Question about royalty to mimic someone!

[Shah]

Hello!
My question is simple. Does anyone know, if we have a character in game that mimics someone, for example MJ, then do we need to pay someone for this?

Thanks in advance!

[CuteAlien]

Short answer - yes.

Longer answer ... laws are complicated and differ in each country. In germany for example that right is called the right for the own picture and generally guarentees that you need to have the allowance of a person to use a picture of them. And picture in this case is defined as making the person recognizable - so not just photographs. And in our country the rights stays with relatives for 10 years after the dead of a person. So if MJ means Michael Jackson this would mean in germany you couldn't use him yet. Then again there are a bunch of exceptions. For example you are allowed here to use pictures of persons in art - so if you manage to produce art with software you might be fine. Also you can usually use pictures of someone if they are only part of the scenery - so using a M.Jackson picture on a wall would probably be fine here. Also pictures of famous persons can be used in a lot more contexts without allowance than the pictures of private persons (so photographers do not have to get allowance for each picture they shoot of MJ). And certainly the laws are different in each country in the world....

There is another part to this, which is if you base your models on famous persons but make it not obvious. For example many game artists start with pictures of famous persons when they model game characters. It's just an easy trick if you need a certain character type and know for example someone who played just that type in a movie to use him then as basis. You just have to make certain to modify the end-result then enough to make it no longer recognizable. I'm sure you've played enough games where you thought a character looks a little bit like some actor you know ... now you know why ;-)

[Shah]

Thank you! A complete and perfect answer!

[Cube_]

wait! It gets more complex!
see: http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html

It basically says that you have full right to use someones intellectual property in a parodic manner, in essence this means that if you strap a pink thong on the hulk and give him a sombrero it is parodic enough for you to use him freely.

[randomMesh]

The Techno Viking lawsuit
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Techno_Viking

[Shah]

Is Michael Jackson's cloths and hat style are copyrights protected?

[kazymjir]

CuteAlien, it means that holding my hands like that is illegal?


joking