Copyright question
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Copyright question
Okay, I'm serious that this is the first time I've even cared about the legalty of NESdev, so, anyways. I may sound retarded. I was wondering if it was legal to get a homebrew NES game copyrighted. Is it? I'm serious that I know like nothing aobut legalty of the NES, so I probably do sound retarded.
Copyright is automatic. So just put your copyright notice in there, and there ya go. If you think there's a chance someone will rip your stuff off, you could get a registered copyright so it's official legally.
Costs something like $30, and I think you have to send in some printouts of the source code (up to a certain amount of pages).
http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ61.html
Costs something like $30, and I think you have to send in some printouts of the source code (up to a certain amount of pages).
http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ61.html
Copyright Office Circular 61 should introduce you to the issues surrounding registering the U.S. copyright in your computer program. Here are some suggestions to run by an attorney or a non-attorney document preparer:
Amount of identifying matter in Form TX
Assembly language source code tends to be more narrow than (say) C source, and you may want to defend your registration against allegations that you padded the identifying portions with blank space to make it fill more pages. For the avoidance of doubt, consider pasting the source code into a two-column format using OpenOffice.org or the like. And don't forget to include a copy of the user manual as part of your deposit.
"First" and "last" in Form TX
If your program is longer than 50 pages, you can submit the first 25 and last 25 pages of your program. Trouble is that computer programs in the structured paradigm rarely have a distinct "beginning" or "end"; they're structured as a call graph. A call graph is a directed graph, with nodes representing subroutines and edges representing JSRs. Luckily, a program without a lot of complicated recursion will result in a largely acyclic graph, and one common operation you can do on a directed acyclic graph is a topological sort. Perform this on subroutines based on where they appear in the call graph, you end up with high-level code at one end and low-level code at the other. So you'll probably want to put the init code, main loop, and similarly high-level code as the "first" 25 pages, and your more low-level code (e.g. map decoding and blitting) into the "last" 25 pages.
Which form?
The Copyright Office form for most computer programs is Form TX. But if pictorial or graphic authorship dominates the work, as is usually the case in video games, you want Form PA. If you do file form PA, read over Copyright Office Circular 55 and Copyright Office Circular 45 to see what's involved in a PA filing.
The statement of authorship for a video game is usually "Printed text and artwork, text of computer program, and audiovisual work". You'll probably have to include at least the following in your submission to the Copyright Office:
Amount of identifying matter in Form TX
Assembly language source code tends to be more narrow than (say) C source, and you may want to defend your registration against allegations that you padded the identifying portions with blank space to make it fill more pages. For the avoidance of doubt, consider pasting the source code into a two-column format using OpenOffice.org or the like. And don't forget to include a copy of the user manual as part of your deposit.
"First" and "last" in Form TX
If your program is longer than 50 pages, you can submit the first 25 and last 25 pages of your program. Trouble is that computer programs in the structured paradigm rarely have a distinct "beginning" or "end"; they're structured as a call graph. A call graph is a directed graph, with nodes representing subroutines and edges representing JSRs. Luckily, a program without a lot of complicated recursion will result in a largely acyclic graph, and one common operation you can do on a directed acyclic graph is a topological sort. Perform this on subroutines based on where they appear in the call graph, you end up with high-level code at one end and low-level code at the other. So you'll probably want to put the init code, main loop, and similarly high-level code as the "first" 25 pages, and your more low-level code (e.g. map decoding and blitting) into the "last" 25 pages.
Which form?
The Copyright Office form for most computer programs is Form TX. But if pictorial or graphic authorship dominates the work, as is usually the case in video games, you want Form PA. If you do file form PA, read over Copyright Office Circular 55 and Copyright Office Circular 45 to see what's involved in a PA filing.
The statement of authorship for a video game is usually "Printed text and artwork, text of computer program, and audiovisual work". You'll probably have to include at least the following in your submission to the Copyright Office:
- the printed box,
- the user manual,
- the cartridge or CD-ROM containing object code,
- a DVD containing a video walkthrough of your game,
- a printed text description of the walkthrough, and
- printed identifying materials for the program, as for Form TX above.
For one thing, the NES patents are expired. For another, Nintendo never won a case against any unlicensed NES publisher except Tengen, and that was only because Tengen had defrauded the Copyright Office. For another, Sega v. Accolade. For another, Lexmark v. Static Control.Celius wrote:So it is actually legal to get a copyright on a homebrew NES game? Nintendo won't get all pissy about there being a copyrighted unliscensed NES game?
