Copyright infringement etc..? + Maybe need an artist...

[PaladinHeart]

Hi everyone at DAC. I am working on an RPG with the FOT editors. Anyone know if using pictures of any famous people or video game character portraits etc... for custom portraits in my campaign would be illegal?

I also need new custom art for stuff like Glass Shard and Leather Gloves. Not to mention the many new gun/ammo types I would like to make.

Anyone please let me know if you know anything about this.

Oh, I would also like to use custom music in my campaign but im very certain that would be breaking some copyright law.

Ah well. Best to concentrate on finishing it first and worry about making it look good afterwards :)


Its a good thing you can change item colors.

[Jimmyjay86]

AFAIK there are no laws about fan-fiction which mapping is. And trust me there are some pretty rude fan-fictions out there. I don't know why people seem to get hung up on the copyright issue. Generally it would only be a problem if you are trying to sell copyrighted material without permission. I've seen plenty of Quake mods which add skins from the Simpsons or add Metallica music but have never heard of anyone sueing the modder.

[PaladinHeart]

OK, thanks! But what about music?

If I add custom music to my campaign then im sure people could just snatch it out of the folders and do whatever they wanted unless I somehow zip everything into .bos files and put in a required password to unzip the files.. hmm.. maybe I should look into doing that anyway?

Anyone know if this would be a problem? I would put credits in for the use of the music so I would think the only end result would be good advertising for the music.

[Jimmyjay86]

Are you thinking of adding a full song in stereo sound? Its up to you, but I probably wouldn't add too much large file stuff unless it adds alot to the play experience. I was thinking of adding speeches of the mission briefings but figured it wasn't worth the extra download.

[PaladinHeart]

I was thinking of adding in a full song in one particular case for the experience. Maybe I could manage half of it. I'll check on it when it comes time.

I'll also want to put in custom music for boss fights, specific places, and other stuff but im not really sure if I would rather use existing music or try and figure out how to make my own.

At this point im not really concerned about the download size. I know its probably going to end up being pretty big so I don't really care if I end up making it about 50 more megs or so with just a few music files.

[requiem_for_a_starfury]

I was thinking of adding in a full song in one particular case for the experience. Maybe I could manage half of it. I'll check on it when it comes time.

You could always just use one of the .wmv files that come with the game, and put in your read me that if people want to get the full flavour of the mission as you planned it. They should replace the file with a clip of the song renamed using that file name. It would also cut down on the final file size you have to distribute.