Copyright Infringment in Design Contest!

[Randelmire]

Keep in mind we are not talking about sueing those who submitted copied stuff...

[Randelmire]

It is up to SE to enforce its own rules and/or up to the copyright holder to exercise his rights. You can notify SE if you want, but this forum is not the best way to do that, as I've already pointed out multiple times. If SE decides that someones rights are being violated, I'm sure they will disqualify that entry.

Actually I'm happy this was posted on the forums.

You know very well what SE do when players report RMTs..... almost nothing. We don't even know if the message sent to support will reach the people taking care of the contest.

At least, if it's posted on the forums and people are aware of it, they can give their vote to more original designs.

[Rubieus]

A friend of mine made me a sculpture of a character from a Final Fantasy game. Technically, this is a copyright violation, because SE owns all the rights to those characters. However, it's up to SE to decide they're bothered by it and to tell me to destroy it / not make any more likenesses to their characters. A copyright holder can decide that they are not in fact bothered by someone's use of their work and allow it to pass if they so desire.

I wanted to point out that I believe this is untrue, unless I am mistaken and my art teacher is in a whole hurt of trouble, a person may use copyrighted/trademarked property as an educational tool or for personal use as long as no profit or gains are to be made. Fanfiction, cosplay and similar art forms all fall under this category.

[Alhanelem]

You know very well what SE do when players report RMTs..... almost nothing. We don't even know if the message sent to support will reach the people taking care of the contest.

You know very well that this isn't RMT we're talking about, and it's actually completely not true that they don't do anything about RMT reports. SE bans them, they make new accounts, rinse and repeat. It's not that they aren't doing anything, it's that it's an endless cycle.

At least, if it's posted on the forums and people are aware of it, they can give their vote to more original designs.

That's all well and good, but if people want to make legal complaints, they make those complaints directly to the parties involved, not just posting on a forum and going NYA NYA DONT VOTE THIS ONE HE CHEATER.

[Nero]

I don't care how identical it is. Wether or not an infringement is taking place is not the issue here.

You need not go into any detail, regardless of your English knowledge. I arleady throughly understand the issue. You clearly don't understand what i'm trying to get at here. You seem to think I'm defending the act taking place here, but I'm not.

If you are not defending it, what are you doing? Because you are right, i thought you are defending it.

That's fine, but it's not up to you to enforce the rules of the contest. It is up to SE to enforce its own rules and/or up to the copyright holder to exercise his rights. You can notify SE if you want, but this forum is not the best way to do that, as I've already pointed out multiple times.

Of course there is a better way as in writing an E-Mail to the Support-Center. Pointing it out, giving out Infos about it, giving out Links etc. But of course also people do it on the Forum to point it out, which is not a bad idea. Especially with all those Grass-Threads and Stuff, i dont think this Thread is actually a worse one.

A friend of mine made me a sculpture of a character from a Final Fantasy game. Technically, this is a copyright violation, because SE owns all the rights to those characters. However, it's up to SE to decide they're bothered by it and to tell me to destroy it / not make any more likenesses to their characters. A copyright holder can decide that they are not in fact bothered by someone's use of their work and allow it to pass if they so desire.

Exactly.. and a good example. So we kind of agree about the copyrights, but you would go a different way to direct it to SE?!

Do i get that right?

[Alhanelem]

I wanted to point out that I believe this is untrue, unless I am mistaken and my art teacher is in a whole hurt of trouble, a person may use copyrighted/trademarked property as an educational tool or for personal use as long as no profit or gains are to be made. Fanfiction, cosplay and similar art forms all fall under this category.

Actually, SE can still cease and desist people making fan art if they want to. They simply choose to allow it / ignore it. If you called up SE and asked for permission to make a model of one of their characters (or whatever else), they would say "no, we don't grant permissions to individuals." (Believe me, I've tried). However, because fan art is usually good publicity for them, they generally do not pursue action against anybody unless they are profiting off it.

However, you don't have to make money to violate a copyright. < this is very important. Copyright violations are not defined by money changing hands.

If you are not defending it, what are you doing?

I'm explaining the proper course of action to take. Pointing fingers on the forums is not that proper course.

Exactly.. and a good example. So we kind of agree about the copyrights, but you would go a different way to direct it to SE?!

Do i get that right?

Yes. specifically, to the person(s) responsible for the contest and enforcing its legalese.

[Punainen]

There is no copyright infringement. SE is allowed to use its own design, and the second design you speak of is a common and non-copyrighted design. Just because a very similar ring exists, doesn't make it copyrighted design. Plain band rings already exist...would it have been infringement to submit a plain band? No. The design needs to belong to one particular person/company before it can be considered infringement.

[Punainen]

I wanted to point out that I believe this is untrue, unless I am mistaken and my art teacher is in a whole hurt of trouble, a person may use copyrighted/trademarked property as an educational tool or for personal use as long as no profit or gains are to be made. Fanfiction, cosplay and similar art forms all fall under this category.

Actually, this isn't always true. Copyright law is not so straightforward. Here's a video that explains some of the ins and outs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKBsTUjd910

[Gentaro]

Not good, things like that shouldn't happen :/

[Anonymoose]

OH LAWD, HE'S RIGHT.





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I kid, I kid.