The weekly newsletter for Fed2 by ibgames

EARTHDATE: February 24, 2008

Official News page 3


FROM THE POSTBAG: COPYRIGHT PART 2

by Hazed

Another question about planets and copyright landed on my desk recently. This time, it asked about using copyrighted material on a planet. "Can I base my planet on my favorite series of books?" a player wanted to know.

The answer is a qualified yes - but there are limits. Yes, you can make your planet an homage to your favorite book, TV show or film, but you cannot use chunks of text or dialogue that were written by somebody else. You can mention characters from the source material, using their names if you like, but they shouldn't be direct copies. You can use planet names that are taken from someone else's work, but again, they shouldn't just rip off the source material.

To a certain extent, any judgements I make about whether your homage is too close and has become plagiarism is going to be a pragmatic one. I am going to be much more concerned if your planet is based on a major franchise such as Star Wars or Star Trek, than if the ideas come from an obscure science fiction book from the 1950s that nobody has ever heard of! Major media companies are litigious and they guard their property jealously, and I certainly don't want Fed2 to be the target of a copyright-infringement lawsuit.

If you not sure whether what you want to do is allowed or not, then ask by emailing feedback@ibgames.com. However, think carefully before you embark on designing a planet based on somebody else's work - wouldn't it be better to use your own creativity to come up with some original ideas?


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