kano
-
Posts
679 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
5
Recent Profile Visitors
Single Status Update
-
Why do we see people selling fan art and models from games online? How and why do they not get ripped a new one by publishers? I mean there are some companies who just sit on franchises and do nothing with them; they tend to be the most litigious, while more active ones who have actually made good games in the last 15 years seem to ignore it? I guess sitting around, hoarding franchises and not developing games all day means you have more time to go after fans.
But still, I do feel that profiting off of someone else's work without their permission is wrong.
-
It's difficult/expensive to police, might not be competing with the actual product, and alienates fans who are giving free advertising to the works. It may be in a legal gray area if trademarks aren't used.
-
Using Nintendo as an example, they tend to go after emulators, unauthorized ports, and fan games. They aren't as likely to go after fan art. There was a recent DMCA request sent to SteamGridDB, but that was more like reworked box art, I assume used for emulator GUIs:
-
Well, there are even people who sell tshirt prints of the thief games for their own profit without legal pursue. I think doing fanart without profit is fine, but selling them for their own pocket to be printed on clothes and posters by using the fame of games other people / companies made is not right.
-