separate ok but together not?

IANAL. Naming something "Cyborgs" with "cube shapes" does not violate copyright laws. Naming your game "The Borgs" and replicating the Borg ship entirely would be a violation.

The word Cyborg is a dictionary term, which is a shortened version of the two words cybernetic organism. A flying space cube...well, I suppose it comes down to how you texture it. If it looks entirely different than the Borg ship, disregarding the shape itself, I think you would be fine.

What you should be asking yourself is - why would I want to do it that way? Is there a specific reason why they would have cube ships? Why go looking for trouble. Come up with something original and avoid the potential problem in the first place.

yeah! make it a 3dimensional square!



sorry :)

Yeah, make them inhabitable cylinders as A.C. Clarke's RAMA ships. No movie has been made of that book yet.

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Original post by GiantPaul Having cube ships is also allowed since it's a generic shape.

Watch out! Cubes have edges!...

Anyway, you should consult a lawyer, but I guess as long as you don't call them Borg you should be fine. Maybe give them a less known name or invent something (just now "cybers" came to my mind)

Regarding the cube ships. There are so many space ship games/movies out there, similarities between ships are unavoidable, but just to be clear, ianal.

Whew! Thought this was gonna be a racially charged thread.

What if you gave the cube ships party hats?! Problem solved :P!

Why do you want cube space ships anyway?

As said above, you should consult a lawyer.

It's perfectly possible to infringe copyright by likeness alone. If you have a game about a red plumber named Tony who runs around jumping on 'turtlemen' trying to save 'princess antoinette' of the 'fungal kingdom' from the 'turtlemen king' and his army of ghosts and evil mushrooms, you can bet you'll see a takedown notice (particularly if you try to sell it). How far you have to go for someone to have grounds to sue you on likeness is a bit of a slippery slope, which is why you should consult a lawyer. This isn't the sort of thing you should bank on forum answers for.

Of course, the ideal would to not make such flagrant similarities in the first place.

How about sphere ships?
If we ever be in space (arggh my English), sphere would be an optimal shape, it has the smallest surface at a given volume, and stress distribution is more optional too.
OMG I'm so f. clever

Law isn't a science. We can speculate about how similar to Star Trek's Borg your theoretical game would have to come, but what it really comes down to is how well their lawyers can argue their case. Cyborgs with cubic space ships may or may not be acceptable, depending on numerous things, including presentation. Its best to just avoid it altogether and work on being original.

I'd suspect a cube would make a terrible spaceship design anyway. Given that a spaceship has to dump heat almost entirely via thermal radiation, you'd want a spaceship with a good surface-area to volume ratio, which a giant cube probably doesn't give you.

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Original post by szecs How about sphere ships? If we ever be in space (arggh my English), sphere would be an optimal shape, it has the smallest surface at a given volume, and stress distribution is more optional too. OMG I'm so f. clever

Yeah but then it would look like the Death Star. [grin]

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Original post by Programmer One Quote: Original post by szecs How about sphere ships? If we ever be in space (arggh my English), sphere would be an optimal shape, it has the smallest surface at a given volume, and stress distribution is more optional too. OMG I'm so f. clever Yeah but then it would look like the Death Star. [grin]

And the borg have dibs on the sphere shape as well:

Quote:

Original post by Programmer One Quote: Original post by szecs How about sphere ships? If we ever be in space (arggh my English), sphere would be an optimal shape, it has the smallest surface at a given volume, and stress distribution is more optional too. OMG I'm so f. clever Yeah but then it would look like the Death Star. [grin]

I think you can claim prior art here, though, since Mother Nature beat them all to the punch and designed planets as spheres long before the Death Star :-)

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Original post by GiantPaul separate ok but together not?

Am I the only one who thought this was a thread about relationship problems? :)

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Original post by DevFred Quote: Original post by GiantPaul separate ok but together not? Am I the only one who thought this was a thread about relationship problems? :)

I thought that as well. =) back on topic can you post a screenshot of the spaceship?