@section31: This is a long post, but I strongly advise you to read it thoroughly before responding.
I've left this post open in the hopes that actual progess toward resolving the licensing issues would occur, but so far it is going nowhere. Section31, you say you've addressed every issue brought up about this submission, but you have not addressed a single one. What you have done is ignore the issues brought up and reaffirmed that nothing is wrong.
I have since discovered other, nearly identical, submissions by you that were marked with licensing issues by other moderators for nearly indentical reasons. This kinda seems like a pattern of denial, refusing to acutally address the issues and instead just plugging your ears and yelling "LA LA LA I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" I doubt that was the intent, but I need you to work a little harder on addressing the concerns in terms of the rules of this site and copyright law. Why? Because the rules of this site and copyright are the rules I'm required to follow when allowing assets to be hosted here.
You are free to seek change in how copyright works, but I recommend doing it elsewhere. You may not ignore current copyright law here. That being said, let's try one last time to address the specific issues with this submission.
If you cannot address these specific concerns, I'll have to lock this thread since no additional benefit can be gained here.
If you ignore these specific concerns or reduce your argument to useless banter like "I don't agree with how copyright currently works", I'll have to lock this thread; same reasons.
If you want to use these assets despite these specific concerns, that's fine... as long as you aren't sharing them here. However, if you decide to abuse this site's purpose and use this thread as a springboard for launching assets that are in violation of this site's policies, I'll have to disable those links and lock the thread.
If, after that, you continue to skirt the rules of the site out of spite, I'll have to ban you.
There are 3 issues that must be addressed, but let's do one at a time. If one can't be addressed, there's no point in moving forward from there. Let's start with the 2nd issue I raised earlier:
2. Because these assets are derivatives of other works, the license for your submission here must adhere to the terms of the other work in order to be valid. The terms that are problematic are not in your decision to share these "for whatever the heck you want". That's very genrerous of you, but it doesn't comply with the terms of the assets you've derived these from. Looseleaf says 'regardless of it being commercial or free, it is expressly forbidden to package and distribute just the resources in such collections as "resource packs" and so forth. These resources may only be distributed inside a game.' (Note this is a translation done by someone who actually speaks Japanese, not a google-translate robot)
Distributing this asset on OGA, even as derivatives, definitely qualifies as a collection or resource pack. This asset is not a game, and yet is being distributed in violation of that condition.
Some notes you should keep in mind when seeking a resolution to this concern:
Making no money on your own projects does not obviate the need to comply with looseleaf's license terms.
The fact these assets were heavily modified from the looseleaf asset does not erase the need to comply with looseleaf's license terms.
The inability to contact the looseleaf administrator for clarification does not negate the need to adhere to looseleaf's license terms.
The stupidity of current copyright law, or the concept of how copyright should work, has no bearing on this. We are dealing with copyright law as it is now, not how it should be in the future.
The likelyhood (or lack thereof) of someone getting sued or served with a Cease & Desist over this does not make it ok to ignore copyright terms. Even if looseleaf never enforced this copyright, the terms of his license have to be obeyed.
This is not about other people, what you said to them, or what they've said about you. Please stay on the topic of this specific concern regarding the licensing of this asset.
Let me know if you have any questions about any part of this. Please don't be rude. I'm trying to resolve this. If admins were just on a power trip, I'm sure it would have been a lot easier to just ban you a long time ago. Your willingness to share is great, and I want that attitude to flourish.
My marking this as having a licensing issue was not as punishment. I didn't enumerate the issues with this submission to attack you or your work. Your honesty about where the assets came from is commendable and you should continue to be forthright. Being less honest about it would not have prevented this from being flagged with licensing issues. It would only have delayed it and pissed people off in the process.
"...and have had to fight you guys every step of the way to keep things up."
I'm sorry if that has been your experience. I guess I'm not seeing that fight. Out of your 37 other submissions, only 2 even mentioned copyright, one of which agreed with you and the other you didn't respond to. Everything else is nothing but people complementing your work and saying they'll use it in a game.
You are free to take on the risk of copyright violations if you so choose (I don't recommend it) but when assets are posted here, others are taking on that risk without choosing to do so or even knowing about it.
