Hard Light Productions Forums

Hosted Projects - Standalone => The Babylon Project => Topic started by: xman15 on December 18, 2011, 10:29:38 am

Title: Legality in terms of the name
Post by: xman15 on December 18, 2011, 10:29:38 am

Hi!

I had one REALLY big question about this project: Is it legal from a name standpoint?

I mean it's because you guys are basing this off a copyrighted TV show - does the disclaimer that you guys have on your webpage basically allow you to do this as per that whole thing with since you're not charging for this, you're allowed to do it?

Sorry - I'm just really cautious about legal affairs - I'm just a paranoiac when it comes to these things. XD

Thanks!

Title: Re: Legality in terms of the name
Post by: The E on December 18, 2011, 10:42:36 am

It is allowed under the fair use and fan art terms in the US.

Title: Re: Legality in terms of the name
Post by: xman15 on December 18, 2011, 10:59:12 am

Okay so tell me more about this - so you guys don't use a majority of copyrighted stuff - aka you aren't making a derivative work right? I'm just a little cautious 'cos fair use is really nonspecific. But then again, you guys made your own models, and all - the only thing is that it's set in the universe of Babylon 5, right? I'm just trying to understand the specifics of this.

Title: Re: Legality in terms of the name
Post by: -Norbert- on December 18, 2011, 12:10:24 pm

One very big help is, that it's strictly non-profit. So even if it would technically go against copyright issues, most of the time the big companies don't mind, because it doesn't hurt them (it could even be considered free advertisement), while sueing might cost them customers.... erm... I mean fans.
Of course there are dickheaded exceptions, like the idiot who made sure the Nexus BSG mod got pulled from ModDB (and the resulting panic reaction by them), or Games Workshop shutting down Damnatus.

Title: Re: Legality in terms of the name
Post by: Vidmaster on December 18, 2011, 01:02:57 pm

soundtrack and sound effects are obviously owned by somebody, like Warner in case of the B5 effects

Title: Re: Legality in terms of the name
Post by: BengalTiger on December 28, 2011, 09:39:59 am

Second question, on topic with legality, that I was wondering about with these 'foreign universe' mods for SCP:

What about the models ported into the FS SCP engine- could they be used, could they be reskinned/edited?