Guardian Dec 28, 2022 @ 7:07am
Copyright for Indie game
What are the basics of copyrighted things. If someone make an indie game. What are ok to use from other games. Music? Lore? Objects characters weapons? I see that companies copyright and ban small companiies for using their things. What about recreating Warhammer 40k lore?

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Originally posted by rawWwRrr:
The subject matter is a bit outside the limits of ths Help section for Steam. If you need absolute true answers, you're better off contacting a lawyer who specializes in copyright infringement. Legal advice should come from a professional, not random people on a video game discussion forum.
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rawWwRrr Dec 28, 2022 @ 7:11am 
The subject matter is a bit outside the limits of ths Help section for Steam. If you need absolute true answers, you're better off contacting a lawyer who specializes in copyright infringement. Legal advice should come from a professional, not random people on a video game discussion forum.
Satoru Dec 28, 2022 @ 11:02am 
As a basic rule

EVERYTHING is copyrighted. Because that is assigned to the owner at the time of creation. Thus you must assume EVERYTHING is copyrighted by default because that is functionally the default state.

As such you must always get permission from the copyright holder.

There are royalty fee things you can purchase, or even outright free assets you can use, but the authors make this clear for when you use them
Brian9824 Dec 28, 2022 @ 11:03am 
Originally posted by Alex:
What are the basics of copyrighted things. If someone make an indie game. What are ok to use from other games. Music? Lore? Objects characters weapons? I see that companies copyright and ban small companiies for using their things. What about recreating Warhammer 40k lore?

If you don't own the copyright assume you can use nothing for any financial or professional project as you don't own the rights. Even fanwork can get you sued based on the company.
Guardian Dec 29, 2022 @ 11:40am 
Are orks and elfs copyrighted by anyone? I hope GamesWorkshop do not sue people for that...Thats...
Tristin Dec 29, 2022 @ 11:58am 
If you're going to be a dev, there's lot of things you gotta do. You can't be asking every basic things. Because such basic questions of advice are already all answered(or at least it is self-explanatory) if you search on browser, and you shouldn't be wasting your time asking it. You want to ask the correct questions. Or at least ask to a proper audience. Go to Stackoverflow for example. Note, you'll be downvoted a ton if you ask such basic, already answered questions.
Last edited by Tristin; Dec 29, 2022 @ 12:03pm
Teksura Dec 30, 2022 @ 12:20am 
Originally posted by Alex:
Are orks and elfs copyrighted by anyone? I hope GamesWorkshop do not sue people for that...Thats...
GW has tried to sue over the term "Space Marine", but lost in court because the term was too generic. This is why they have rebranded all their Space Marines to be Adeptus Astartes.
Guardian Dec 30, 2022 @ 3:43am 
Originally posted by Teksura:
Originally posted by Alex:
Are orks and elfs copyrighted by anyone? I hope GamesWorkshop do not sue people for that...Thats...
GW has tried to sue over the term "Space Marine", but lost in court because the term was too generic. This is why they have rebranded all their Space Marines to be Adeptus Astartes.
Escapre from Tarkov banned modders. And GW does that. I see that I wont use anything even from old games like Unreal Tournament. I actually wanted to use Sounds from UT99 2004 cus I see that Dota 2 uses its main iconic phrase. My game is very much Unreal Tournament like.
Brian9824 Dec 30, 2022 @ 5:05am 
Originally posted by Alex:
Originally posted by Teksura:
GW has tried to sue over the term "Space Marine", but lost in court because the term was too generic. This is why they have rebranded all their Space Marines to be Adeptus Astartes.
Escapre from Tarkov banned modders. And GW does that. I see that I wont use anything even from old games like Unreal Tournament. I actually wanted to use Sounds from UT99 2004 cus I see that Dota 2 uses its main iconic phrase. My game is very much Unreal Tournament like.

Sounds are often sold. Games can use the same sounds if its a 3rd party sound they licensed. It doesn't mean you can just copy stuff from games. The only safe bet is to assume EVERYTHING is copyrighted unless it SPECIFICALLY states its free.
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Date Posted: Dec 28, 2022 @ 7:07am
Posts: 8