Unreal legalities

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EvilGrins
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Unreal legalities

Post by EvilGrins »

I've only recently been getting into UT2k4 and, me being me, I've been looking for models to play with. Not sure I'm up to skinning it just yet, I've heard it's monumentally difficult. A lot of the time I let the bots play the maps while I watch them for tips on unfamiliar gametypes...or just bored.

Top of the models I've been looking for are ones imported from other Unreal games. Yeah, my Skaarj obsession is ongoing. If I could find OldUnreal Skaarj Troopers to either play as or put on bots, that'd be great. I can skin those easy! However, while I've found imported Skaarj models from other versions of UT, not so much from the original Unreal.

However, I did find Skaarj imported from U2. There's a wee flaw in the files though. 8 Skaarj models but only 3 of them have red team colors; they all have blue.

I've been playing a lot of Skaarj on Skaarj warfare. UT2k4 Skaarj vs. U2 Skaarj. They weren't easy to find even after I learned of them. They were made by some guy name of EvilEngine and his website is gone so I had to look all over the place to find somebody that was still hosting the files...

...but I digree.

The important part of this post:
Something that came up in regards to my searches, not just about Skaarj from other version but for numerous models of all types, was the possibility of being sued. Apparently there's a number of people posting about copyright infringement, that making skins or models of Star Wars, Superhero, or even Skaarj for UT2k4 would be illegal.

Now I've been collecting models and skins for ages, for various versions of the game, and I've never heard about this before. Even if it were true about some of those, importing Skaarj models from any other version of the Unreal series into UT2k4 shouldn't be illegal because they're all from the same company.

Am I right or wrong about this?
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medor wrote:Replace Skaarj with EvilGrins :mrgreen:
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KingJosh
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Re: Unreal legalities

Post by KingJosh »

im assuming big multi million dollar companies like epic games have better things to do with their time and money than actually waste thousands of dollars in legal court fees and waste hours of their time over something so small as taking 1 old unreal character and putting it in another old unreal game...........

hopefully they are nicer than that, and hopefully they make sure their time is spent on productive things like working on polishing gears of war 3.......

i hope im right :?: :???: :noidea
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Re: Unreal legalities

Post by FraGnBraG »

okay I will tell you this. A while ago, actually in 2003-2004 period iirc, someone (a communitty guy) asked epic's VP Mark Rein whether or not was okay to use/import/share the assets from the different epic titles - for example use a mesh from 2k4 in ut1, or textures from ut1 in ut2k4 etc. He said it was okay as long it's between epic titles and you bought the games.
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Re: Unreal legalities

Post by papercoffee »

case closed ...

I never heard from this, to import stuff from one "epic" game to another would be illegal.
There are many mapper using meshes from 2k4 in ut99 ... ;)
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Re: Unreal legalities

Post by Feralidragon »

Like Frag said and well, IT IS ALLOWED (it's written even in their rules in the usage of their resources) to use resources between Epic titles (not UEngine titles, let's not mix them up).

So in the end, you can safelly use Unreal, UT1, UT2k3, UT2k4 and UT3 resources between those same titles. U2 is an exception because Unreal 2 is not from Epic, although it uses the Unreal Engine and follows the Unreal story (somewhat).
However, the company which made Unreal 2 closed a long time ago, so I am not seeing any legality issues being brought from there anytime soon.

Now, you CANNOT use resources from titles like: Harry Potter for example, which use UEngine, but the game is not from Epic, so you're not allowed to use their very nice medieval textures for example.

About making models resembling characters from other games or stories or movies or whatever, you're ABSOLUTELLY FREE to do them without any legality issues, AS LONG as you credit the original creators of said character, for example: AAA model release! Original character credits go to <put original AAA creator here>
Well, at least in art this is legal this way, not very sure about games, but I strongly believe the same thing applies, as long you do not sell it in any way or form.

For instance, I'm sure you already saw Homer Simpson in a few UT servers, and I don't see FOX raising any legality issues (actually one guy made a really good portrait of The Simpsons and got actually hired by a company, and it's still one of the most viewed portraits ever in deviantart for example).
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Re: Unreal legalities

Post by Hook »

I am glad this was brought up.
That clarifies quit a bit for our UT "technicians" LOL
Good Posting! :tu:
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Re: Unreal legalities

Post by Hermskii »

Agreed Hook. Hey Feralidragon, would you happen to have a link to that famous portrait of the Simpsons? I also did not know UT2 was made by someone else or that they had gone out of business. Good post.
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Re: Unreal legalities

Post by EvilGrins »

Dragon, are you sure UT1, UT2k3, UT2k4, UT3, & UT2 aren't all the same company? I mean, I've got that Unreal Anthology disc set and it includes UT1, UT99, UT2k4, & UT2 and it doesn't seem to me that'd be allowed if they didn't all share a company in common.

:?
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Re: Unreal legalities

Post by UT Sniper (SJA94) »

i think all r from epic games but published by diiferent people... maybe wrong tho.
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Re: Unreal legalities

Post by Creavion »

EvilGrins wrote:Dragon, are you sure UT1, UT2k3, UT2k4, UT3, & UT2 aren't all the same company? I mean, I've got that Unreal Anthology disc set and it includes UT1, UT99, UT2k4, & UT2 and it doesn't seem to me that'd be allowed if they didn't all share a company in common.

:?
Eh what, you name UT2 in combination of UT2k3/2k4?. UT2k4 = UT2 (UT2k3 is just a "demo"). Of course those games are by the same people. However Digital Extremes did not effect the development of UT3 in any way anymore. Ferali is well aware about this, so I think you misunderstood something.
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Re: Unreal legalities

Post by Hook »

Feralidragon said U2 - not UT2. :wink:
U2 or Unreal 2, is by another company.
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Re: Unreal legalities

Post by papercoffee »

Sorry Grins but there is no UT2 ...it is unreal2 ...like unreal1 more a single player game.


Damn ...I am too slow ...you friggin ninjas.
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Re: Unreal legalities

Post by Feralidragon »

@EvilGrins: Like some said above, I was refering to Unreal 2 and not the UT2 series, and Unreal 2 was developed by another team: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unreal_II:_The_Awakening
As you can confirm, the firm which made it is out of business, however copyrights and same rules apply, but it's quite safe to assume no one will actually enforce them anymore.
As for the other non-Epic UEngine titles, NEVER use their resources ever, since many of those companies are still active.

@Hermskii:
<offtopic>
http://spacecoyote.deviantart.com/art/T ... u-46036660
You write "simpsons deviantart" on google for "Images" and it's the first result as well. You should check the rest of his work, that guy is just awsome at it, and from what I heard about 1-2 years ago he got hired because of that one and another he made regarding Futurama.
He basically made his own version of a Simpsons original:
http://www.otadesho.com/simpsons-anime-d/
</offtopic>
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Re: Unreal legalities

Post by UT Sniper (SJA94) »

offtopic(sorry)
god dam thoes pic r good, they look better then the normal shows.
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Re: Unreal legalities

Post by EvilGrins »

Yeah, my bad. I didn't mean UT2, I mean U2. Maybe a bit twisted in my head with the band but in this context I'm referring to Unreal 2.

Whoops.
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