dazee wrote: »

starkerealm wrote: »

Ohtimbar wrote: »

Reverb wrote: »

Examples would be Dorian Gray, Huck Finn, Jim Halpert, Jason Borne, Pepper Potts, etc. Those are protected and can’t be used as either an @name or character name.

But parodies aren’t protected. So you could be Pooper Potts, or Dorian Graymane.

Dorian Gray and Huck Finn are public domain and are not protected.

Was about to say that.

There was a lawsuit around a decade ago with Marvel and Cryptic Studios, over the creation of "copyright infringing" characters in their game Champions Online. People were rolling up characters who matched existing Marvel superheroes (though, there were homages to other comics mixed in), and Marvel sued.

This actually happened in City of Heroes.

Okay, yeah, that tracks. Right developers, wrong MMO. Also the wrong publisher, because NC Soft was publishing CoH, while Atari picked up Champions Online. I was also wrong on the year. Went back and checked, this happened in late 2004/2005.

I wasn't expecting this thread to be so educational- I just wanted to know whether or not I'd be able to meme without worry.

Ngl, I'm pleasantly surprised~

Hiruda wrote: »

So i can sue bethesda because a character ingame have the same family name as me then ?

I get that you're trying to make a joke, but no. For a couple reasons.

First of all, Bethesda is two different companies, Bethesda Games Studio. That's the guys that made Oblivion, Skyrim, Fallout 4, you know, Todd Howard's team.

Bethesda Softworks is a games publisher, they publish games from BGS, Id, ZOS, Arkane Studios, and a couple dozen other developers.

So, you can't really sue BGS for something ZOS did, because there's no relation between them, aside from that they share a publisher and some ZOS devs are veterans from BGS. Rich comes to mind; he was part of the production staff (if I remember correctly.)

Beyond that, suing someone over using your actual name is kinda a non-start. There's some caveats here:

If someone is lying about you publicly, in an effort to damage your reputation, there is liable and slander, though that's not what's going on here.

There's also the concept of, Publicity Rights, which is a lot more complex, not particularly universal, and only really applies when a third party is using your likeness to sell their product.

Now, if you'd created a fictional character with that name, and published, and then ZOS had gone ahead and created a copy of your character in their work, yes. You could sue Bethesda Softworks, ZOS, and Zenimax. But that hasn't happened.

Just like I can't sue 2k Games because my surname is on the list for German XCOM operatives in the remake and XCOM 2. Or NBC because, apparently, I may have killed someone on Law and Order 25 years ago.

starkerealm wrote: »

menathradiel wrote: »

Hiruda wrote: »

So i can sue bethesda because a character ingame have the same family name as me then ?

I highly doubt you've copyrighted your own name.

So far as that goes, you, kinda, can't.

I mean, there's some weird outlier, like if you wrote a novel where a character with your name was a character... But, that's getting into all kinds of weird situations.

So, basically, no, you can't.

I believe it would also be possible if you were an artist (any format) and had sold your work under your own name.

So I couldn't sue someone for using my name (which since I got married isn't even unique to me), but Taylor Swift or Ed Sheeran could do, because at that point it's a brand name as well as the person's name. I can't remember who it was but I've heard there have been artists who actually could not use their own name because someone else with the same name had already used it so they had to come up with a stage name instead.

starkerealm wrote: »

Danikat wrote: »

starkerealm wrote: »

menathradiel wrote: »

Hiruda wrote: »

So i can sue bethesda because a character ingame have the same family name as me then ?

I highly doubt you've copyrighted your own name.

So far as that goes, you, kinda, can't.

I mean, there's some weird outlier, like if you wrote a novel where a character with your name was a character... But, that's getting into all kinds of weird situations.

So, basically, no, you can't.

I believe it would also be possible if you were an artist (any format) and had sold your work under your own name.

So I couldn't sue someone for using my name (which since I got married isn't even unique to me), but Taylor Swift or Ed Sheeran could do, because at that point it's a brand name as well as the person's name. I can't remember who it was but I've heard there have been artists who actually could not use their own name because someone else with the same name had already used it so they had to come up with a stage name instead.

