Topic: Descent Poster for You!

[VANGUARD]

you mean you can't give anyone that 100MB file size picture so we could look at it on our computers? or are we talking about profit here?
I don't quite understand. but I've been stupid lately

[-<WillyP>-]

It's a common misconception that copyright doesn't apply to something done without profit.  Copyright refers to copying, the copyright owner has a right to decide who can copy, and may choose to allow people to copy without profit, to copy freely, or not to copy at all.

Sorry, folks.  Interplay said that they are "not in a position to grant a license at this time and any reproduction and distribution would be a copyright infringement."  So I won't be able to give out a higher res version. 

From that quote, I would say even a low resolution copy... is still a copy.

[Matthew]

"Don't you dare distribute marketing material for our game!"

[karx-elf-erx]

Excuse me, but what sense does copyright application make here? It's an old poster only interesting for fans of the game. It would have been a good move by Interplay to allow to offer it for private, non-profit use. Instead they're punching their most faithful fans and followers in the face with this total "don't you dare offer my copyrighted stuff" bullcrap.

Makes it look like the people at Interplay are so hell bent to squeeze the last penny out of every of their products that they have lost their firm grip of reality and their understanding that their fans are their future. It's amazing how far greed can drive people.

Look at Valve and id Software to see how to handle a community.

[Scyphi]

Look at Valve and id Software to see how to handle a community.

Well, I can't argue that point. Definitely something Interplay is lacking in.

Unfortunately, whatever Interplay's intentions were for denying the distribution of the poster, it's not our call.

that they are "not in a position to grant a license at this time and any reproduction and distribution would be a copyright infringement."

Is it possible that this means that they don't have full rights to such advertising schemes? I mean, it wasn't just Interplay's game, other people and organizations have also participated in all three Descent games. We know that Interplay clearly has the rights to make something like D1Wii (otherwise I would think somebody would've stopped them by now) but maybe not the rights to re-advertise old posters?

Or maybe it's a financial thing, and they don't want to dedicate limited funds to messing around with that.

Or they don't want to bother any possible legal-ese about the matter.

Or they misunderstood Kyouryuu's intentions.

...And I'm just shooting in the dark now, aren't I?

Oh well, either way, Diedel's got a point, this isn't really something that's worth quibbling over copyrights about.

[Matthew]

I kind of thought the point of advertising material was to distribute as much of it as possible. Guess I was wrong.

[-<WillyP>-]

It is very odd that they wouldn't just say 'yeah, whatever'... unless they don't own the material, in which case they should have just said so, or maybe they aren't sure, and just covering they're butts.

[Matthew]

Only from interplay...

I'm fairly sure most companies make their artists give up all copyrights in exchange for either a profit share or a flat sum of money.

[-<WillyP>-]

The history of ownership of the Descent intellectual property is a long sordid tale.

[Kyouryuu]

I agree, it's probably just a generic "covering our butts" explanation, although it was hardly a form letter.  They did forward it off to legal to ask and that was the response they got back.

Anymore, companies are so afraid of getting sued or losing control of their IP that they've kind of let the lawyers run the show.  If you ask me, the real problem is that our legal system maintains the self-serving stance that if you don't defend your IP, you lose it.  That's why a lot of companies sue and get sued over stupid things.  Because it's not the one person operation they fear - it's the larger rival that uses that person's actions as a precedent for undermining their IP.  "See, you let that one guy distribute posters, so we're going to distribute them too.. but we're going to sell them at a profit at our store... and you can't stop us because you didn't stop him."

Is that a likely event?  Probably not.  But the lawyers are all about providing defense for the companies they serve, and naturally they want to dot all the i's and cross all the t's.

[Crash]

Why don't you just up it? ... and if they write and tell you to take it down or they'll sue you, then you can think about taking it down.

That's how we do it at X-Bomber the Game. It's worked pretty well so far.

[PyroJockey]

Did I miss this? The content in the link is missing. 

[-<WillyP>-]

Sorry, folks.  Interplay said that they are "not in a position to grant a license at this time and any reproduction and distribution would be a copyright infringement."  So I won't be able to give out a higher res version. 

I believe this might explain.

[PyroJockey]

I did see that, but I wasn't sure if it applied to the low res version as well.

Talk about a major "brain fart". Most software companies would love to have thier ads "go viral".

[-<WillyP>-]

I agree, what, are they planning to sell copies of the poster? I don't think that would bring revenues anywhere near the value of the free advertising.

Maybe they would change their minds if this thread took place on their forum.