Competition (1) - The Type-In Trial Result

[Jackdaw]

If I remember when it comes to trademarks. In the U.K. you cannot trademark any name or individual English words. Only unique and made up logos such as Amstrad, or words in a unique colour or style.

But there is a caveat that big companies exploit. The food chain McDonald's will go after anyone who just uses the the name McDonald's, under "Using a registered trademark, or a confusingly similar mark, without permission for the same or similar goods or services is considered infringement". Even though the company using the name McDonald's has bugger all to do with the food industry.

Though Apple got a taste of it's own medicine when they released the iPhone in Mexico. The name was too similar sounding to a telecommunication service IFone, who sued Apple for infringement. The court in Mexico sided with IFone, who had registered the trademark in 2003, four years before Apple released the iPhone.

For Apple to sell the iPhone in Mexico, they have to pay 40% for any iPhone services to iFone in Mexico.

In the end legislation is created by people that haven't got a clue, or are easily swayed by bits of paper, or plastic, stuffed into brown paper envelopes.

[Jackdaw]

I Think the World is becoming a very crazy place!?

I worked that out when I was fifteen back in the 1980s. And it's the people in it that caused it by having a narrow views and self interest. Even as a naive fifteen year old, I could workout what was going to happen with privatisation and the political ideologies of the "Trickle down economy". Those that cannot compete get bought out by a more successful competitor. Until you end up with just a few that basically take massive loans while giving share holders big payouts, find loop wholes in the law to work as a cartel, and avoid paying taxes, and expect the tax payer to bail them out.

I even knew that some of my previous employers was going to go under before they did. After I left school. My first employer went under and, you could say that his political views and with his business reliant on the patrons of mining town kind of clashed (you need to be a resident of the U.K. and have some understanding of the politics of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s to figure why). The last employer went under because of bad decisions, which I could tell with the amount and types of jobs they were taking on. And when you are the only one on site that should have had at least four or more people working on it. You tend to get to hear of it, when they cannot contact the employers.

You can pick any point in recorded history where self interest has ended up causing a society or a civilisation to collapse. Possibly the best known and recorded is what led to the rise and fall of the Roman Republic.

[Steve Elliott]

But it does seem a bit heavy handed when you're talking about 40 year old games you're writing as a bit of fun! 

I say run the competition anyway, just don't tip off anybody here what you're writing, and all post at the closing date! Nobody is going to be asked to take anything down the nano second people post their entries lol. 

[Jackdaw]

But it does seem a bit heavy handed when you're talking about 40 year old games you're writing as a bit of fun!

I did read somewhere that the big companies tried to go after a number of clones under the copyright law. And if I remember they actually lost. Copyright only protects the expression of an idea, but not the idea it's self. Programming algorithms though come under patents if they have been submitted.

In the end. Someone somewhere will own that software. If an individual wrote a game type-in that was published in a magazine. And depending on the country, the author has the copyright for their entire life, plus their estate 70 years after their death. Copyright ownership can get a bit complicated depending who is involved and the type of medium that is copyrighted.

And the reason why they are heavy handed, is that they may decided to release that game in the future on another platform if they think that there is some money to be made from it. All you have to do is look at the games originally released by Ashby Computers and Graphics Ltd, founded by the Stamper Brothers, better known by the trade name of Ultimate Play the Game. US Gold bought a big stake and became the owners (and it showed with the poor quality of the games released by US Gold under the Ultimate label). The Ultimate Play the Game rights were bought by a company known as Rare Limited, which was again founded by the Stamper Brothers. And guess which company now owns Rare Limited and all the logos etc..... Microsoft, which released those games as a compilation on the XBox One.

[Dabzy]

It's why they rehash really old movies/cartoons as well, keep that IP going, some slide away from that...

"We'll be friends forever, won't we, Pooh?" asked Piglet. "Even longer," said Pooh. "Especially once we're in the public domain."

More so in the US like, where he is officially PD, here in the UK we have to wait longer.

Dabz

[Jackdaw]

It's why they rehash really old movies/cartoons as well, keep that IP going, some slide away from that...

A lot of the rehash shite is that for a studio to keep the licencing rights to use someones IP. They have to make a movie in a certain time period, else they lose the licencing rights. I think the best know for this is the 1994 film Fantastic Four.

"We'll be friends forever, won't we, Pooh?" asked Piglet. "Even longer," said Pooh. "Especially once we're in the public domain."

More so in the US like, where he is officially PD, here in the UK we have to wait longer.

Actually it's a bit more complicated. The original stories are PD in the U.S.A, and will be in the U.K. in the 2027. But the illustrations are a separate copyright and would be PD for another 22 years. And then there the changes that Disney made.

[Baggey]

Who the F**k really cares. If your doing something for a bit of fun research and your not making any money from it. What is the PROBLEM! 

Lets get some interesting comps happening! Consider it a Tribute to the original.

Alright i might of gained a MUG! 

