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Post by JuniperGreen on Apr 20, 2023 16:44:58 GMT -5
Hello, I know this is an obvious question when it comes to commercialisation, but what about modding?
If its for mods, is it allowed to create mods containing direct references to Nintendo's characters or images? I know they use to have a section for asking rights on their website, but they removed it due to too many requests, and they left a notice about the use of their material for non-comercial use, but i'm still not sure about modding..
Thanks.
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Post by shkatzchen on Apr 21, 2023 1:47:31 GMT -5
This is not legal advice, so feel free to go find an IP Attorney. I'm not a specialist in IP law.
That disclaimer aside, I think you'll be okay, with some caveats.
If it's just for your personal use, you should be fine. While EA might theoretically be able to figure out that you have whatever you make in your game, it's highly unlikely they'd ever go after you for it.
If you want to share what you make, things get a little different. First of all, no matter what you make, you can't make money off it. That means no early release, no adfly, no ad revenue from the page it's on if you have it on a site of your own. Second, it may matter what you make. If you just want to make some T-shirts and posters, or other CAS or Build/Buy objects, as things are, you should be fine (there's plenty of cc out there for Harry Potter, and despite WB being pretty fierce about their rights, I've never heard of anyone getting a cease and desist). As for making some kind of mod, it depends.
One of the caveats is this: even if you never charge for it, were Nintendo and EA to come to some kind of agreement to have a Nintendo pack, then you could have issues with whatever you make. "Noncommercial" use primarily means not making money from it, but it can be interpreted as "not being in direct competition with." That's one of the reasons that even with their more relaxed policy Nintendo still goes after fan games. If a person has a choice of a free-to-play game versus a game that costs $40, the $40 game is going to theoretically lose sales to the free game. It may not be the case in reality, but that's the legal theory they'll assert. If whatever mod you want to make rises to the level that it could be considered a fan game, Nintendo might care. I don't think you'd manage to do that in TS4, but just beware. If your mod just makes everyone have mustaches, go for it. If your mod lets everyone ride around in carts tossing shells at each other that may be a problem. I hope this helps!
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Post by mauvemorn on Apr 21, 2023 5:02:39 GMT -5
Co-signing everything shkatzchen said, except for I want to add that, no matter what you will do, you’ll get away with it with the slap on the wrist at most. Even if Nintendo were to have problems with you using anything related to them, they would just send you a DMCA takedown (« remove this or we will sue you », basically). They, of course, won’t sue you because that will cost a lot of money for them, and it makes no sense to spend this much without guarantees of winning more money from you. However, they may get Patreon, tumblr or whatever other platform you use to share your content to delete your blog. on the subject of platform, tsr does not allow users to use brand names, so be aware of that. So do whatever you want until Nintendo will send you a dmca takedown, then just remove those files
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