Low Poly Vehicle Pack Now Live!

Discussion in 'Public Game Developers Forum' started by fatboxsoftware, May 5, 2013.

  1. fatboxsoftware

    fatboxsoftware Well-Known Member

    Mar 15, 2011
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    Ormond Beach
    #1 fatboxsoftware, May 5, 2013
    Last edited: May 5, 2013
    Deleted as owner cancelled campaign.
     
  2. mr.Ugly

    mr.Ugly Well-Known Member

    Dec 1, 2009
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    and you are licensed to sell models of thoose cars and they can be used in commercial projects?
     
  3. fatboxsoftware

    fatboxsoftware Well-Known Member

    Mar 15, 2011
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    Ormond Beach
    These are generic cars with no branding, licensing, emblems or logos on them. They are based on their real world counterparts, but do not possess any of the emblems or markings of the real world vehicles. They are also not completely accurate to their real world counterparts, only close in resemblance. I put the real world car models/makes on them to ensure folks know what real world models they are referenced by.
    They are free to be used in commercial and non-commercial projects alike.
     
  4. mr.Ugly

    mr.Ugly Well-Known Member

    Dec 1, 2009
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    well they looked pretty much 1:1 to me considering the polycount (good work btw)

    but tricky legal wise because not only logos are trademarked with cars but their design too.

    one of the reasons its not allowed that third party bodyparts are sold for new cars (at least in germany)

    but considering that in the us trademark is even worse handled than over here using such close models can get you on thin ice.

    cheers
     
  5. fatboxsoftware

    fatboxsoftware Well-Known Member

    Mar 15, 2011
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    iPhone Multimedia
    Ormond Beach
    All good points. I got enough feedback about this I suspended the campaign until I can figure out a way to do the pack with no issues. Thanks for the insights.
     
  6. ThreeCubes

    ThreeCubes Well-Known Member

    Oct 13, 2012
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    #6 ThreeCubes, May 6, 2013
    Last edited: May 6, 2013
    I think this is not really an issue, ever typed BMW into turbo squid? You would not be able to 100% guaranty that people who use it in a game would not get a cease an desist but it's unlikely and not your problem. Even with the original names it's so amazingly unlikely you would get a C and D letter but without them it's even more unlikely. It's such a fluffy area of law but the main point is whether the customer would think what's being sold has been officially endorsed by the company. Clearly if your not using trademark names then this is impossible to prove. In terms of vehicle likeness this is even harder to prove as what design protection laws there are are setup to stop manufactures from copying.

    What if I was a game designer and I had the license from BMW and needed to by a 3d BMW car. Turbosquid claim that users need editorial licences to use branded items on there site but it's not ilegal for them to sell them without licences from BMW.

    Why aren't turbo squid being sued and they even use trademarks or even a C and D.


    My advice is remove the branding,trademarks and logos, people can just add them on later if they want and it's up to the developer to buy the licence if they want.
     
  7. mr.Ugly

    mr.Ugly Well-Known Member

    Dec 1, 2009
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    wow what a lot of crap. amazing advice "ehy even give a shit"

    and turbo squid ? really? please show me one real car on there which is free to use in a commercial products.
     
  8. fatboxsoftware

    fatboxsoftware Well-Known Member

    Mar 15, 2011
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    I think what he's trying to convey is, no one is really coming after anyone for selling 3d models that are representations of real world things. They might come after someone for a character's likeness or something, but not for the design of a road cone, or a vehicle wheel or a car chassis. What I had created were artistic approximations that weren't even accurate in detail to a real world vehicle. They contained no logos, emblems, branding or manufacturer elements. They were dramatically changed in appearance from the their real world counterparts, if you put a photo of a real world version next to one of mine, they would absolutely look different in scale, in proportion, in design. Mine just were not even 80% accurate to the real world models. In other words, there would have been 0% legal issue. However since so many folks on Reddit raised a stink in their lack of legal knowledge, I felt the campaign would suffer, so I cancelled it for now. I think the biggest mistake of my own was including real world model and make names so people could identify what each car model was inspired by.

    I even tried to tell these folks on Reddit that I worked on EA projects as a vehicle and environment artist on real world makes and models of cars (which they had licenses for so we could display manufacturer emblems and names). I totally understood what could and couldn't be used, how much something needed to be changed/modified or put into a different medium to avoid copyright confusions.
     
  9. ThreeCubes

    ThreeCubes Well-Known Member

    Oct 13, 2012
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    If I had been given the licences from BMW there would be no issue with me using any of the thousands of bmw models on turbo squid. At no point have any car manufacturer ever sent a simple cost free DMCA or CD letter to turbo squid even when there is blatant copyright issues. Fatbox models arnt even referred to by the manufactures names. It would be highly unlikly that any car manufacturer would even try any legal objection as they carnt even be bothered to send a tiny letter to turbo squid which is making thousands infringing there copyright.

    The person using the models may be more Likly to get into trouble depending on the context of there use but that's not really fatboxes issue. Turbo squid warn users that although they have a commercial licence for the models they may need to check the own legal position on and trademarks copyrights.

    I agree that fatbox would be unwise to simply state people have full commercial use with out stating further releases maybe required.

    I'm not saying its impossible to sue (anyone can sue anyone these days) but without using brand names and logos its so increadbly unlikly it's not really going to be an issue. There are thousands of people selling fully branded models without issue.

    I'm not really disagreeing with you ugly but currently all evidence points to the fact that this is less of an issue as it is so unlikly anyone would even care.
     
  10. mr.Ugly

    mr.Ugly Well-Known Member

    Dec 1, 2009
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    check the license most of the cars are sold under (which is legal) at turbo squid.

    its not for commercial use and never will be if the models are not your ip.


    not being noticed by a car manufacturer does not mean one is right or even safe. playing that card is just stupid.

    a models does not need to be 1:1 to get a reaction, its more than enough if people could think your models represents the "real" ones and your toast.

    in the end its not a question of "if" rather than "when"

    rather safe than sorry in legal questions, except you have the money to lawyer up or have a legal insurance.

    anything else is just careless.
     
  11. ThreeCubes

    ThreeCubes Well-Known Member

    Oct 13, 2012
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    #11 ThreeCubes, May 7, 2013
    Last edited: May 7, 2013

    Whatever licence turbosquid are giving they are still selling models of copyrighted car brands with no legal issues, its the person who has brought the model and starts using it that may have legal issues (according to them) if its does not come under fair use or they have simply not obtained the releases from the manufactures which could grant unrestricted use. If i was a licensee of BWM i could use a turbosquid BWM model commercially (as stated earlier).

    Fatbox is selling the cars in the same way as turbosquid is selling the cars, fatboxes cars anrt even branded (although i accept that and prevouisly stated that he may want to add a small addition to the text explaining that licences may need to be obtained depending on use if he really want to cover himself in the same way turbosquid do).

    Again, its not impossible but so unlikely. There is no real way to be 100% safe than sorry otherwise nobody would realise any new products at all, why do you think everybody is ignoring londsys in app purchase patent trolling.
     

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