(sry for my bad english :P)

I dont know if this is the place for this kind of question :P

I have question about Copyright:

What's better, If i make a game where some categories (like presidents, movie directors, poet, writer, so on), where i nominate them with their name, and in the skill's info have name of their works.

e.g.:
1)
Character: Oscar Wilde
skill: "Awesome man" where he can summon or he can transform imshelf into "Dorian Gray"

or its better, just nominate an artist, but dont nominate the project/work

2)
character: George Lucas:
skill: "Knight"... where summon a man with a bright saber

or another type of usage:
in another type of game (like a normale RPG), where i use a normal character where i enter in a library and interact with 1 book, can i nominate author and works?

3)
e.g.:
(interact with book): and an info box say: "u found Harry Potter... of J.K. Rowling"

---

So, the questio is:
I'm infringe one or more copyright!?!

Because in 1st example i nominate both "author and creation"
in 2nd example... i just use the author and describe what skill do... but dont use any name (even if ALL know exactly what i mean when i summon a "knight with bright saber"..), while in the 3rd example i just read about an author and his works.

I'm not a lawyer, but I would try to stay away from referencing any particular works or creators that are not already in public domain. So, your first example might be OK because the author is dead and his works are in public domain, but the other two examples are probably not OK because they reference living people with active copyrights who have the ability (money+lawyers) to serve you a cease and desist notice.

You're in a dangerous area regardless of how you approach it. What you are building may be fine for an unreleased hobby game, but if you take it to publication you will want IP lawyers involved.

You are cutting across many more rights beyond copyrights. Using the title of books and movies can bring you into troubles with trademark law. Celebrities have rights to their names, faces, and other elements of their persona, called publicity rights and/or personality rights.

Every nation has different laws so that complicates things. You mention Harry Potter and JK Rowling and Harry Potter so even if you are following the UK's laws where she is from, you might be on the wrong side of the law for Warner Bros or Bloomsbury or Scholastic which are are US-based and have different laws.

It is possible to put together a game that uses facts and trivia knowledge about famous people, movies, books, and similar, but you will need a lawyer who is comfortable with that area of law. You'll probably want more than one lawyer, getting a law firm that has many different specialties and IP law around the world.

Your lawyers can help you reduce risk of lawsuits and other legal challenges. The nature of what you're trying to put together means there is no way to eliminate the risk.

Thanks a lot for the answer.

So, it's time to start thinking about new names and characters and stay away from known people xD

I only asked because in my country (Italy) I know I can "bypass" the copyright law if I make content for educational, satirical or discussion purposes and we sell it for free. But I don't know even if doing anything legal here might be a problem somewhere else.

So all solved, thank you very much ;)

Carota85 said:

I only asked because in my country (Italy) I know I can "bypass" the copyright law if I make content for educational, satirical or discussion purposes and we sell it for free.

Many countries have similar exemptions. Video games do not qualify. No matter how much you think your game is an exception, it is not.

Sounds more like a personality rights issue, and possibly a defamation issue, than a copyright issue.

Fortunately for most of us, the site is friendly and open, rather than anti-whatever. We generally look for ways to say “yes”, rather than ways to say no.

We have a place for people to ask questions about business and legal topics regarding games. Very often the answer is “you need to talk to a real lawyer about your specific details”, but there are enough industry veterans, business folks, and even a few real lawyers on the site who are fully qualified to answer about the general case.