You're confusing copyright and trademark. That's two entirely different branches of intellectual property law. (The third branch of IP law is patents, if you're wondering.)

So you can trademark your name, and likeness, which applies in your example. But, even then, @Hiruda's example wouldn't carry unless they had trademarked their own name for use in video games.

Also, unlike copyright, you need to pay to file trademark claims. Even then, if @Hiruda had trademarked their name, it'd still be a longshot to claim that ZOS was infringing on their trademark with a stray NPC tucked away somewhere in the world, especially if their surname is semi-common. (Incidentally, if it's their given name, all bets are off.)

I was just joking tho, it was just more about the no sense of trademarking a name, i think its no sense, because like, its just a name, there is 100% chance someone in the world might have the name
Even Bruce Wayne or such, sound absurd but ive seen people have that name for real
If i could sue video game company because my family name is used, i could see so much company, including Riot Game

starkerealm wrote: »

Danikat wrote: »

starkerealm wrote: »

menathradiel wrote: »

Hiruda wrote: »

So i can sue bethesda because a character ingame have the same family name as me then ?

I highly doubt you've copyrighted your own name.

So far as that goes, you, kinda, can't.

I mean, there's some weird outlier, like if you wrote a novel where a character with your name was a character... But, that's getting into all kinds of weird situations.

So, basically, no, you can't.

I believe it would also be possible if you were an artist (any format) and had sold your work under your own name.

So I couldn't sue someone for using my name (which since I got married isn't even unique to me), but Taylor Swift or Ed Sheeran could do, because at that point it's a brand name as well as the person's name. I can't remember who it was but I've heard there have been artists who actually could not use their own name because someone else with the same name had already used it so they had to come up with a stage name instead.

You're confusing copyright and trademark. That's two entirely different branches of intellectual property law. (The third branch of IP law is patents, if you're wondering.)

So you can trademark your name, and likeness, which applies in your example. But, even then, @Hiruda's example wouldn't carry unless they had trademarked their own name for use in video games.

Also, unlike copyright, you need to pay to file trademark claims. Even then, if @Hiruda had trademarked their name, it'd still be a longshot to claim that ZOS was infringing on their trademark with a stray NPC tucked away somewhere in the world, especially if their surname is semi-common. (Incidentally, if it's their given name, all bets are off.)

Ah ok. I tend to get them confused because they way I deal with them at work they're largely interchangeable. Basically me nagging other people to make sure they're not using any material, names, photos, etc. they don't have permission for, and it's not really worth digging into the details when we're on the level of "No, finding it in a Google search does not mean it's in the public domain. Yes I know anyone could find it online but that's not the same thing."

yodased wrote: »

They don't like spiderman though, its a long story.

They fear legal repercussions for the warden's spider-heal?

thedovahmon wrote: »

Reverb wrote: »

Examples would be Dorian Gray, Huck Finn, Jim Halpert, Jason Borne, Pepper Potts, etc. Those are protected and can’t be used as either an @name or character name.

But parodies aren’t protected. So you could be Pooper Potts, or Dorian Graymane.

So we can't use them as user or character names. But we can mention them freely by name in discussions?

Of course, Fair Use allows you to use the names in a discussion. What you can't do is pass your self off as that character name.

Tavore1138 wrote: »

To further confuse the issue you can use a character name from a copyrighted work as long as the name itself is not copyrighted, thus all the Starks and variations of Gandalf roaming Tamriel

I assume if you tried to make money from the name you’d have problems though.

You are also not allowed to use the name of main characters in ESO like Lyris Titanborn.
This is an internal rule the same way you are not allowed to make name with swear words.

This obviously does not apply to minor npc.

Tavore1138 wrote: »

To further confuse the issue you can use a character name from a copyrighted work as long as the name itself is not copyrighted, thus all the Starks and variations of Gandalf roaming Tamriel

I assume if you tried to make money from the name you’d have problems though.

Yeah, Stark is a real surname. Gandalf less so, but that gets into a much more complicated topic. The short version is, nobody particularly cares if you name your character, "Gandalf the Murder Hobo." Technically, you could get dinged for that, but if no one reports you, you're fine, enjoy.