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Copyright/Trademark Infringement - Scenes from movies

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The game has been fun so far, but I have noticed several movie scenes already which I am sure many of you have as well. I'm only upto chapter 4 in the game, but have seen scenes from Indianna Jones Temple of Doom, Starwars EP-VI, Monty Python - The Holy Grail, 300 and probably a few others already. From my understanding paradox would need permission to use these scenes from the owners of the movies but I see no reference to them in any of the help files/credits.

My question is, did paradox get approval from all the copyright holders before releasing this game?
 
Parody is not illegal. Especially not of single scenes. It would be illegal if they took large sections of the movie and displayed its entirety within the game, or if they released a movie with the exact same dialogue and action as the original movie.

On the same note, it is not illegal to display small clips from a movie when doing a review for instance.
 
Yes. They purchased all the rights to 300, Indiana Jones and Star Wars. They also got sole rights to ever use word "BANANAS" in a computer game.
 
Ah okay, I have seen it done before as one offs in games, but it was that I saw these parodies in Magicka over and over again. Looking at Movies like Epic movie that do parodies on a much greater scale they do need permission because it matches the original quite alot.

Thanks for answering my question.
 
delra said:
Yes. They purchased all the rights to 300, Indiana Jones and Star Wars. They also got sole rights to ever use word "BANANAS" in a computer game.
Click to expand...

Hehe... I guess they should sue these guys then! :)
 
Yes, i have them all on DVD.

But family guy is made by Fox whom they do most parodies of there shows, and whilst yes Fox have tried to sue a programme they create (Simpsons was the first) it does show they do care about it.

The only reason why I raised the question was that these parodies in Magica were more frequent than I would expect.
 
You have a very bad understanding of the law. Parody is an explicitly protected form of Fair Use, so it isn't copyright infringement (trademarks are something completely different, look it up on Wikipedia). In Magicka's case, not only is it parody, but the things they do are so vague that no one could try to sue them even if parodies weren't protected.

For example, the Star Wars reference is throwing someone down a hole while they're throwing lightning. Even if parody wasn't protected, George Lucas can't own the idea of throwing someone down a hole. It'd only be copyright infringement if they copied a really really big chunk of the story, not just a single moment.

Also, you must miss a lot of references in Family Guy if you think they're only parodying things that Fox owns.
 
Zyrxil said:
You have a very bad understanding of the law. Parody is an explicitly protected form of Fair Use, so it isn't copyright infringement (trademarks are something completely different, look it up on Wikipedia). In Magicka's case, not only is it parody, but the things they do are so vague that no one could try to sue them even if parodies weren't protected.

For example, the Star Wars reference is throwing someone down a hole while they're throwing lightning. Even if parody wasn't protected, George Lucas can't own the idea of throwing someone down a hole. It'd only be copyright infringement if they copied a really really big chunk of the story, not just a single moment.

Also, you must miss a lot of references in Family Guy if you think they're only parodying things that Fox owns.
Click to expand...

Word.
 
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