Ummmmm Copyright?

[Dragonmaster358]

so yea i play dragon age and was searching for decent weapon mods when i found a sword that has the same moddle as the Felewyn Shard. Here's a link: http://dragonagenexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=574
Can someone tell me why its there and if the devs had it copy righted

 

[Stoned]

The fshard blade was originally designed by Kit Rae(Pretty much a modern blacksmith). IT even says it was made by him in the description....

The model is that of Kit Rae's Kilgorin Sword of Darkness. Full credit goes to him for design.

The Axe of Balance was also made by Kit Rae..or at least the design was.

 

[SilentDeath]

nvm I found the image section.

 

[Thothie]

The Felewyn Shard is designed after a real sword by Kit-Rae that was used as part of a modeling tutorial. So it's completely fair game - as there's no viability for a copyright claim on a real-world object remade as a model in a video game, and the tutorial was PD, so the images used to make the textures are fair game as well. (Car companies have tried, and failed, to claim copyright on video-game models of their automobiles. And although trade marks and logos are still legal tender in virtual-land, even images of real people can only be used in Defamation.) The image of the sword actually gets passed around quite a lot, so much so, while it's become a signature MSC item, it's more or less public domain at this point.

I suspect some similar such going on with the AoB.

The artistic concept for the Blood Drinker, on the other hand, was, without my knowledge, taken from a WoW sword. This came as much of a surprise, as a certain someone, who shall not be named, even provided a pen-and-pencil drawing of the blade, which the final model was based on. It's technically an original piece of art, but it would fall under 'likeness' by law.

As for things that break copyrights outright, the female elves are adopted models from Warcraft III, and the males from Morrowind. They can get away on technicalities, as none of the original data is used, but only because it's been converted into entirely different formats. 'Likeness' applies doubly here, as it would actually be statistically measurable.

The most-likely-to-draw a C&D order, however, are various bits of music. Some stolen from other games, others from movies, and television. While the bulk of the music is either public domain, unlicensed, or original work, they are all MP3 format, and therefore subject to immediate scrutiny, possibly even by sniffer programs, in their uncompressed formats.

We are, however, a non-profit venture, so it'd be hard, if not impossible, to bring it to a court of law. We would, however, obey any officially verifiable C&D order immediately, I assure you, even if it meant axing some music entirely, or replacing a model with a box placeholder. It just isn't likely to happen, and meanwhile, with such a small team, we borrow artwork as needed - though with permission, whenever possible.

 

[Srgnt Rehab]

WAIT!? THAT IS A WEAPON IN MS:C?!

Whar does I get and please give to me asap! <3 this sword design.


:roll:

 

[Thothie]

I assume I am missing an implied [/sarcasm] tag here somewhere... :roll:

 

[J-M v2.5.5]

I don't really see the connection between the scorpions and this thread but that's probably just me.

 

[Thothie]

><

edit: Actually, now that I think of it... They do. They are copyrighted material stolen from Gunslinger Chronicles - but I dunno if any active company owns the rights to Gunslinger Chronicles anymore - plus, that happened before I got ahold of this project - so not my fault.

Unlike the elves, they haven't been converted - they were originally Goldsrc engine models - so most of that is the original (copyrighted) data.

 

[Sabre]

I don't really see the connection between the scorpions and this thread but that's probably just me.

 

[Thothie]

Like Hamas unto Israel... I shall continue to deny your humor by refusing to recognize it... Followed by rocket attacks.

 

[Stoned]

Like Hamas unto Israel... I shall continue to deny your humor by refusing to recognize it... Followed by rocket attacks.

You made my day with that video Thothie, loled hard. Or should I say, arhd.

 

[Srgnt Rehab]

I'm pretty sure jumping wouldn't make it not blow you up

 

[Crow]

The Felewyn Shard is designed after a real sword by Kit-Rae
The artistic concept for the Blood Drinker, on the other hand, was, without my knowledge, taken from a WoW sword. This came as much of a surprise, as a certain someone, who shall not be named, even provided a pen-and-pencil drawing of the blade, which the final model was based on. It's technically an original piece of art, but it would fall under 'likeness' by law.

Actually, the sword in WoW has 4 prongs on its handgaurd, Blooddrinker only has two. Just fyi.