We want you to share your work, but in this case, the work isn't yours to share. The asset you've created here is good work and would be very useful, but the parts used to make it are not allowed to be shared in this way. I even understand your desire to disregard copyright and share stuff anyway, but we cannot do that. It undermines the trust developers need when selecting assets for their game. I agree that copyright law needs to be reformed, but violating current copyright law is not the way to accomplish that.
I think the attitude about 'spending all this time working on this, but now you say I can't use it!? That's bullsh*t! If I had known I couldn't use it I would never have bothered with it at all!' should really illustrate exactly what we are trying to avoid. If someone came here, used this asset, only to find out after they spent a lot of time and effort incorporating them into a game that they have to rip them all back out again, they would be just as pissed as you are.
Game Character Hub is in violation of the law because they are using artwork derived from Enterbrain IP (the owner of all RPG Maker assets) Mack is also in violation of the law by distributing derivatives of Enterbrain IP. Like I said, we can't host it here even if other people have used it without getting in trouble (yet). They might not even know they're violating Enterbrain's copyright, but we do.
This wasn't an attack on you. Your songs are good. Your spaceships and planets are good. Your desire to share artwork and music is good. I urge you to continue sharing, just be sure everyone else is allowed to share it, too.
I'm afraid this asset is definitely NOT in the clear for several reasons:
MACK/looseleaf requires attribution. Saying where you got the original asset isn't attribution until you make it clear that anyone else using these assets must also attribute the original author in the way they've requested. You can ask that people attribute you as well, but at the very least the original author must be attributed. That would make the license closer to CC-BY, not CC0. However, changing the license and adding attribution instructions wouldn't fix it because...
The terms of the MACK/looseleaf license are nebulous, but it certainly isn't compatible with any license on OGA. It says the assets can be used in commercial projects but distributing them as a collection of assets is forbidden. Although you might have satisfied that requirement, by changing the license (also not really allowed) you've implied that anyone using the art from here can distribute these independently of a game project. However, even MACK/looseleaf's license may be invalid because...
Derivatives of RPGMaker artwork cannot be relicensed to any license on OGA. Even if they're modifications of modifications of modifications of a very old version of RPGMaker artwork. Even if MACK/looseleaf believe it's ok to use them. Even if other people have used them outside of RPGMaker and didn't get in trouble.
I have to mark this as having a licensing issue. I wish this asset could stay here. If anyone has better information on this, please speak up.
You licensed this OGA-BY. That means people can use this without asking you. Actually, all the licenses on OpenGameArt.org allow people to use this asset without contacting you.
I hope you still want to keep this asset here, but I thought you should know that saying "If you wonna use, you can ask me..." is not really enforceable.
The importance of the name change is not really about parody in this case (although that's part of it). It's more about substantial similarity. Due to the style of the art, no reasonable person would mistake this for an actual photograph of trump, but a character's visual similarity is not the only thing covered by IP law.
If someone submitted artwork called "Sonic the Hedgehog" describing a character that loves to go fast and collect golden rings, but the picture looked nothing like Sonic the Hedgehog, it would still be a licensing issue. Not because the artwork looks like a character protected by IP, but because the name and description describe a character that is protected.
A name change is probably not absolutely necessary, but "Donald Trump" describes a trademarked brand name, even if the portrait does not. When victorkunai changed the name to something that "a reasonable person" won't mistake for a trademark, he granted potential users of the asset some measure of surity against IP issues.
Haha! nice. ...and thanks.
Ok. Sorry you feel that way.
[thread locked]
@section31: This is a long post, but I strongly advise you to read it thoroughly before responding.
I've left this post open in the hopes that actual progess toward resolving the licensing issues would occur, but so far it is going nowhere. Section31, you say you've addressed every issue brought up about this submission, but you have not addressed a single one. What you have done is ignore the issues brought up and reaffirmed that nothing is wrong.
I have since discovered other, nearly identical, submissions by you that were marked with licensing issues by other moderators for nearly indentical reasons. This kinda seems like a pattern of denial, refusing to acutally address the issues and instead just plugging your ears and yelling "LA LA LA I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" I doubt that was the intent, but I need you to work a little harder on addressing the concerns in terms of the rules of this site and copyright law. Why? Because the rules of this site and copyright are the rules I'm required to follow when allowing assets to be hosted here.
