case all this project needs is a disclaimer saying you can't download it unless you have purchased the original at some point. As far as the other people go who don't own it... who knows. Someone ought to contact EA before EA contacts them however.
 
Why doncha

If you're worried about the legality of this, why not just change the download page?
Just claim you've run out of bandwidth or something and tell users to google for it.
Would eliminate some of the lusers here too ROTFL
There's nothing wrong with having a fan page about an old game, eh? Then you can sleep easy and the fans can continue to chat about it here.
 
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