Re: Interested in a Homeworld Mod?
Hmmm, don't shoot the messenger, but here's the result of my quest to get something official ruled on concerning the mod. It you don't like the answer, you can always shoot Akula for asking the question about copyrights in the first place. [That's supposed to be humorous, btw.] If you all want to proceed, it would be wise to use sufficently different images and names so as to not raise a conflict.
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TAZ
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Response from VUG with a little text formatting added...
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Hi Todd,
Sorry for the long wait time on a response, but I wanted to take this issue to our legal team to make sure you were protected. We really appreciate the enthusiasm for the product. The response if that this would not be something that we would condone. The mod would take Intellectual Property (IP) that we own and modify it to support IP that we don not own. This would harm our own IP and provide us with no benefit. If you were to proceed with the mod it is possible that our legal team might take action. There have been similar issues in the past. Therefore I can’t grant you the clearance and assurance you are requesting.
I wish I could give you a positive response. I think you did a really good job presenting your case and you were very wish to ask for permission ahead of time.
Best regards,
Gregory Agius
Interactive Marketing
Vivendi Universal Games
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From: Todd Zircher [mailto:tzircher@yahoo.com]
Sent: Friday, April 15, 2005 12:02 PM
To: Agius, Greg
Subject: RE: Getting permission to make a mod about Homeworld...
Well, the mod group itself is a loose collection of friends and forum dwellers that are fans of Space Empires and the Homeworld series. The idea is to create a fan mod for Space Empires IV (and V when it is released this fall) that is based on Homeworld. SE is a strategic space empire 4x game that is very mod friendly. The project is strictly non-profit with zero intent for commercial distribution. It's something that we want to do as a labor of love for both games.
As you can tell, it's not a very tightly knit organization. People can come and go on the project since it is a fan effort and not done by a game studio or anything like that. I've kind of nominated myself to do some leg work on issues such as permission because I have a knack for 3D graphics. I've shown the other forum members that it is possible to use the ship models in the Homeworld files and render 2D graphics or convert models into a 3D format that SE V should be able to read. [SE IV uses 2D graphics, but SE V should be capable of a combination of 2D graphics and 3D models.]
My general take on it is that it a personal use thing more or less covered under the Homeworld license. And, we're not out to challenge any copyrights or trademarks of the Homeworld series. However some members of the group would like to see some level of permission so that we don't have to worry about a cease-n-desist order two thirds of the way through the mod. Of course, if there are any restrictions, disclaimers, or other such verbiage that we need to post, the group would be glad to comply with that.
Even if that means zero permission and we're asked to stop immediately, it is better to know that up front than months later.
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Todd A. Zircher
"Agius, Greg" <gregory.agius@vugames.com> wrote:
What we’d need to do for starters is get an exact idea of what you are trying to do. Are you physically altering the source code? Are you selling the game? Etc etc
Gregory Agius
Interactive Marketing
Vivendi Universal Games
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From: Todd Zircher [mailto:tzircher@yahoo.com]
Sent: Friday, April 15, 2005 8:14 AM
To: forumadmin
Subject: Getting permission to make a mod about Homeworld...
Good morning. Nocturnus, a moderator on the Homeworld forum, suggested that I drop you a line and perhaps you can point me in the right direction.
I have some friends over on the Shrapnel game forum that are interested in making a Space Empires mod using images and models from HW/HW:C/HW2. The idea being to make a mod for strategic gaming. Some of them asked about getting permission to do this, just in case Relic/Sierra/VUG wanted to stomp on a fan mod for some reason.
Given that info, do you have a ideas as to who I can contact so I can get permission to make a Homeworld mod for Space Empires?
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TAZ
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