Art for Mods (Intellectual Property question)

[Emperor's Child]

Question for the Mod Gurus:

I’m putting together a Mod based on the Warhammer / Battlefleet Gothic background, and found some online art released by the parent company as Computer Wallpaper that I’d like to use in the Into / Splash screen for the Mod.

I’m not sure if use of this art, though not for profit, is something that the company would object to. My gut feeling is that the company would not authorize this, but if we are not using this for profit is there anything they can say or do about it.

Is there a rule of thumb that you need to avoid using anything but your own art if you publicly release the mod? I’ve seen some shipsets and mods with what appear to be lifts from Movie related art material or art from other sources so I’m not sure what will or won’t get you into hot water.

I just want to get these issues sorted out before I put too much effort into areas that I can’t publicly use.

[Xrati]

Having experience with a game company(I was co-owner of Pinwheel Games), go back to the site and see if the material has been copyrighted. If it has been all you need to do is contact the artist for their permission to use the material. Make sure that you let them know it is not for profit use. Most artist's look for different ways of getting their artwork seen. If you do use the material without permission, the owner (which may not be the artist) is open to legal action. You'll find that dealing with people is quite easy and most people are willing to let you use their properities if you ask and are not planning to put it out on you own...

While you can use it and the owner will probably ask you to stop using it before they go to legal action because of the cost of legal proceedings. It's best to just ask and you'll see that people are really good natured and will help you.

[Seik]

I have made some team-logos for the "Chaos League PC-Game" (I used the original GW-Team-Logos) and after putting the logos into a forum it lasted only two days to receive a message from GW that I ve to delete the logos for copyright protections.

Maybe this was because "Chaos League" is apparently a Bloodbowl-Clone but without paying tribute to GW?!

[Xrati]

Artwork is a little different than Logo's. Most of the time the artist will retain the ownership of the picture and grant the user permission to use it (generally for a one time payment). Unless the user wishes to purchase the art it remains the property of the artist. This allows them to deal with many companies without getting tied down to one customer. A lot of artwork is shared buy different companies using the same picture on different products.