Is it against the TOS to use names from literature, even if they AREN'T copyright protected?

Lephrel

Title says it all. I was able to create a bunch of characters from well-known classics. I just used their full names, no need for titles or 墢êñ†§ or anything. So this raises the question, are these character names reported and deleted or are they just not popular?

Lephrel

A couple of the names I managed to snag on an alt account are:

• Ivan Karamazov, Dmitri Karamazov (from Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov)
• Avdotya Raskolnikova (from Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment)
• Catherine Linton (from Brontë's Wuthering Heights)
• Andrei Bolkonsky (from Tolstoy's War and Peace)
• Lev Myshkin (from Dostoevsky's The Idiot)
• Ekaterina Shcherbatskaya (from Tolstoy's Anna Karenina)

I can't believe these weren't already taken, they are from some of the most famous books in the world.

QuebraRegra

someone already took of the orc names from LOTR I really wanted Gorbag.

https://lotr.fandom.com/wiki/Orcs

virtus753

Those names might not be the most popular. I have seen names from Austen and such, but I’m on PC-NA, where Russian lit won’t get as much play as British.

I would just be prepared with backup names in case. They have a lot of room for making you change names.

The ToS specify that names of “other people” are forbidden, in addition to third-party IP/TM/copyright. But even if you argue that these characters are not people, and they’re in the public domain, ZOS can essentially make you change your name if they don’t deem the name appropriate in their discretion.

That said, someone would have to report those names, as ZOS doesn’t seem to go around actively assessing character names.

LadyLethalla

I've used the name of a main character from my favourite fantasy author... not going to say who the author is or the character's name though, because I don't want to be forced to change it.

Girl_Number8

Lephrel wrote: »

A couple of the names I managed to snag on an alt account are:

• Ivan Karamazov, Dmitri Karamazov (from Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov)
• Avdotya Raskolnikova (from Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment)
• Catherine Linton (from Brontë's Wuthering Heights)
• Andrei Bolkonsky (from Tolstoy's War and Peace)
• Lev Myshkin (from Dostoevsky's The Idiot)
• Ekaterina Shcherbatskaya (from Tolstoy's Anna Karenina)

I can't believe these weren't already taken, they are from some of the most famous books in the world.

Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment....is Public Domain, as are most of the classics. That means they have no copyright to protect them.

Glad you’re enjoying the classics 😊

Only if the work is still protected by a copyright the ip is covered legally.

There are petty people that report players character names and dislike any type of fun but I think you are safe. To me you just added some class to eso imo.

Fennwitty

Lephrel wrote: »

I can't believe these weren't already taken, they are from some of the most famous books in the world.

Perhap... but not the most popular. Many if not most players will inherently prefer shorter names, and many others wouldn't want to use "real world" names in a fantasy game as it can strain immersion.

There's not a precedent I'm aware of in ESO for full on Russian style names.

Now if you based character names on popular fiction involving magic, adventurers etc. you'll quickly run into 'name already taken.'

Minyassa

I was under the impression that you're not supposed to use copyrighted material as names (public domain might get a pass) regardless of the source. I think the reason some people skate by indefinitely with pop media character names is that they have just not been seen yet by game admin.

Lephrel

Girl_Number8 wrote: »

Lephrel wrote: »

A couple of the names I managed to snag on an alt account are:

• Ivan Karamazov, Dmitri Karamazov (from Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov)
• Avdotya Raskolnikova (from Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment)
• Catherine Linton (from Brontë's Wuthering Heights)
• Andrei Bolkonsky (from Tolstoy's War and Peace)
• Lev Myshkin (from Dostoevsky's The Idiot)
• Ekaterina Shcherbatskaya (from Tolstoy's Anna Karenina)

I can't believe these weren't already taken, they are from some of the most famous books in the world.

Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment....is Public Domain, as are most of the classics. That means they have no copyright to protect them.
Glad you’re enjoying the classics 😊
Only if the work is still protected by a copyright the ip is covered legally.

There are petty people that report players character names and dislike any type of fun but I think you are safe. To me you just added some class to eso imo.

