What settings are you planning?

[Jason Durall]

Originally Posted by Zane

I'm curious, how do either Disney or the ERB estate have any say as long as you limit the source material to that which is in the public domain? About half of the John Carter books are in the public domain in the US, as are several of the Tarzan books.

Zane

I'm not a lawyer, and could be very well misinformed about this, but this is my understanding of the situation:

While much of what ERB wrote is in the public domain, the characters themselves (John Carter, Tarzan, etc.) have been trademarked.

This has the unfortunate side effect that any use of them outside of simply printing the public domain manuscripts represents a threat to the trademark. Which, I understand, the ERB Estate and Disney will defend vigorously.

The situation extremely similar with REH's Conan and Frank Baum's Oz. Republishing the manuscripts in the PD is allowed, but further utilization of the IP is not really an option.

I gather that Adamant Entertainment had many issues with their Mars game, which had art that (to my eyes) looked extremely similar to ERB's Martians and caused them some legal issues before release.

[Simlasa]

Tonight I watched a bunch of episodes of the 'War Of The Worlds' tv series from the late 80s... and now I'm all jazzed about trying to game something along those lines...
It's pretty wild stuff, especially the second season... kind of a post-apocalyptic setting with alien invaders, who... though advanced in a lot of ways... still have a lot of limitations that keep them from being able to take over outright.

So far I've counted 3 different kinds of aliens (one being a huge, floating, tentacled thing with one big eye)... various weird 'constructs' and forms of possession, cloning, mind control... odd weapons... strange plagues... interplanetary/interdimensional gateways... grotesque 'biotechnology'... secret underground government labs... vehicular combat... punk rock bands... street riots... false messiahs... unnatural pregnancies...

If some zombies show up in the remaining episodes then it will be a pig-perfect setting for me and mine... otherwise I'll do it anyway and add the zombies myself.

[PK Games]

Originally Posted by Simlasa

Tonight I watched a bunch of episodes of the 'War Of The Worlds' tv series from the late 80s... and now I'm all jazzed about trying to game something along those lines...

oooh how about V?

[Rurik]

Originally Posted by Jason Durall

I'm not a lawyer, and could be very well misinformed about this, but this is my understanding of the situation:

While much of what ERB wrote is in the public domain, the characters themselves (John Carter, Tarzan, etc.) have been trademarked.

This has the unfortunate side effect that any use of them outside of simply printing the public domain manuscripts represents a threat to the trademark. Which, I understand, the ERB Estate and Disney will defend vigorously.

The situation extremely similar with REH's Conan and Frank Baum's Oz. Republishing the manuscripts in the PD is allowed, but further utilization of the IP is not really an option.

I gather that Adamant Entertainment had many issues with their Mars game, which had art that (to my eyes) looked extremely similar to ERB's Martians and caused them some legal issues before release.

That is all pretty much the way I understand it.

Trademarks do not expire as long as the trademarked character or image or whatever is still in use.

Disney had a big part in the having copyright terms extended here in the U.S. When say the copyright on say Steamboat Willy expires, you will be able to show that movie, which 'stars' Mickey Mouse, but you will NOT be able use Micky Mouse in any other way, as he is trademarked.

And Disney does vigorously defend it's trademarks. They will even throw their weight against smaller competitors who are 'in the right' - usually a smaller company cannot afford to defend itself against a juggernaut, even if they know they will win in the end (not that Disney is the only company to do this).

[Atgxtg]

Originally Posted by Rurik

That is all pretty much the way I understand it.

Trademarks do not expire as long as the trademarked character or image or whatever is still in use.

The key phase is "Stillin use". Once a company stops using a trademark is usually is fair game after 5 years or so.

Originally Posted by Rurik

Disney had a big part in the having copyright terms extended here in the U.S. When say the copyright on say Steamboat Willy expires, you will be able to show that movie, which 'stars' Mickey Mouse, but you will NOT be able use Micky Mouse in any other way, as he is trademarked.

Probably the biggest contributor to getting the terms extended was the orginal desl over Superman that Simon & Shuester made with DC. Basically they got shafted. Cases like that raised public attention to such issues.

Personally, I don't think copywrites should extend for much more than the life of the orginal creator. I don't agree with people getting rich off of the work someone else did decades ago, let along centuries. I also think it is bad for our technological development. Imagine where we'd be today if someone had copy written all the old greek manuscrips that were saved by monks through copying.

[drohem]

Originally Posted by PK Games

oooh how about V?

That would be cool. I really liked the show when it aired. The effects weren't that great, but with a little imagination, it was cool.

[PK Games]

The Original Mini-Series is still one of my all time favorite sci-fi events.

[Zane]

Originally Posted by Simlasa

Tonight I watched a bunch of episodes of the 'War Of The Worlds' tv series from the late 80s... and now I'm all jazzed about trying to game something along those lines...
It's pretty wild stuff, especially the second season... kind of a post-apocalyptic setting with alien invaders, who... though advanced in a lot of ways... still have a lot of limitations that keep them from being able to take over outright.

I remember watching that show in the late 80's. I was in the Navy and would watch the episodes my Dad taped for me while home on leave. I felt the first season was pretty lame, though it had an excellent tie-in to the movie as I recall. I was surprised it was renewed for a second season. The Second Season was great, I really liked it. I believe in one episode they explain how things got so bad, and it had nothing directly to do with the aliens as I recall.

Zane

[tal]

Originally Posted by Jason Durall

It's a little early to announce, but the next BRP project I'm working on should make you very happy.

That's an understatement!

[Nightshade]

[quote=Atgxtg;4213]The key phase is "Stillin use". Once a company stops using a trademark is usually is fair game after 5 years or so.

[quote]

That's why you see things where companies publish or otherwise make minor use of characters just to keep the trademark under control.

Personally, I don't think copywrites should extend for much more than the life of the orginal creator. I don't agree with people getting rich off of the work someone else did decades ago, let along centuries. I also think it is bad for our technological development. Imagine where we'd be today if someone had copy written all the old greek manuscrips that were saved by monks through copying.

Don't even get me started...