Fangaming legal?, The dispute is ON!

um...okay but thats not too important to the topic...i hope its not 50 years because then im scared for my brother

Ok, not 50, but it can be a lot. :/

I hope your not serious. i believe you more but im still gonna wait for blaze, sorry.

No, you can go to jail for a while for stuff like that.

I don't care who you believe, I'm not against Blaze in ANY way.

well i think hes too young to go to jail

anyone who is over ten can go to a type of jail.

yeah...juvy.

I've never actually heard of anyone physically going to court over a fangame; at least not yet. Nor a fansite, fanart, or fanfiction. Generally, realistic legal action is the final step - most of the time, a company will send you one or two "Cease and Desist" letters.

After that, they might go after your host. Tell the company that is hosting your website/files that you are infringing on copyright, and try to get it pulled that way. This will keep going until eventually they are left with no other action but to get a court order that says you must stop making your game and pay them for damages, if any.

And that, really, is the key. Damages. Like I said, these companies will only start doing this stuff if they feel you are a threat to their business - that is to say, if they believe you are hurting the sales of their products or are somehow taking money from them. In court, they would have to reasonably prove that you somehow inflicted damage upon them (which, for big companies like Nintendo, is very easy).

Disclaimers are good. I've been saying for years, even over at the Sonic Fangames HQ, that every fangame should have a disclaimer somewhere in their game - obviously you probably don't have to go quite as overboard as I did (I had a disclaimer for MarioWeen in the Installer, Manual, On the Website, Displayed when you first launch the game, and listed after the credits once you beat the game), but there should be one somewhere - the readme file/game manual is probably a good place.

The disclaimer, as I mentioned, helps to take the pressure off. You also have to remember that a lot of Cease and Desist letters might also be sent out because a company might think that, instead of making a fangame, you are making a pirated game in order to sell. Obviously, a disclaimer saying you aren't affiliated with Nintendo, and your game should not be sold (it's non-commercial) will help avoid misunderstandings like this.

Thank you so much Blaze. You really know your stuff!!

Good job 'life sentence' over here is only 25.


And yeah, fangames is pretty legal as long as you give credit to the original company that made the sprites/designs. Besides, I don't think there's that many companies that actually care enough to take action on 'normal' fangames anyway (And by normal, I mean fangames that don't make it further than the main site of MFGG, unlike games that get loads of publicity and hundreds of downloads).

It's more likely that big companies like Nintendo will be tracking down ROM sites rather than fangame sites anyway.

Unfortunately we'll always have those idiots that sell fangame CDs

For the love of god, your brother isn't going to go to jail. No one is. If the game industries suddenly say "omg fangaming illegal kay" then TD would take the site down and the forums would probably be less productive (or not exist). SO STOP BICKERING ABOUT IT!!!

ps.



You're DAMN ugly.

Hey Blaze, can I get that big-ass disclaimer you posted all over MarioWeen DX sos I can post it on Mario Soccer and Koopa Kombat when I get the chance?

that was unneeded

Yeah, I make sure that any fangames I create have a nice, ugly disclaimer at the beginning so that nobody assumes Nintendo had any hand in creating it (and also to let them know that the game is freeware, and if they paid any money for it, they've been screwed).

My take on the legalities: Use the parody clause. If you call your fangame a parody, you should be fine.

Now that was unnessesary.

Well it dosn't seem like anyone cares about fangames being illegal because G4 had an episode on fangames (including Mario Blue twilight DX).

That is Soverynotneeded

That's already been established at this point...