A brand new story

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A brand new story

Postby Happy tie » Thu, 16Oct20 09:26

Hi you all,

I first of all want to ask something really important:

I want to make a game with Twine or RAGS, I am not 100 percent sure but I am not the great 3D artist (nor do I have the patience). So I wanted to use pictures I find on the internet. My question is: is this legal? I think it has te be, because I find those pics on sites where you just can enter without payning anything. Or is this a dangerous zone? Because I certainly don't want to do anything illegal.

Someone who knows an answer?
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Re: A brand new story

Postby fleet » Thu, 16Oct20 16:48

Happy tie wrote:Hi you all,

I first of all want to ask something really important:

I want to make a game with Twine or RAGS, I am not 100 percent sure but I am not the great 3D artist (nor do I have the patience). So I wanted to use pictures I find on the internet. My question is: is this legal? I think it has te be, because I find those pics on sites where you just can enter without payning anything. Or is this a dangerous zone? Because I certainly don't want to do anything illegal.

Someone who knows an answer?


I am not a lawyer.

Short answer, generally speaking, it's not legal.

Long answer, Most of the pictures you see on the internet are copyrighted, so it's not legal unless the picture is licensed for public use or is in the public domain. You can PROBABLY get away with it if the game is free, but the owner(s) of any of the copyright(s) can issue take down notices to places where you upload your game. Chances of getting caught increase if you ask for donations or sell your game. In those cases you could be hit with a court action to pay the copyright holder for use of their images, and damages if they prove in court that your use damaged their reputation.
The more copyrighted pictures you use, the greater your chances of getting caught.

Recommendation: Make your game using DAZ images that you CURRENTLY can make (even if your skills are not the best). Just the act of making DAZ images will increase your skills, and you can replace the images with better ones. My first few games had really crappy images, but I kept working.

Alternate recommendation: hire an artist or work out a skill swap.

Very respectfully,
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Re: A brand new story

Postby TheBrain » Fri, 16Oct21 21:29

fleet wrote:I am not a lawyer.

Short answer, generally speaking, it's not legal.

It's funny how you give a definitive answer despite saying you're not a lawyer.

It's definitely not as clear cut as that it's always illegal, even if the photos are not explicitly licensed for public use. There's a legal grey area in fair use laws and derivative works, especially when it comes to so-called transformative use (re-using the original work in completely new ways). The boundaries are not very clear, so it's hard to say whether or not it's illegal until someone sues you and a court makes a decision on the legality. Google is your friend for finding out more about this stuff, but you probably won't find a clear cut answer.

There's some things to consider about the source material, of course. If the images are originally from a paysite, but made publicly available by some third party, your use is more likely to be illegal because your re-use may damage sales. If it's already available for free from the original publisher, for example as promotional material, then your re-use won't necessarily do any damage and thus be more likely to be "fair use". In either case, if you get these images from a third party, they are much more liable than you are.

Of course this all goes down the drain when you intend to make money off your game, either by sales or advertising..

But as an example, on TFGamesSite and the Hypnopics Collective there's a large amount of free games that use pictures found on the internet and I never heard of anyone getting into any problem because of that. Remember, we are just a small, obscure community, so the chance of anyone from those companies finding out is very small, while the sites where you're getting the images are much more public. This does not mean that it's strictly legal, but the chances of getting into trouble are incredibly small: if you don't do damage you're probably not worth suing (at worst you get a cease and desist warning). And even if they do, they have to prove that your use is outside any fair use laws. Bottom line, I personally wouldn't worry about it too much.
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Re: A brand new story

Postby muttdoggy » Fri, 16Oct21 23:42

Look up creative commons licenses. If you find pics with creative commons licenses, you simply distribute it with the same license. Some allow you to modify it, some allow you to use it commercially. There are quite a few adult pics that have creative commons licenses if you need it.
There are different levels of creative commons licenses. The kinds of licenses are in terms added to end of the license. The one you might be looking for is CC-BY.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/
EDITED... You can even find some sexy 3D pictures with Creative Commons. [img]smile/eek.gif[/img]
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Re: A brand new story

Postby Greyelf » Sat, 16Oct22 07:34

note: I am not giving legal advice, you should always get that from a local lawyer that deals with copyright and trade marks.

TheBrain wrote:There's a legal grey area in fair use laws and derivative works..... And even if they do, they have to prove that your use is outside any fair use laws

This largely depends on who's fair use laws you are dealing with, and if you are in the same legal region as that of the rights holder or not. Because the issue can become more complex if multiple legal regions are involved and if those region's have trade agreements that cover copyright / trademark enforcement. The onus of proving/disproving fair use is not always on the rights holder.

TheBrain wrote:... so the chance of anyone from those companies finding out is very small .... but the chances of getting into trouble are incredibly small...

The original poster asked if it was legal or not, and fleet's post mostly covered that subject. They did not ask what their chances of getting caught doing something illegal was.
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Re: A brand new story

Postby TheBrain » Sat, 16Oct22 15:17

Greyelf wrote:The original poster asked if it was legal or not, and fleet's post mostly covered that subject. They did not ask what their chances of getting caught doing something illegal was.

Fleet outright said it was illegal if unless it's licensed for public use, and it's definitely not as simple as that. Fair use can apply to images without explicit license from the copyright owner as well. The laws on this subject are not clear cut, and as you rightly pointed out it's more complicated if multiple regions are involved. So in a general sense, what the original poster wants to do may be legal, but it also may not be, and that question probably won't be resolved until a court makes a ruling. I would say it's quite relevant to know how likely or unlikely it is that this would be resolved in court, that's different from the "chances of getting caught doing something illegal", because we don't know if it's strictly illegal.

As others have pointed out, the only strictly legal way to do this is to stick to material explicitly licensed for this type of use...
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Re: A brand new story

Postby PinkVendeta » Sat, 16Oct22 21:46

TheBrain wrote:
Greyelf wrote:The original poster asked if it was legal or not, and fleet's post mostly covered that subject. They did not ask what their chances of getting caught doing something illegal was.

Fleet outright said it was illegal if unless it's licensed for public use, and it's definitely not as simple as that. Fair use can apply to images without explicit license from the copyright owner as well. The laws on this subject are not clear cut, and as you rightly pointed out it's more complicated if multiple regions are involved. So in a general sense, what the original poster wants to do may be legal, but it also may not be, and that question probably won't be resolved until a court makes a ruling. I would say it's quite relevant to know how likely or unlikely it is that this would be resolved in court, that's different from the "chances of getting caught doing something illegal", because we don't know if it's strictly illegal.

As others have pointed out, the only strictly legal way to do this is to stick to material explicitly licensed for this type of use...

Agreed fully, You can always mail the Artist of the 3D work and ask their permission to use their work and explain to them fully what type of game it will be used for, same applies to either a photographer who owns the rights to his or her photos of real life models.

Some people just dont ask and assume they will never be caught, but chopping up and butchering other peoples work and calling it your own with a few minor changes, clearly does not make it your own work :lol: though some here assume it does :lol:

When unsure mail the owner of the work and ask, if the game has say no underage, no rape, no bestiality, no incest, but has everything else a normal adult game has, most owners of work would be ok if asked and allow their content to be used.

You only face getting sued when You dont ask, You assume, You chop up, You butcher and You change a few tiny minor things and actually try to call it your own work and someone reports You to the actual owner or owners of said work, then its poverty road for You from a lawsuit :lol:
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