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Okay that's cool, thanks. But what if you ported a game onto the NES? Like if those Final Fantasy X NES developers people actually made the game on the NES, and put it on a cart, they couldn't copyright it could they? But what if they like called the game "Fun and stuff" and did the graphics themselves, could they copyright it if they hid the fact that it was a remake well enough, while the fans playing it would know?
See here:
http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ14.html
No, they couldn't copyright it. Square would have to copyright it, or license it to them.
As for how much stuff needs to change for it to be considered something new, I have no idea.
http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ14.html
No, they couldn't copyright it. Square would have to copyright it, or license it to them.
As for how much stuff needs to change for it to be considered something new, I have no idea.
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Not even if they changed the name and stuff? How would the people be able to say "that 16x16 set of pixels arranged that way looks like tidus from FFX, so you can't copyright that"? Or "This music is very similair to the music from Final Fantasy X, but with bloops and bleeps, so you can't copyright that"? How would they be able to prove all of that?Memblers wrote: No, they couldn't copyright it. Square would have to copyright it, or license it to them..
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I suppose in the end, it doesn't really matter. I mean, if you're quiet enough, and don't really go PUBLIC with unliscensed/ported NES material, you could survive.
P.S - Do you think those FFX developers would be sewed by square if they had a ROM of it? Not selling it or anything, just for public free use?
P.S - Do you think those FFX developers would be sewed by square if they had a ROM of it? Not selling it or anything, just for public free use?
If they're outside the US, I have no idea. In the US it's probably possible somehow, but it'd more likely be a threat of a lawsuit than an actual one (which would be enough, I imagine), if anything. I'm not a lawyer though obviously, heheh.Celius wrote: P.S - Do you think those FFX developers would be sewed by square if they had a ROM of it? Not selling it or anything, just for public free use?
1 - There is no ROM, because it is not a NES game.
2 - Square actually would proably less agressive than Nintendo is, they are more undersanding, I think. They won't loose money because of anyone remaking FFX or FFVII on the NES, because those games sells millions of copies arround the world, and the ports are way too different to make people downloading instead of buying (unlike playing a game under an emulator that is pretty much the same as buying it).
3 - Don't compare your FFVII project with their FFX project. Their just suck.
4- It's now up to you to organize the legal part of your project.
Copright something that breaks another copyright is really crazy.
2 - Square actually would proably less agressive than Nintendo is, they are more undersanding, I think. They won't loose money because of anyone remaking FFX or FFVII on the NES, because those games sells millions of copies arround the world, and the ports are way too different to make people downloading instead of buying (unlike playing a game under an emulator that is pretty much the same as buying it).
3 - Don't compare your FFVII project with their FFX project. Their just suck.
4- It's now up to you to organize the legal part of your project.
Copright something that breaks another copyright is really crazy.
Useless, lumbering half-wits don't scare us.
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I'll take that as a compliment, thank you . But yeah, for the ininitiated, I'm working on a NES port of FFVII, and I was wondering if I would be sewed by Square or Nintendo for doing it. And Bregalad is helping me ( ). He is doing sound (Hurray for Bregalad.) . But I want people to play this, but I don't want to get into trouble. And I was also just wondering about NES copyrights in general. Do you think I'd get in trouble for this? If I just had it as a downloadable ROM?Bregalad wrote: 3 - Don't compare your FFVII project with their FFX project. Their just suck.
I don't know much. I know about people that had the project to release a 3D PC version of Chrono Trigger, and their project was shut down by Square Enix, but I don't think they got sued. They just got an advertisment, and they stopped. I don't know the exact details. Try to google "Chrono Trigger resurection" for more details.
The 3 possible ennemies are Nintendo, Square (now Square Enix) and Sony.
Nintendo just hates people using emulators and ROMs, but scince your ROM would be public domain Nintendo couldn't do anything.
Square and Sony aren't as hard than Nintendo and would be less crual about copirights, maket, etc...
However, I cannot see in the future if a such project is a risk or not. If you're too much afraid, switch to another project. Personally, I think if we're quiet it is no problem, but we have to be quiet...
The 3 possible ennemies are Nintendo, Square (now Square Enix) and Sony.
Nintendo just hates people using emulators and ROMs, but scince your ROM would be public domain Nintendo couldn't do anything.
Square and Sony aren't as hard than Nintendo and would be less crual about copirights, maket, etc...
However, I cannot see in the future if a such project is a risk or not. If you're too much afraid, switch to another project. Personally, I think if we're quiet it is no problem, but we have to be quiet...
Useless, lumbering half-wits don't scare us.