Moorhuhn PSP Legal steps

[sony psp player]

Hi,

Today i received an e-mail from phenomedia, the developer of Moorhuhn for the PC:

Guten Tag Herr ********,



mit Erstaunen mussten wir feststellen, dass trotz der Absage im Email vom 12.9. (siehe unten) direkt am Tag darauf ein Spiel mit unserem Moorhuhn zum Download angeboten wurde; zum Beispiel hier: http://www.file-upload.net/download-...rhuhn.rar.html



Bitte erläutern Sie uns bis zum 12.11.2008 um 12 Uhr mittags, was es damit auf sich hat. Rechtliche Schritte behalten wir uns vor.



Mit freundlichen Grüßen



******** ********

Translated using Google:

Good day Mr. ********,



with amazement, we found that, despite the rejection from 12.9 in the email. (see below) directly on the day that a game with our Moorhuhn was offered for download, for example here: http://www.file-upload.net/download-...rhuhn.rar.html



Please explain to us until 12.11.2008 clock at 12 noon, so what it is all about. Legal steps we reserve.



Yours sincerely



******** ********

The problem is that I'm a 15 year old who doesn't know anything about Legal steps they can take now.
This e-mail really frightens me, so please, if someone knows what phenomedia can do now, please tell me, and please tell me what I can do about it.

And, to QJ, please take down my game from dl.qj.net.

[eldiablov]

That translation isnt very good but ask them what steps they want you to take to prevent legal action from being taken.

[joseph10444]

whoa i fell sorry for you
the game was good
yes try to ask them what you can try
in the meantime think of an explain

[sony psp player]

Ok, so here is a better (<-- i think so) translation of the e-mal:

Hi Mr. ********,

with amazement, we found out that the day after the e-mail you wrote on 12-Sep, a game with our Moorhuhn was offered for download, for example: http://www.file-upload.net/download-...rhuhn.rar.html

Please explain us until 12-Nov-2008, Noon, what this all is about. Legal steps are reserverd.

Yours sincerly,

******** ********

Does anyone know how they can find my phone number or full information about where I live?

[dan369]

They could easily get your IP address which of course would be in the broaband people name (virgin media, sky etc.) They could get your house address through that. But first before they can get anything info they would need to get proper permission. I'm only 15 myself, i wouldn't like to be emailed out of the blue like that. I wouldn't worry if i was you, that person isn't going to sue you for a homebrew game.

Edit: Did That the person give you an email before about your game?

[joseph10444]

what was the email you wrote on sept 12??

[eldiablov]

Dear god ... this isn't a stupid coding question this is a person who needs serious advice. To tell him not to worry is beyond ridiculous. They can and WILL sue somebody for copyright infringement.

Could you show what email you sent on the 12th. I still think their email looks pretty stupid personally, i'm not sure what they want from you :/

[sony psp player]

Originally Posted by joseph10444

what was the email you wrote on sept 12??

I asked whether I am allowed to use their Moorhuhn pictures for my game, they said no. So I made my own for being able to enter it into the qj homebrew contest.

[eldiablov]

You shouldnt have called your homebrew by the same name either. Then you would have been likely to be in the clear.

[emcp]

Originally Posted by joseph10444

what was the email you wrote on sept 12??

it sounds as if he was asking permission

mate, you should have asked for permission, which you were never going to get

or just release it

you drew attention to yourself, although the first thing is morally legally correct to do so

however form the little experience i have, legal issue is the last thing they want to do, ask them what they want done, the best you could do is to try and get some of the major sites to take it down, but then again, once its out there its out there

ill have to see the game, you cant own a game idea, however a name would be trademarked/copyrighted, sort of lke the tetris clones,
you need permission to call it tetris, but you dont need permission to make a clone similar game,

LOK AT THE FUN KART, SUCH A RIP OF MARIO KART

although if it takes away from profits (which i doubt this will), they will threaten you with legal issues, but you know for the shake of a homebrew game, id dump it and just do what they want, especially seeing you probably dont have the money to fight this yourself, if you were going to fight it that is

good luck

oops this topic is popular, just noticed the new posts made while i typed this

also did you make that upload yourself, or was it mirrored, they cant prove its you unless they track it, which once again is a waste of money

[dan369]

Originally Posted by eldiablov

You shouldnt have called your homebrew by the same name either. Then you would have been likely to be in the clear.

Yeah, you should have called it PSPMoorhuhn or something like that, they can't sue you because you have to be over a certain age which defers between places but is mainly either 16 or 18.

[FaT3oYCG]

really? ask them what you need to do to prevent legal action, also ask them why they took so long to respond XD.

[ifiwere1337]

they cant really take any legal action against a homebrew can they?

[FaT3oYCG]

Yes they can!

