IANAL but I think making a T-Shirt with your hero is ok under the acceptable usage clause of the EULA as long as you are not making money off of it (see the second and last paragraph in link). So making the t-shirt is OK, but selling it to someone is not.
My 2 Inf.
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IANAL but I think making a T-Shirt with your hero is ok under the acceptable usage clause of the EULA as long as you are not making money off of it (see the second and last paragraph in link). So making the t-shirt is OK, but selling it to someone is not.
My 2 Inf.
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I read the EULA the same way.
Generally speaking, if you made the character using the CoX character creation system, NCSoft owns the rights to that character, but fair use means that you are allowed to use the likeness in a "fan art" capacity, as long as you're not profiting.
Yeah, so far Zazzle does not agree. I designed a mug and a shirt with my character on it and they cancelled it.
That's odd, did they specify why they cancelled your order (i.e., content vs. copyright)? Looking at their (Zazzle's) user agreement it looks like you comply with paragraph 3c)"lawful right to reproduce". Maybe it's the "and distribute" part of that sentence?
They believe that the content infringes on COH copyrights (since I made the mistake of putting the fact that my char was level 50 on COH). If I didn't they probably wouldn't have thought twice.
I'm hoping they will realize there is no infringement since I sent them the EULA and the specific excerpts, BUT, if they do not, I write for a couple of tech websites (and one of my articles was frontpaged on both Digg and Fark this weekend), so you can bet I will write about it.
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They believe that the content infringes on COH copyrights (since I made the mistake of putting the fact that my char was level 50 on COH). If I didn't they probably wouldn't have thought twice.
I'm hoping they will realize there is no infringement since I sent them the EULA and the specific excerpts, BUT, if they do not, I write for a couple of tech websites (and one of my articles was frontpaged on both Digg and Fark this weekend), so you can bet I will write about it.
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Well, technically there is an infringement. It's just that NCSoft will overlook for things like fan sites. But the t-shirt site doesn't know if you're going to sell them or not, so they're choosing to err on the side of caution.
Also, I'm not sure if you're trying to get a shirt made of fan art of your character or a screenshot. If it's a screenshot, that's clear infringement.
Unfortunately, I don't think you're going to win this one. The characters you make in CoX are not yours to use.
I'm not sure why you say there. There's another thread over in general discussion, and based on the EULA, 6c:
http://www.plaync.com/help/eula_coh.html
"NC Interactive and its related Game Content Providers grant to Members the right to use the Game Content for noncommercial, personal purposes, including in connection with creating noncommercial fan fiction or fan web sites regarding the same."
Based on that I could even put Statesman on a T-Shirt.
And Zazzle should know I'm not trying to make $$$. People at Zazzle who sell their stuff publish their designs as PUBLIC. Mine are all Private.
Yeah, but Zazzle will be making money from it.
That's not the point of the paragraph, and I certainly hope you can understand that.
There have always been discussion about this particular topic, and it seems to geenrally boil down to the character is yours, the parts you use to make him or her are Cryptic's.
From the EULA
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To the extent that NC Interactive cannot claim exclusive rights in Member Content by operation of law, you hereby grant (or you warrant that the owner of such Member Content has expressly granted) to NC Interactive and its related Game Content Providers a non-exclusive, universal, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, sublicenseable right to exercise all rights of any kind or nature associated with such Member Content, and all ancillary and subsidiary rights thereto, in any languages and media now known or not currently known.
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Basically, they can use your characters anyway they see fit, but the idea of who they are is still yours.
I PMed CuppaJo--let's see if she responds.
Back after 18 months away!
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IANAL but I think making a T-Shirt with your hero is ok under the acceptable usage clause of the EULA as long as you are not making money off of it (see the second and last paragraph in link). So making the t-shirt is OK, but selling it to someone is not.
My 2 Inf.
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QFT.
Zazzle has their own lawers and issues - they see CoH content as ours and thus won't let you put character stuff up on it because then they would be profiting from our copyright - which is not allowed.
OMG!!
Cuppa in this Forum?!?!?
It must have got cold down there.
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IANAL but I think making a T-Shirt with your hero is ok under the acceptable usage clause of the EULA as long as you are not making money off of it (see the second and last paragraph in link). So making the t-shirt is OK, but selling it to someone is not.
My 2 Inf.
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QFT.
Zazzle has their own lawers and issues - they see CoH content as ours and thus won't let you put character stuff up on it because then they would be profiting from our copyright - which is not allowed.
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But now, a twist on it. What about if I don't have, like, a t-shirt press myself, and so commission a single-item run from someplace like CafePress or something?
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But now, a twist on it. What about if I don't have, like, a t-shirt press myself, and so commission a single-item run from someplace like CafePress or something?
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Won't work. CafePress makes a profit on every item they sell, even if you do not.
Summary: CP sells a shirt for, say, $12 base price. If you sell it for $12 that means you make no profit. Good! But CafePress DOES make a profit; they set the base price up so that they do and anything beyond that is for you alone.
So, it's not legal, since of the two parties involved, CP does profit. CP has a policy against using copyrighted elements in your designs for this reason.
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Another twist. I'm a novelist. I'm a writer. I write novels for a living.
What if I want to write a novel of my character, or are in the middle of writing a novel and decide to port a char into CoH/V for my playtime pleasure?
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Another twist. I'm a novelist. I'm a writer. I write novels for a living.
What if I want to write a novel of my character, or are in the middle of writing a novel and decide to remake a char in CoH/V?
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Don't do it.
Basically, Cryptic/NCsoft owns all characters/names/images that appear in CoH/CoV.