Baggey

[Jackdaw]

Who the F**k really cares. If your doing something for a bit of fun research and your not making any money from it. What is the PROBLEM! 

Lets get some interesting comps happening! Consider it a Tribute to the original.

I am totally naive to what you guys are talking about.

All I can say is that you are right about being navie of why shouldn't do it. And calling it a tribute to the original with lots of disclaimers or whatever will not prevent legal issues.

If you want one good example of why you should stay away from other IP's. I'll just use the one company name.... 'Nintendo'. To my knowledge, there has never been a full game play video of any Nintendo game on YouTube, or if there was; it wasn't up for long. Oh and they issue a take down notices for any unauthorised use of any of their IP's. A couple of good examples of this is using their firmware ROMs for emulators. They also tried to get any emulators of their hardware include, but I believe the courts threw that out. And there's the remake of Metrodroid 2 AM2R. Nintendo eventually did release an updated version of that game.

And it's not just videos and ROMs where they issue take down notices. They also issue these for any originally scanned game guides for their IP's. They more than likely do this for other legal reasons, and not just because it uses any of their IP's.

The first lesson Nintendo learned was to protect their IP's by any means when Universal took them to court in the U.S.A. for the game Donkey Kong when it was released. You need to read the articles on the case to get the full picture.

There are quite a few YouTube videos that go into Nintendo and their over protectiveness of their IP's.

[Dabzy]

The thing is it is crap... Ultimately, they are dumping and chasing the type of people who, basically, setup the whole industry all them years ago.

If it wasnt for "bedroom" coders tinkering away, making little things, exploring micros etc showing that they are'nt just there for office work and can be fun, would the industry be the size it is, would people come through with the skills and knowledge that created all the classics, IP's that we know and love, and, heck, in some cases, they still sell.

As an example, Jordan Mechner who created Prince of Persia on the Apple II, he wrote Karateka while still a student, but he wasnt just coding anything, he was implementing techniques such as rotoscoping animation... He was a trail blazer.

Starting out all from his dorm bedroom!

And there is many more like this as well, and that is the sad part of it all.

Instead of threatening people with legal shit, give the buggers a job/apprenticeship because they obviously have some talent, especially if the remake is as good as whatever the original is.

Dabz

[RemiD]

nothing bad will happen, as long as you don't try to sell it.

fan games have existed for years...

you guys are paranoid...

[RemiD]

I'll just use the one company name.... 'Nintendo'. To my knowledge, there has never been a full game play video of any Nintendo game on YouTube, or if there was; it wasn't up for long.

after a quick search :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vT3AaQ77ges
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfUoDfnH9ew
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcCFAUBtNbc
🧐😏

[Jackdaw]

The thing is it is crap... Ultimately, they are dumping and chasing the type of people who, basically, setup the whole industry all them years ago.

Well companies like Nintendo and Sega didn't start out as bedroom coders. They saw an opportunity and branched out into the arcade video industry. Nintendo originally originally produced playing cards, while Sega produced slot machines and Jukeboxes.

Sonic the Hedgehog IP is a bit of a strange affair. Sega were just like Nintendo, until they were bought by Sammy. Sammy used the Sega logo an Sonic IP to make their business a little more palatable with them being the producers of Pachinko machines. Now that Sonic is starting to be a bit more profitable, you should expect that Sega Sammy Holding will be a bit more stringent of that IP, especially after a legal battles with Ken Penders over the comic of Sonic the Hedgehog.

You can thank Accolade and Sega's legal battle to stop Accolade from producing their own compatible titles for the Sega Genesis. This opened up the game development to third parties. This had the unexpected side effect of partially protecting the emulation scene from the likes of Nintendo. Nintendo would rather not have to go to court again and lose, and end up giving more legal precedent to emulators.

[RemiD]

anyway i don't find it interesting to make only a 'remake' version, i find it more interesting to make an 'inspired from' version, a 'side story' version, a 'parody' version.

[Steve Elliott]

It's so frustrating. BlitzMax and before that something like STOS for the Atari ST came with code and games that showed off it's capabilities. And they did that with versions of classic games like Arkanoid/Breakout.

If a computer language was introduced in the same way that STOS, GFA BASIC, Fast BASIC and others were today, how would they actually show off the game based features? It's not like code for Cyberpunk 2077. Just simple games to demonstrate sprites and such.

[Jackdaw]

I'll just use the one company name.... 'Nintendo'. To my knowledge, there has never been a full game play video of any Nintendo game on YouTube, or if there was; it wasn't up for long.

after a quick search :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vT3AaQ77ges
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfUoDfnH9ew
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcCFAUBtNbc
🧐😏

Well I did a bit of checking. It looks like Nintendo went a bit soft after November 2018. They will still issue a take down notice if you don't follow their guide lines. Before that they would either issue take down notices, or outright claim any revenue made, or through their Nintendo Creator Program where they would take a cut out of any revenue made.