Haha thanks! Actually, I have seen tons of names from fantasy literature in eso, never heard of any forced name changes though. So I hope/think it should be fine.

virtus753 wrote: »

Those names might not be the most popular. I have seen names from Austen and such, but I’m on PC-NA, where Russian lit won’t get as much play as British.

Yeah, I think you're right about Russian literature and names not being hugely popular in NA (and western Europe). Still...you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who hasn't at least heard of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. And with 10mil+ copies sold and probably like 50mil+ characters created, I'm just really surprised that so many names are still available.

SeaGtGruff

About half of my characters' names are taken from ESO itself, by combining some first name with some last name from the list of ESO racial names given on UESP. Hopefully those types of names aren't against the ToS. I do try to be careful that the specific combination of first and last name hasn't been used in ESO (yet; but who knows about future chapters and DLCs).

The rest of my characters' names are made up-- and some of them sound a bit off or silly because of that.

As far as names taken from a literary classic which is in the public domain, I suppose it's possible you might run into issues if some major studio decides to make a movie or television series based on that work-- but that might also depend on whether someone reports the name to ZOS.

Lephrel

QuebraRegra wrote: »

someone already took of the orc names from LOTR I really wanted Gorbag.

https://lotr.fandom.com/wiki/Orcs

@QuebraRegra
Have you tried Grishnákh?

Or my personal favourite, Shagrat?

You'll probably need to add some fancy titles anyways, maybe something about maggoty bread. ^^

Danikat

I'm not aware of anyone having a character's name changed just because it comes from somewhere else. I'm reasonably sure that's in the TOS (and in the rules to pretty much every other MMO) to protect ZOS. If the copyright holder wanted to sue, which they may have to do in order to protect their copyright, who are they more likely to go after? The easily identified big company, or some random on the internet who could be 12 years old and in a foreign country for all they know? This way if or when someone tries to blame ZOS for the copyright violation they have a ready-made defense by showing it's against their rules, and can force the player to change the name without getting into problems there as well because they can show it's against the TOS. Then the problem is solved and no one gets sued.

But unless a copyright holder objects there's no reason to worry. Many, many people make characters based on other media and ZOS don't remove or rename them without an additional reason.

Since the names you have in mind aren't even in copyright any more there's no one who can legitimately complain.

Lephrel wrote: »

virtus753 wrote: »

Those names might not be the most popular. I have seen names from Austen and such, but I’m on PC-NA, where Russian lit won’t get as much play as British.

Yeah, I think you're right about Russian literature and names not being hugely popular in NA (and western Europe). Still...you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who hasn't at least heard of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. And with 10mil+ copies sold and probably like 50mil+ characters created, I'm just really surprised that so many names are still available.

There's a big jump between 'has heard of the author' and 'wants to name an MMO character after someone from their books'.

Especially in a game like ESO where the lore and fitting in to the world is important to a lot of players. There aren't any cultures in Tamriel which use Russian names so if your character blending into the world is important they're not an option. Of course there's also lots of players who don't care about that, but it still means a section of the player base would not consider those names even if they're fans of the authors in question.

QuebraRegra

Lephrel wrote: »

QuebraRegra wrote: »

someone already took of the orc names from LOTR I really wanted Gorbag.

https://lotr.fandom.com/wiki/Orcs

@QuebraRegra
Have you tried Grishnákh?

Or my personal favourite, Shagrat?

You'll probably need to add some fancy titles anyways, maybe something about maggoty bread. ^^

LOL, Grishnak, that's a good one! I had UGLUK, but ended up going with Gothmagog, sort of a twist on Gothmog, and also a Welsh giant

Mythreindeer

Let me know if you find out for certain as I've dying to use Cunegonde.

UGotBenched91

virtus753 wrote: »

Those names might not be the most popular. I have seen names from Austen and such, but I’m on PC-NA, where Russian lit won’t get as much play as British.

I would just be prepared with backup names in case. They have a lot of room for making you change names.

The ToS specify that names of “other people” are forbidden, in addition to third-party IP/TM/copyright. But even if you argue that these characters are not people, and they’re in the public domain, ZOS can essentially make you change your name if they don’t deem the name appropriate in their discretion.

That said, someone would have to report those names, as ZOS doesn’t seem to go around actively assessing character names.

