No, they don't have 'rights to Lost Ninja, full stop'.
They have 'rights to Lost Ninja as LN pertains to the City universe': the specific powers and power sets involved, any City lore LN was tied to, and the specific depiction of LN in 3D digital form.
They have rights to no other Lost Ninja details.
You can use LN anywhere, in anything, as long as you don't use anything from your time here in City unless you change it significantly enough that it can't be easily recognized.
Paragon Wiki: http://www.paragonwiki.com
City Info Terminal: http://cit.cohtitan.com
Mids Hero Designer: http://www.cohplanner.com
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Originally Posted by Dispari
I don't know why Dink thinks she's not as sexy as Jay was. In 5 posts she's already upstaged his entire career.
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Good, was worrying about that last night...
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...Which I assume would include the costume and powers? In other words, anything that makes the character meaningfully distinctive to begin with.
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Originally Posted by Aggelakis
You can use LN anywhere, in anything, as long as you don't use anything from your time here in City unless you change it significantly enough that it can't be easily recognized.
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"You don't lose levels. You don't have equipment to wear out, repair, or lose, or that anyone can steal from you. About the only thing lighter than debt they could do is have an NPC walk by, point and laugh before you can go to the hospital or base." -Memphis_Bill
We will honor the past, and fight to the last, it will be a good way to die...
Yes. Tights with patterns are generally OK, since any hero game/comic/story/whatever is going to have that, but costume pieces that are distinctly City (e.g. Statesman Star, Arachnos symbol, PTA logo, other various easily recognizable costume pieces, and using the exact likeness of pieces from in game like *exactly* the same Cyborg or Celestial or whatever pieces without any alterations) shouldn't be used.
Powers that are generic ("my guy is super strong and can make jelly out of people's faces with his fists") are OK, but bringing out a specific ability exactly how it ties into City's power sets (e.g. Nature Affinity's highly distinctive powers) shouldn't be used. There are a ton of games and comics where people shoot energy from their hands or eyes, so the idea of Energy Blast and Radiation Blast are OK; simply carrying off the power set wholesale shouldn't be done.
Paragon Wiki: http://www.paragonwiki.com
City Info Terminal: http://cit.cohtitan.com
Mids Hero Designer: http://www.cohplanner.com
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Dispari
I don't know why Dink thinks she's not as sexy as Jay was. In 5 posts she's already upstaged his entire career.
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This is all merely theoretical, though. Unless you're as rich as Croesus, you're more or less judgment-proof anyway, and that presumes NCSoft would bother to spend the effort (and risk the even-further ill-will) to track down former customers who continue their characters in some other MMO, or spend the money or in-house attorney effort filing copyright lawsuits with dubious chances of success to begin with. I'm not even certain that clause of the EULA would stand scrutiny, since there's no consideration given to us (the players) for what is clearly our own creations (there is no contract without consideration). NCSoft basically boiler-plated a clause they use for employees (this happens in academia, too, so I'm familiar with it) that basically says the employee's work product is the intellectual property of the company (in my case, college/university). That kind of clause holds up because the employees are being explicitly paid for it (and I've had to sign that specific contract for my teaching gig over and over and over). As players, we're not being paid for our intellectual property--there's no consideration for it. It'd certainly be arguable in a court, so it wouldn't be a slam-dunk for NCSoft.
40062: The World's Worst PUG
84008: Jenkins's Guide to Super-Villainy
230187: The Hero of Kings Row
No H8 - 08.04.10
@Circuit Boy - Moderator - Pride global chat channel
They can come after me all they want. I will damn well make Brawling Humilator, Thing of Bigness, The Dawn Sisters, and any other beloved creations with their backstories and costumes... Bring it. Bring it all you got. Because as long as Co* doesn't live, that whole agreement/ownership means *squat* to me. Those characters are MINE.
That's not to be mean and callous to NCSoft or the now defunct Paragon Stuidos, per se... no, that's to say what colossal jerks they'd be for trying to sue me or something stupid because I put BH or ToB in SWTOR or CO or DCUO or (the game what's name shall not be mentioned)(*).
I won't profit from it. I therefore can do whatever tribute I want, and they can... well, enjoy the effort I put into it, thanks muchly.
The very second I receive any *profit* from these characters, however, is the very moment that they have every right to come after me, hard, with cease and desist orders and/or suits to recoup revenue. Which means I can't write a novel or make action figures or any of that *and sell them*.
Beyond that? Nope. They would be very stupid indeed to try to stop me from doing it, because they will fail, hard, on that action. Parody and tributes are allowed in the United States Code, and that is where I'm protected.
So... yeah. Bring it, I'mma make a BH on CO(*).
Mike
/ (*) - This is, of course, I do any other MMO in the first place. Not real sure I will. This is a life lesson going on here for me.
August 31, 2012. A Day that will Live in Infamy. Or Information. Possibly Influence. Well, Inf, anyway. Thank you, Paragon Studios, for what you did, and the enjoyment and camaraderie you brought.
This is houtex, aka Mike, signing off the forums. G'night all. - 10/26/2012
Well... perhaps I was premature about that whole 'signing off' thing... - 11-9-2012
So I recall reading in the dim and distant past (i3-i4 ish) that Cryptic/NCSoft retain all rights to our characters. That is by playing 'Lost Ninja' on their servers I basically allow them all the rights to said character.
It was never explained - to my knowledge - how those rights could be retrieved.
Basically, game is over in a few short months and when it finally shuts down I want to know that the characters I have made and loved over the years are mine. I think it highly unlikely that NCSoft would reboot CoH/CoH2/etc and use my characters as NPCs then sue me for using what I consider mine. But it could happen.
So what do I have to do to regain full rights (if I ever lost them) to my characters?