Legal stuff questions

[dfool06]

My apologies in advance if I posted in the wrong place but I m not sure if this will be considered the same as the ones in the "Questions" threads.

I m not a lawyer or anything, but just want to satisfy my curiosity.

So we all know that KK made this mode and that he does it for free. That is why big companies like;
SEGA = Total war games
EA = Lotr games
Tokien Estate/lawyers = Rights to Tolkien works
And New LIne Cinema (perhaps) = contents from the movies

Doesn't take legal action. So my question is this.

What if it goes the other way around? What if lets say EA decides to make Battle for Middle Earth 3 and they used some content like unit models/skins from this mod. And it is obvious they will be recieving money for it selling the game. So is KK or any other Modder/sub modder who's works have been copied entitled to take legal action against EA?

If I got it all wrong can please someone enligthen me about this. Please.

[Larkin]

No, I don't think he would be allowed to take legal action. This mod is published for free on a public forum. Anyone can take it - unless KK has explicitly said you are not allowed to do so without permission.

Still, I'd think EA would have enough lawyers to fight off any claim regardless!

[Jean=A=Luc]

What if it goes the other way around? What if lets say EA decides to make Battle for Middle Earth 3 and they used some content like unit models/skins from this mod.

No way a large professional dev/publisher would do this. Doesn't matter how "evil" or greedy they are, it's just bad business.

[StealthFox]

Agreed, no way this would happen. If someone did use it without permission and was making a profit from it, that's an easy law suit win for KK or any modders.

[ThaDoews]

I really don't think EA or SEGA would sue the TATW-team. To play this mod, you need to buy Medieval 2 - Kingdoms, which gives EA profit. People then like the TW series and then buy more TW games (like me ). Also when people play a game, they also look for other games that take place in the same area or scenarie and then they buy other LOTR games... By making a free mod is a winsituation for the gamepublishers

That EA decided to make newer TW games able to be modded was indeed a failure... I have all TW games + upgrades, but i ONLY play M2TW and in some instances RTW because of the mods...

[Nastrael]

I really don't think EA or SEGA would sue the TATW-team. To play this mod, you need to buy Medieval 2 - Kingdoms, which gives EA profit. People then like the TW series and then buy more TW games (like me ). Also when people play a game, they also look for other games that take place in the same area or scenarie and then they buy other LOTR games... By making a free mod is a winsituation for the gamepublishers

That EA decided to make newer TW games able to be modded was indeed a failure... I have all TW games + upgrades, but i ONLY play M2TW and in some instances RTW because of the mods...

sadly that isn't that case as we've seen with the Skyrim LotR mod.

[Mhaedros]

EA doesn't even have rights to LOTR anymore. BFME games aren't legal to produce or even sell anymore afaik. Warner Brothers owns the rights to the LOTR movies, names of characters and places etc, while Tolkien Estate owns everything that has to do with the books (at least if I've understood things right)

So technically Warner Brothers could use TATW stuff, as KK has no actual rights to it, except here on TWC (a modder could easily use TATW stuff, put a different name on it and release it on another forum without any consequences). So unless WB moves its HQ to TWC and then steals stuff, they would never face any consequences. On the other hand there is really no risk of WB stealing TATW stuff. They have no reason to do such things as they can easily afford to hire a semi-good modeller/textures instead of losing supporters by stealing.

[Bowmaster]

I Don't think they'll steal stuff from TATW, but @Mhaedros, they can afford buying good scripters and modellers, but they don't: they just simply make crappy LotR-games. They'll get money from them because of it's name. "The Lord of the Rings: The War of The Ring" or something like that they'll make. They already have.

[Mhaedros]

You can't compare the MERP cease & desist to TATW as the latter is already released and has been for many years. To try to stop it now would be impossible, so WB is/will be focusing on that which will actually make a difference.

[Nastrael]

I was only referring to the fact that just because the mod gives more publicity to LotR and thus increases the amount of people that might buy LotR games (thus making WB more money) doesn't mean the mod is safe from them.

[Ngugi]

Personally I'm sure it's a pragmatic stance that there's no real gain hunting TATW.
They might cripple TATW's avilablility by removing it from some sites but v3.0 alone is downloaded over 600 000 times. It is so spread already that it would only be made avilable by many who have downloaded it trough servers in countries that do not care and/or trough torrents; in difference to MERP that was not released yet.

[Amaranth]

Personally I'm sure it's a pragmatic stance that there's no real gain hunting TATW.
They might cripple TATW's avilablility by removing it from some sites but v3.0 alone is downloaded over 600 000 times. It is so spread already that it would only be made avilable by many who have downloaded it trough servers in countries that do not care and/or trough torrents; in difference to MERP that was not released yet.

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