Are Fan Games Illegal?

Not to mention it might piss off the fans that they no longer buy their work, like me not reading anything from Anne Rice.

Eh. I think strong reactions against fan works and strong reactions against those with strong reactions against fanworks are strong reactions against fan works within strong reactions against fanworks kind of silly.

On one hand, I can understand the author not wanting people to "mess up" their characters, setting, et cetera, but on the other, it doesn't really hurt them.

I did read the thread, but the laws and ethics of the issue still seem so vague. The copyright holders only seem to care if someone tries to make money off of their own hard work. But the laws don't seem to be upheld very strictly. Artists can do fan art commissions through deviantart. Maybe it's because, at least in America, people can draw/write whatever they want for their own entertainment and even share them online. If they really feared legal retribution, they would keep it to themselves.

It seems that the copyright holders care more about their works being pirated than people just doing fan works for fun. That makes sense, I guess, since fan work can be flattering to the original creators... or not.

I dunno, I'm certainly no lawyer.

I vote with my wallet. I don't see not buying somebody's stuff because I do not agree with their views as a "strong reaction" in any shape or form.

Anything fan-something is actually illegal because copyright law is still largely based on the early 20th Century. The "newest" copyright legislation is not exactly new either since it was made when dial-up was still the dominant way of connecting to the internet and broadband is only for the privileged few.

But of course there's nothing wrong with the law, according to the companies...

The Japanese do make a profit with their doujinshi, though.

Those aren't gone after because the creators of the original works don't want to. In some cases, this is because a lot of mangaka start out with doujins, even hentai ones in many cases.

I can't help but to think that is more a cultural thing. Sure, technically it's illegal but anyone pursuing that line will 1) possibly end up killing the whole industry or more likely 2) be seen as an ungrateful bastard because s/he started out in the same way and no one will ever buy/publish his/her work again, thus destroying his/her career.

edited 15th Jul '12 10:42:09 PM by IraTheSquire

Exactly. In Japan, the cultural consensus is that if an independent artist is making money off of your IP, you hire them for your next project. (Ironic, because of how nastily tangled Japanese copyright can otherwise get.)

And on top of that, the Japanese seem to be more willing to share their work.

I mean, can you imagine a western version of Super Robot Wars? Just a crossover between two companies is rare enough.

Share work probably yes, share work progress (or how to do stuff)? Not so much it seems...at least in video game field, from what I heard...

edited 16th Jul '12 6:51:24 AM by onyhow

Of course, there's also fair use rights. Brawl In The Family, a webcomic that parodies nearly every Nintendo game ever made, is going to start selling a book soon, and since all of his art is original, he can sell it as a parody.

Just saw this thread and figured I'd post this for anyone who sees this. On FF.net, they have a list of writers who have sent some form of communication basically saying "hey I don't want any fanfic about my stuff." This means that it is fairly easy to get major sites like FF to ban stuff like that, unless they try hard to get it under the radar which would make it hard for others to read anyway. By logic, any company that doesn't go ahead and do this is implicitly saying it's okay for fanworks that are non-profit. Just the fact that sites like FF and DA have been around for about the past decade-ish says something because if it were as stringent as some opinions have stated, these sites would be illegal by their very nature (i.e., like a website educating people on how to break the law) and with their longevity and relative prominence online, it's a little hard to think companies couldn't have heard of such things. Since games that are just as polished as a published work or stories as well written as published works or the like are in at the very least a relative minority of such attempts, as well as no reports, to the best of my knowledge, of something selling significantly less due to such fan projects, it's safe to say that the "illegal" aspect is only when the company decides it is. Now taking a game or book or something and just putting it online, that's another thing because that's not creative plagiarism at all, it's theft so that's fairly illegal. And even then whole episodes and even seasons of shows are put up on Youtube, usually after a couple years and the show, while probably still remembered well and with a loving fandom, has ended and the DVD/Blu Ray sales have dropped. (Not to mention with the concept of music videos it's much easier for people to take a file of it into their Ipod and essentially have it free.) So technically, this stuff isn't legal per se, it's pretty much allowed and only illegal when the creator decides it isn't.

Most doujinshi in Japan are written and illustrated by the same mangaka who write and illustrate the vanilla versions of their works. All that changes are the names attached.

^ Most, really? I've seen a little (Kaishaku mainly), but most? Really? It's not...

Try comparing the shades and outlines of the character models in the doujins compared to the vanilla, and the text style for the kanji and sound effects. It happens a damned sight more than you may wish.

Nice try, but no. Have you seen the schedule of the average mangaka? They have what, 3 hours of sleep with no breaks unless the magazine itself has time off? Also, there's a bunch of doujinshi from a variety of circles for any given work, and the art styles very rarely overlap with the source material.

Yeah, no. Take a look on this example. Not only it is a doujinshi of two different series but the art style do not match with either.

Incidentally, it appear we have [[Doujinshi/Doujinshi an index]] on doujinshi. Sadly underpopulated, though.

edited 30th Nov '13 9:09:46 PM by Heatth

It's totally dependent on what the company who makes the game thinks.

It's absolutely illegal except if you receive permission from the IP holder, in which case it isn't a fangame. The same holds true for fan fiction, fan art, and all other fan works. Note that unless you're making money off of it, 99.9% of the time, the IP holders don't give a shit.

Aint copyright laws fun?

^^ Or interfere with their plan...some fan stuff get C&D even if they're free...

@Thorn. No, no they are not.

Ultimately, it's going to be more and more left in the hands of the owner of the IP, and there are going to be more and more "middle" options for handling rights. The Steam Workshop (game mods) and Kindle Worlds (fan fiction) are two cases of this, and more are likely coming.

The actual law, of course, will be a few decades behind in changing, as is typical.