Ugh people who report those kind of names need to find better things to do with their time

nukk3r

I don't think many people would care to report you for naming a character after someone from classical literature. Players are getting away with outright insults and blatant innuendos, you'll be fine.

Athan1

As long as you don't use swear words or copyrighted names you'll be fine.

kargen27

I know a few players that have been using names from the DragonLance world for a good long time without any problem. I was going to use the name of a kind of obscure character from one of the books and it was gone early. I tried all kinds of different mythology names from all around the globe and those seemed to be gone quick as well. I ended up using mostly Hopi names for my characters. Some fit really well.

Elsonso

Minyassa wrote: »

I was under the impression that you're not supposed to use copyrighted material as names (public domain might get a pass) regardless of the source. I think the reason some people skate by indefinitely with pop media character names is that they have just not been seen yet by game admin.

If no one reports the name, chances are it will never be seen.

Sylvermynx

Actually.... I wrote my senior HS English dissertation on Anna Karenina. I already had a 4.0 in that class - but my prof actually put me into the running for valedictorian. I wimped out - I never could do "public" anything.... Lordy.... the amount of stage fright....

Not going there. Ever....

Reverb

There was a very well known EP with the name of an extremely well known, highest accolade earning, and much beloved actor. People reported him for many things, but I don’t think his name was one of them.

And for the first few years of the game there were hundreds of people running around with GoT character names. I really don’t think it’s something that Zeni cares about much unless some sensitive soul complains.

Sylvermynx

Reverb wrote: »

There was a very well known EP with the name of an extremely well known, highest accolade earning, and much beloved actor. People reported him for many things, but I don’t think his name was one of them.

And for the first few years of the game there were hundreds of people running around with GoT character names. I really don’t think it’s something that Zeni cares about much unless some sensitive soul complains.

Um.... GoT?

Elsonso

Sylvermynx wrote: »

Reverb wrote: »

There was a very well known EP with the name of an extremely well known, highest accolade earning, and much beloved actor. People reported him for many things, but I don’t think his name was one of them.

And for the first few years of the game there were hundreds of people running around with GoT character names. I really don’t think it’s something that Zeni cares about much unless some sensitive soul complains.

Um.... GoT?

Game of Thrones. Some fringe TV show that almost no one watched.

Scardan

Elsonso wrote: »

Sylvermynx wrote: »

Reverb wrote: »

There was a very well known EP with the name of an extremely well known, highest accolade earning, and much beloved actor. People reported him for many things, but I don’t think his name was one of them.

And for the first few years of the game there were hundreds of people running around with GoT character names. I really don’t think it’s something that Zeni cares about much unless some sensitive soul complains.

Um.... GoT?

Game of Thrones. Some fringe TV show that almost no one watched.

And some fringe books that almost no one read xD?

Ascarl

Athan1 wrote: »

As long as you don't use swear words or copyrighted names you'll be fine.

I suppose using names on the server is fine, at least I have seen quite a lot. IMHO the forums are overregulated while nobody cares about what's going on on the servers.

RedMuse

Lephrel wrote: »

[*] Ekaterina Shcherbatskaya (from Tolstoy's Anna Karenina)
[/list]

Gesundheit.

etchedpixels

You can't generally copyright names in the first place (characters, their looks and aspects of them yes because they are creative works) and sometimes trademarks on distinctive characters including naming (eg all those tedious superheroes)

There are lots of people who use names from books and things in game. Just about every combination of every cat name in the T.S.Elliot poems has been taken for example.

JamieAubrey

Yeah I remember seeing loads of Daenerys Targaryen's I know it was a GoT reference but I never watched it back then, I don't see these names anymore, either they left the game, got made to change

AlnilamE

JamieAubrey wrote: »

Yeah I remember seeing loads of Daenerys Targaryen's I know it was a GoT reference but I never watched it back then, I don't see these names anymore, either they left the game, got made to change

Yeah, when I started reading GoT and realized how many character names in ESO were spin off of GoT characters...

Kartalin

Someone in one of the guilds I play with told us yesterday he got flagged for using a bunch of NBA player names as character names. This is something I've seen or heard multiple times from various people, you should expect to have to change a name if it's from a real person. I don't think character names from literature or popular entertainment really enter the picture here.