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[BDR]

Even if he does live in the US, in taking "donations" for his work, he's pretty much negating any chance of a fair-use defense if id decides to sue him.

There's a guy named Brian who has similarly produced a fan work using copyrighted sprites from Final Fantasy 1; he takes donations (and happens to be very popular, so I find it difficult to believe Squeenix has no knowledge at all of his work); and he has not had issues.  I'd say the usage of material there is at least as extensive as in DoomRL.

[Almafeta]

There's a guy named Brian who has similarly produced a fan work using copyrighted sprites from Final Fantasy 1; he takes donations (and happens to be very popular, so I find it difficult to believe Squeenix has no knowledge at all of his work); and he has not had issues.  I'd say the usage of material there is at least as extensive as in DoomRL.

That falls under parody, which is an entirely different section of the law altogether.

[Santiago Zapata]

That falls under parody, which is an entirely different section of the law altogether.

That sounds interesting, I wonder if DoomRL could be considered a parody of Doom? :D

[MadCoder]

Yes, I looked at the site and I agree - it's comic humor, not reproduced artwork for a game.  But I can see why you thought that.


So the wall kicked my butt over and over.  I finally kicked back with several rocket rounds and my chaingun.  As far as a reward goes, I was expecting something...more?  Well, the reward was still worth it.


Now if I can just beat the Cathedral...........soon...I will soon...

[Gamera]

If he contacts them and they don't C&D him they will be giving him de facto permission to use their intellectual property and may lose a court case if they ever need to force him to stop. So as long as they know about it but don't have any correspondence they can pretend not to know about it and still retain the option to protect their IP. So it's best not to force the issue by contacting them directly.

[Almafeta]

If he contacts them and they don't C&D him they will be giving him de facto permission to use their intellectual property and may lose a court case if they ever need to force him to stop.

Again, false.  Just because someone in the company may have recieved correspondence does not prove the company management or legal team knew about it.  Kornel doesn't have that luxury; he knows Doom is © Id, as any look at this forum or the DoomRL website can tell you.

(IANAL, but I'm in a position to lose big if I misunderstand copyright law, which is why I make sure I understand it as best I can ^^; )

[Gamera]

Depends on who he contacts really.

[MadCoder]

Depends on who he contacts really.

Even more importantly, who responds, and how the contact is made.  A phone call...hard to prove what was said.  An email or letter, easier to prove DoomRL is ok for Kornel to make.


Once agin, however, I'm not a lawyer...

[TFoN]

Either way, nobody email id about DoomRL!  Don't want the party stopping already!

Now, this is the kind of thing you should never post, as it could easily seem hostile, either honestly or for purposes of a lawsuit. Either way, apparent secrecy's never taken well in these cases.

[MadCoder]

I think that the only thing that would need to be changed is some of the text and maybe the title/intro.  Overall its close but not quite doom.  And the game isn't really a secret anyway!  But I understand your point, and its well taken.

[Santiago Zapata]

I think Kornel's disclaimer on the manual states clearly he doesnt want to challenge the property of ID software. Anyway, in the case he had to change the theme of the game, wouldnt you play it anymore? (say, no longer DoomRL but HellRL, with BloodDemons instead of Cacodemons, etc)

[MadCoder]

I think Kornel's disclaimer on the manual states clearly he doesnt want to challenge the property of ID software. Anyway, in the case he had to change the theme of the game, wouldnt you play it anymore? (say, no longer DoomRL but HellRL, with BloodDemons instead of Cacodemons, etc)

Indeed, the mass murders would continue...all the way up to the CyberSpaceDemon!

[Almafeta]

I think Kornel's disclaimer on the manual states clearly he doesnt want to challenge the property of ID software. Anyway, in the case he had to change the theme of the game, wouldnt you play it anymore? (say, no longer DoomRL but HellRL, with BloodDemons instead of Cacodemons, etc)

I'd approve of that change, actually!  You can copyright specifics, but you can't copyright a general theme...  and he wouldn't have to play nice with canon.  ^_^

[TFoN]

And HellRL has a great ring to it :)

Maybe this could be a branch game, enabling many new additions both through legal rights and a lack of context restriction (i.e. "undoomish"'ll be much less of an argument).

[bfg9001]

Hm.... HellRL would be pretty cool; personally, something like HellGateRL would be balls to the wall, lol.