[emcp]

Originally Posted by dan369

Yeah, you should have called it PSPMoorhuhn or something like that, they can't sue you because you have to be over a certain age which defers between places but is mainly either 16 or 18.

yes, but do parents/guardians not become reliable

[Mraellis]

I am amazed they even bothered to email you to be honest.

But what you want to do is immediately send them a email asking what they mean, what you can do to avoid being sued and also explain your age. Tell them that you are trying to get it removed from any websites hosting it, that you didn't use their sprites and finally tell them that you only understand English so please could they respond in English.

Please let us know how this goes. If you would like i can help you write the email? (I'm not on much longer though tonight)

[TurtlesPwn]

You asked permission to use their stuff, they said no. Moorhuhn is part of their stuff. Connection made?

Get rid of the game, make it like it never existed, change images and name and some of the gameplay maybe even, and then rerelease.

[FrozenIpaq]

If you never used any of their content in your game but have the name as Moorhuhn then just change the name and they should have no legal standing

EDIT: Well I see that you offered the game with the stolen sprites, which was a bad idea and after being told by Chris to remove those sprites for entry you did (glad to see Chris is on top of things). You should be in the clear if you didn't use their copyrighted images in your final release - if there's still the old version online be sure to remove it

[BlackBurd]

This is why you should browse using a web based anonymzer program then they will never catch you.
You can also spoof your mac address and ip using a software program called cain&abel
ive never used the net without a proxy
Especially f you pirate music and ds games(-- Ds games are not worth wastng money on there like cellphone games)

hope that helped

Oh and they can put a L.S on you based on how many tmes it was downloaded and how much they thnk they lost out of it.

[yaustar]

Reply back asking them what steps do they want taken. In the meantime, ask for the game to be removed from the site/server you uploaded to. Any other sites or servers are not your responsibility and is down to the copyright owners to have it removed.

When you release your next iteration, remove all copyrighted references from the game. As someone mentioned before, a game idea cannot be copyrighted. However, some gameplay mechanics are arguably patentable.
-=Double Post Merge =-

Originally Posted by BlackBurd

Especially f you pirate music and ds games(-- Ds games are not worth wastng money on there like cellphone games)

Nice to know that you are supporting the games industry [/sarcasm].

[Nightcrawler]

Just ask file-upload to take it down and next time use someone Else's Internet to upload it from preferably someone you don't know with open WI-FI

[wololo]

Your first step is to be in the clear :
1) ask all sites that host your game to remove it from download.

2) Once this is done, tell them you requested every copyright infringing file to be removed, but that you are not responsible for the distribution on sites that don't belong to you.


Then here's what I'd do, but that's really personal, I'm no lawyer:
3) Tell them to send you further emails in english. I'm pretty sure there is a law in your country (wherever it is) that says that all legal communications should be in (insert here the main language of your country, I'd say english). They have no right to frighten you in a language that you don't understand.

4)If you still want to work on that game, remove all copyrighted material (sprites, name, whatever...). There is little chance they put any patent on the mechanics of the game itself.

But as a general rule, don't even try to be smarter than them

[ifiwere1337]

thats rediculous that they can take the legal action against something that doesnt stand to gain money

[Flamingwolf]

Originally Posted by ifiwere1337

thats rediculous that they can take the legal action against something that doesnt stand to gain money

Well if you punch someone in the face you're not going to get any money from that are you? [unless you are robbing them, which is another story.] Can that person still sue you? Yeah they can.

Also, although the person doesn't stand to gain any money, the company might feel that they are losing money because people aren't buying the original.

[Art]

I don't think it's worth their time or money to chase down a 15 year old overseas.

[Nielkie]

Originally Posted by ifiwere1337

thats rediculous that they can take the legal action against something that doest stand to gain money

Well, by releasing your homebrew under their name you are hindering their ability to sell their product.

Say someone Googles the game, they notice a free version for the PSP, they download that instead of buying a copy of the official game. It becomes a further problem if they ever decide to make an official PSP version.

Steps repeated for emphasis:
1) Ask all sites to remove your download

2) Ask them to clarify any further actions they want to be taken

3) If you still want to release, release under a completely different name and optionally, a different style.

[sony psp player]

Ok, thanks to everyone in here, and thanks to the one who removed the download from QJ.

[Sullivan]

Originally Posted by Art

I don't think it's worth their time or money to chase down a 15 year old overseas.

You would be surprised.

[sony psp player]

I've got a new e-mail from phenomedia now.

There are two things i can do now:
a) remove the files
b) remove the files and agree on a licence. For example, they give me stuff (images, sounds) and I am allowed to include them into my game, with a reference note were I got that material from. This licence would maybe be free of charge because it's a non-commercial licence and my game runs on a platform they currently don't support.

It's up to me.



What would you say?
How would you remove the files from the internet? Just like someone said before, if it's out there, it's out there.

[dan369]

Qj is the main site, most other sites just link the download to dl.qj so i'd ask a mod. If Dcemu have a link on there forums, just pm wraggster to get it deleted.