If you were a special case (say you were Warren Ellis, and you wanted to make Spider Jerusalem in the game, and you contacted Cryptic, and they gave you the nod), it might work out (and there would probably be lawyers or at least some serious paperwork involved). But those instances are nebulous and so few and far between, it's not worth risking.
Keep your CoH/CoV characters seperate from those you plan to sell, and you should be fine.
cheers,
Arctic Sun
In a case like that, you will probably need to get a lawyer to make a contract so you can actually use your own character in your book. This is the reason I don't go for any contests putting my characters in the comics or immortalizing them in a CoH fashion.
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Another twist. I'm a novelist. I'm a writer. I write novels for a living.
What if I want to write a novel of my character, or are in the middle of writing a novel and decide to remake a char in CoH/V?
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Don't do it.
Basically, Cryptic/NCsoft owns all characters/names/images that appear in CoH/CoV.
If you were a special case (say you were Warren Ellis, and you wanted to make Spider Jerusalem in the game, and you contacted Cryptic, and they gave you the nod), it might work out (and there would probably be lawyers or at least some serious paperwork involved). But those instances are nebulous and so few and far between, it's not worth risking.
Keep your CoH/CoV characters seperate from those you plan to sell, and you should be fine.
cheers,
Arctic Sun
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Just to clarify, this refers to Cryptic owning not "Blue Wrecker" but rather his likeness/appearance in game and anything specific to Cryptics's design. For example, my character is a generic kung fu guy who's hard to hurt basically, and flies. Very generic in core concept. The origin of him has no real specific ties to Cryptic characters/copyrights. Therefore, I own Blue, but not his appearance/likeness within Cryptic, correct?
The name, image, powers, situations and actions of a character as portrayed in your novel are yours.
The name, image, powers, situations and actions of a character as portrayed in (or created using the tools of) CoX belong to CoX.
If both are identical, CoX wins. Unless you had a previous copyright/trademark, you have just 'gifted' NCSoft with your creation.
If you had a previous legal claim, by terms of your tacit agreement with the EULA, CoX still wins. They own your character until you point out to them that you have a previous claim.
When they become aware that they have your copywrtten/trademarked character in their game, they will 'genericize' (randomize the appearance and/or ban it until the name is changed) it and warn you not to use such characters in their game.
If you want to use a previously-owned character in their game, contact them and have them ask the character's owner (who might be you) for permission to use/portray the character. Good luck.
I am not a lawyer, but I do have good reading comprehension and I have read the EULA.
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Edit:
I should mention, but I don't want to double post so I'll put it here, that there is a commonly done thing that probably IS illegal under the terms provided.
That is the practice of commissioning art of characters based on screenshots. I have seen several folks who have displayed art they purchased on commission from various artists who created it based on screenshots of the purchaser's character. I think that is a commercial use of the copyrighted images that NCSoft did not give permission for and therefore is probably a copyright infringement they could sue or enjoin.
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original post begins here:
I think the case of Cafe Press/Zazzle "private" (or any one-off silkscreener) is a legitimate non commercial use of the picture, because of the following sort of reasoning.
1) The T-shirt printer makes money by decorating shirts with whatever picture the user sends. They are not using any particular picture to make a profit, the user is.
2) The user is not planning to sell the shirt but to wear it.
An analogous situation would be if you took a screenshot on a diskette to Kinkos and used their printer to print out the picture.
You are paying Kinko's a dollar for the page of printout, but it's not a commercial transaction directly about the copyrighted image.
Similarly, if you print it out at home, you paid for the printer and the ink and the paper. If you were to draw your own character on your Tshirt, you paid for the shirt and the cloth-paints. Or if you sewed the shirt yourself you paid for the cloth.
If these sort of adjacent commercial transactions weren't allowed implicitly by the statement of being able to use the copyrighted pictures for noncommercial uses, then the only way you'd be able to make that shirt was to grow the cotton yourself, knit it into Tshirt cloth (with knitting needles you whittled yourself), spin it into thread, sew your Tshirt (with a needle you smelted yourself from ore you mined yourself), make your own pigments and inks and paints (tempura from eggs laid by your own chickens, perhaps) and paint it on that way.
And that'd just be silly. 
I guess the logical next question is.
If you commission an artist to make a picture of your CoH character and they charge you a fee for doing the work is this legal?
If its not then I can see some potential issues with a number of great artists out their who produce MMO character art.
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The name, image, powers, situations and actions of a character as portrayed in your novel are yours.
The name, image, powers, situations and actions of a character as portrayed in (or created using the tools of) CoX belong to CoX.
If both are identical, CoX wins. Unless you had a previous copyright/trademark, you have just 'gifted' NCSoft with your creation.
If you had a previous legal claim, by terms of your tacit agreement with the EULA, CoX still wins. They own your character until you point out to them that you have a previous claim.
When they become aware that they have your copywrtten/trademarked character in their game, they will 'genericize' (randomize the appearance and/or ban it until the name is changed) it and warn you not to use such characters in their game.
If you want to use a previously-owned character in their game, contact them and have them ask the character's owner (who might be you) for permission to use/portray the character. Good luck.
I am not a lawyer, but I do have good reading comprehension and I have read the EULA.
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So in other words, short version, Cryptic "owns" every single character name on *every* single server now created by players? Keep in mind that there are characters where a "name" appears under multiple companies, with multiple core concepts/images/appearance.
Captain Marvel & Firestar, for instance.
hah! I was just editing my above message to answer that (question about legality of commissioning artwork of characters based on screenshots)... amazing coincidence.
If I design a hero, and the design of he / she is original, and not related to, say Superman or Statesman or anything like that, is that image copyrighted by Cryptic and therefore not usable on something say, at Zazzle?
I would think it's free advertising for COH and it would be OK, but I want to check. If it's not, it's not.