Is machinima against the TOS?

A question for whom it may concern:

As you are aware, there are fanarts and fan videos of FFXIV over the internet. One such fanwork I haven't seen too much of(either due to engine or interest) is machinima, (stuff like Red vs. Blue, or the south park episode "make love, not Warcraft")

Would machinima be considered against TOS? If it situational, can you explain?

And if what I'm describing is a different term let me know.

I don't think it's really against the ToS. If it is, someone at Square needs to be fired for being stupid.

The South Park episode actually had help from Blizzard to get the models to do things they normally wouldn't be able to do in-game. If i remember right the episode was originally going to be in the regular South Park style until Blizzard found out about it or the studio contacted them about it.

It really shouldn't be against the TOS since you're essentially recording a roleplay (albeit a scripted one), and roleplaying or gameplay videos aren't against the TOS. As long as you credit the game and don't hack it to do it there really shouldn't be an issue.

And in the case of both south park and RvB, it falls under parody rules. At least in the US you can legally parody things, even using original material, and it is protected by free speech (obviously there is the ability to cross the line, but it is really, really, hard to prove libel/slander in parody). The catch is that the material cannot be obtained illegally. So you could record game play footage, or recreate the models on your own, but you could not dat mine the models and import them into 3D rendering software without violating the ToS.

On Friday, April 13, 2012, Square Enix responded to my question asking them about Machinima. I was in works on creating a youtube series for people to enjoy. I had written a script, had people ready to voice act, etc. Square Enix basically stated that they prohibit the use of anything from their products. The email basically stated that if they wanted to do it, they would hire one of their partners to do so. So to answer your question, they do not allow Machinima. Looking into it further by law, many creators use the "fair use" law which basically states that it's not an exact duplicate copy of game. It all depends on the copyright information. Here's is Square Enix's copyright info.

All copyrighted and copyrightable materials on this Site, including, without limitation, the Square Enix logo, designs, text, graphics, pictures, software, sound files and other files, and the selection and arrangement thereof ("Materials") are © the Square Enix group of companies and/or its licensors. All rights reserved. Except as stated herein, none of the Materials may be copied, reproduced, distributed, republished, downloaded, displayed, posted or transmitted in any form or by any means, including, but not limited to, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Square Enix or the respective copyright owner. Permission is granted to display, copy, distribute and download the Materials on this Site for your personal use, non-commercial use, and informational use only; provided that, you may not, without the permission of Square Enix or the respective copyright owner, (a) copy, publish, or post any Materials on any computer network or broadcast or publications media, (b) modify the Materials, or (c) remove or alter any copyright and other proprietary notices contained in the Materials.

Basically, any fan art, fan videos, ect that are used are subject to copyright infringement or, in other words, do it at your own risk.

@Imminent1 do you realized you bumped an very old topic?

Also you wouldnt get banned for it, not like they could find out who you are.

So technically, I couldn't even make my own sig with a pic of my lalafell?

No, this is basically an auto response from a person who didn't bother to read and didn't want to reply with a human response so got an auto response.

I got same response when asking if I could use images on a fansite, no mention of "just use fan kit ones" just NO COPYRIGHT!

Any video, paradody, ect usign the game and engine should have Square ENix as the owner of said items and game.

All you need to do is give credit to Square-Enix in your videos (in worst-case scenario) and you'll be fine. They can't just demand the removal of a video because it contains footage from something else. (I mean, have you even seen them hundreds of millions of Youtube videos with footage from various anime and even the various videos from FFXI itself {like this one}?)

Worst they can do is just ask you to remove the video. Doesn't happen often if ever for stuff like this.

Also individual corporations cant decide if they want to use the fair use law now or not, if its in america its automatically assigned the fair use doctrine. Simply put means you can use the image of anyone or anything, anyways you please as long as you do not make money off of it, and if your using a celebrity you obviously cant defimate them.

I'm pretty sure its against TOS, I mean, the screenshots you take are copyrighted.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jynx

Worst they can do is just ask you to remove the video. Doesn't happen often if ever for stuff like this.

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This. No need to think further.

Do whatever you want, if SE isn't happy about it, you'll be asked to remove it...

Hint: tons of Final Fantasy fan-made mangas are being released in Japan every year, and Square Enix doesn't care.

(A picture of XIV doujins I grabbed during Comiket this Winter). If that can be made (and sold as well), no worries about your machinima. (The Twin Order strap was also fan-made :d)

lol money seriously corrupts everything.

maybe theres none because this game aint popular yet.