I am Worried About something (Copy rights)

**Danny Boy** · 08-03-2012, 01:31 AM

Attention: this is more directed for forum moderators and people who are aware and understand copy right laws.

Well as most of you might now know I am one of the makers of Dark Room. In that custom story all I and Draco have done was use the original content of Amnesia and edit it slightly at most for some edited monsters. Therefore we had no problem in uploading them.

But things get a bit more complicated in Dark Room 2... As we wanted to make a big sequel, and by that I mean bigger in every way. more maps, more jokes, more detailed environments, overall a better experience. so I. for some specific scenes and environments have downloaded several models from several sources from me to have a larger environment / level design possibilities. I haven't really thought about the copy rights issue while the custom story was first being developed on the heat of excitement the first weeks of developing Dark Room 2 were (Although I know we have been dead for quite some time but thats another story) so now when we are finally working on the scripting and some final level designing I came to the realization that Skashi's (note I am not one of his fans) custom story "Canis Abusus" was locked down due to the fact that his mod contained a 3D Model of a Monster from a Resident evil game. This quickly made me look at my own custom story and made me very worried because although not all of my custom content is actually pirated, rather free game props. some are although from extracted models for other video games. I did not extract them myself but I am using them.

But before I finish. I am greatly confused. Because while "Canis Abusus" was locked because of a single ripped model. I have seen other custom stories for example the Remake of the "Undying" video game. As far as I know. The maker of this custom story. Didn't model any of the used game props. they are all ripped from the original game! yet nothing is being done for or against it! this begs the questions:

Why was "Canis Abusus" Locked while the "Undying" remake wasn't?

Does it depends of the nature of the models? does it have to do whit any copy rights law that I am not aware of? if so I would gladly give the list of my custom models privately for them to be verified.

I Hope haven't caused too much trouble.

and thank you.

Danarogon

**Your Computer** · 08-03-2012, 01:59 AM

If a custom story topic has not yet been locked for copyright issues when the custom story does indeed contain copyrighted material, you should assume this means moderators and admin don't know about the custom story or have forgotten about it. The decision to lock these topics and remove the content from them is a rather recent decision. If one of these topics are reported or if i (or another moderator) happens upon the topic, then appropriate action will (should) be taken. I for one do not bother to look into every single topic created, and so i may miss out on the topic's content.

**Froge** · 08-03-2012, 05:21 AM

While we're on the topic of Copyright, is it alright to use your own downloaded music in custom stories?

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx** · 08-03-2012, 08:35 AM

Umm...I'd say that depends on what the person who created that music says. Just because you downloaded it all by yourself doesn't mean you own the rights to it you know Big Grin

(Or maybe I didn't understand the question correctly?)

**Traggey** · 08-03-2012, 10:19 AM

Alright so my rule for the usage of custom stuff, you MUST have permission from the creator/owners of the content to use it, if you do not then you are not alowed to distribute them.

The undying thread has not been locked down because it's not actually released, from what I've seen of it it's just a bunch of pictures ( do correct me if I'm wrong ).

And just as Your Computer mentioned, whilst I do try to keep track of every single thread being posted in it is very possible that I've missed older threads, if there's something on the forums which contains copyrighted content that has not been locked down simply report the thread and I or another moderator will take a look and judge what should be done.

**HateSolstice** · 08-03-2012, 12:14 PM

Except copyright laws really only apply when a profit is being made. If copyright issues really extended to custom-made, free content then sites like YouTube wouldn't exist. This is why agendas like SOPA have been shot down.

Typically, if say a mod of a game uses a song from so-and-so, as long as they are credited for their work then there is no issue. Again, usually only as long as no profit is being made.

**Traggey** · 08-03-2012, 03:01 PM

(08-03-2012, 12:14 PM)HateSolstice Wrote: Except copyright laws really only apply when a profit is being made. If copyright issues really extended to custom-made, free content then sites like YouTube wouldn't exist. This is why agendas like SOPA have been shot down.

Typically, if say a mod of a game uses a song from so-and-so, as long as they are credited for their work then there is no issue. Again, usually only as long as no profit is being made.

Going by that logic piracy is totally alright.

**Bridge** · 08-03-2012, 04:31 PM

(08-03-2012, 03:01 PM)Traggey Wrote:
(08-03-2012, 12:14 PM)HateSolstice Wrote: Except copyright laws really only apply when a profit is being made. If copyright issues really extended to custom-made, free content then sites like YouTube wouldn't exist. This is why agendas like SOPA have been shot down.

Typically, if say a mod of a game uses a song from so-and-so, as long as they are credited for their work then there is no issue. Again, usually only as long as no profit is being made.
Going by that logic piracy is totally alright.

It is in the sense that nothing illegal is taking place, nobody loses anything and nobody gains anything at somebody else's expense. You can debate the moral implications of "stealing" virtual objects (I don't want to partake in that debate) but what it all boils down to is somebody legally making copies of data and illegally distributing them and then somebody else legally transferring that data to some sort of storage device.

**Traggey** · 08-03-2012, 05:04 PM

There is no definite ''this is illegal'' on this subject as of yet, however there was a staff discussion not long ago and it was decided that we are not going to support potentialy illegal content.

I strongly advice you do not use these ''ripped'' models unless you have permission to do so.

**HateSolstice** · 08-03-2012, 05:19 PM

(08-03-2012, 03:01 PM)Traggey Wrote:
(08-03-2012, 12:14 PM)HateSolstice Wrote: Except copyright laws really only apply when a profit is being made. If copyright issues really extended to custom-made, free content then sites like YouTube wouldn't exist. This is why agendas like SOPA have been shot down.

Typically, if say a mod of a game uses a song from so-and-so, as long as they are credited for their work then there is no issue. Again, usually only as long as no profit is being made.
Going by that logic piracy is totally alright.

Except piracy deals in taking entire products that are for profit and making use of them without paying for t them. The issue at hand is using bits of data for an entirely different purpose. Not an entire product. You're looking at this in an entirely black-and-white light, when that's really not how it is.

Besides that, there is also the matter of altered content.