You are free to seek change in how copyright works, but I recommend doing it elsewhere. You may not ignore current copyright law here. That being said, let's try one last time to address the specific issues with this submission.
There are 3 issues that must be addressed, but let's do one at a time. If one can't be addressed, there's no point in moving forward from there. Let's start with the 2nd issue I raised earlier:
Some notes you should keep in mind when seeking a resolution to this concern:
Let me know if you have any questions about any part of this. Please don't be rude. I'm trying to resolve this. If admins were just on a power trip, I'm sure it would have been a lot easier to just ban you a long time ago. Your willingness to share is great, and I want that attitude to flourish.
Stopping us from sharing this asset? Enterbrain for one. Enterbrain is stopping us. Their license legally compels us not to share it.
My marking this as having a licensing issue was not as punishment. I didn't enumerate the issues with this submission to attack you or your work. Your honesty about where the assets came from is commendable and you should continue to be forthright. Being less honest about it would not have prevented this from being flagged with licensing issues. It would only have delayed it and pissed people off in the process.
I'm sorry if that has been your experience. I guess I'm not seeing that fight. Out of your 37 other submissions, only 2 even mentioned copyright, one of which agreed with you and the other you didn't respond to. Everything else is nothing but people complementing your work and saying they'll use it in a game.
You are free to take on the risk of copyright violations if you so choose (I don't recommend it) but when assets are posted here, others are taking on that risk without choosing to do so or even knowing about it.
We want you to share your work, but in this case, the work isn't yours to share. The asset you've created here is good work and would be very useful, but the parts used to make it are not allowed to be shared in this way. I even understand your desire to disregard copyright and share stuff anyway, but we cannot do that. It undermines the trust developers need when selecting assets for their game. I agree that copyright law needs to be reformed, but violating current copyright law is not the way to accomplish that.
I think the attitude about 'spending all this time working on this, but now you say I can't use it!? That's bullsh*t! If I had known I couldn't use it I would never have bothered with it at all!' should really illustrate exactly what we are trying to avoid. If someone came here, used this asset, only to find out after they spent a lot of time and effort incorporating them into a game that they have to rip them all back out again, they would be just as pissed as you are.
Game Character Hub is in violation of the law because they are using artwork derived from Enterbrain IP (the owner of all RPG Maker assets) Mack is also in violation of the law by distributing derivatives of Enterbrain IP. Like I said, we can't host it here even if other people have used it without getting in trouble (yet). They might not even know they're violating Enterbrain's copyright, but we do.
This wasn't an attack on you. Your songs are good. Your spaceships and planets are good. Your desire to share artwork and music is good. I urge you to continue sharing, just be sure everyone else is allowed to share it, too.
I'm afraid this asset is definitely NOT in the clear for several reasons:
I have to mark this as having a licensing issue. I wish this asset could stay here. If anyone has better information on this, please speak up.
How did you make these?
I thought
good stuff.
You licensed this OGA-BY. That means people can use this without asking you. Actually, all the licenses on OpenGameArt.org allow people to use this asset without contacting you.I hope you still want to keep this asset here, but I thought you should know that saying "If you wonna use, you can ask me..." is not really enforceable.EDIT: thanks. good animation.
The importance of the name change is not really about parody in this case (although that's part of it). It's more about substantial similarity. Due to the style of the art, no reasonable person would mistake this for an actual photograph of trump, but a character's visual similarity is not the only thing covered by IP law.
If someone submitted artwork called "Sonic the Hedgehog" describing a character that loves to go fast and collect golden rings, but the picture looked nothing like Sonic the Hedgehog, it would still be a licensing issue. Not because the artwork looks like a character protected by IP, but because the name and description describe a character that is protected.
A name change is probably not absolutely necessary, but "Donald Trump" describes a trademarked brand name, even if the portrait does not. When victorkunai changed the name to something that "a reasonable person" won't mistake for a trademark, he granted potential users of the asset some measure of surity against IP issues.
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