Copyright issue?

I'd just like to ask about a little copyright problem I 'may' run into.

The thing is, me and a mate at college were talking about old (and I mean old) computer games, and we were discussing our favourite all time classics (as you do). We both agreed that there was a load, but most notably, we loved the old 8-bit Ghostbusters game... remember that :)

Anyway, I fancy making a remake of said game, but I was wondering, well, worried about, is the fact that the music is obviously copyrighted (since it's been in the film/charts etc), would I still be able to use a midi version of it, without getting a smacked botty... Or would I have to ask permission?

I've only made the odd remake, well, I made the odd one or two whilst learning Blitz... And since copyright is a much bigger issue now than when I was learning, where exactly do I stand?

Any advice would be great!

Dabz

no you cant make or sell a ghostbusters remake because you dont own a licence for the copyright to the film or the original game. that said i dont think anyone will waste money trying to stop you unless you make lots of money selling it which is a bit unlikely lets face it. look at remakes.org there are lots of games there that are not getting anyone in trouble but not one of the people who made them has a licence.

im making transformers and as the new film is just round the corner i think id be higher on the list to shut down that a remake of an old 8bit game.

Pete

Just name it Ghostbeaters or something.

Copyright is Copyright. You can't rip something off and sell it OR give it away for free. Regardless of whether anyone would pursue legal action or not, it's still illegal.

I got threats of legal action from the World Professional Billiards & Snooker Association (WPBSA) because I was writing a game called "World Snooker", which unknown to me, turned out to be a registered trademark of the WPBSA.

So don't think they won't chase you - there's every chance they might. Its happened to me.

sorry if my answer sounded hard im a nice bloke really. make your game no one will mind!

i remember the original, the c64 version had a better end to it that the spectrum but the main game was the same. i even remember the poor sound with the computer trying to say "he slimed me!" in a monotone buzz. very high tech :O)

Pete

In my opinion, remake it but with just a different theme.
Whilst theme can be copyrighted, gameplay cannot.

Thanks for the advice chappies! :)

I thought it might be a problem, that's why I asked... Seems a shame though, I mean, I could change the theme, but I was hoping to include the catchy 'ghostbusters' bit at the start, which was great when I was a kid, that bit sorta kicked the game off for me!

Plus I thought it would be fun to do, but, copyright is copyright, so, fair play!

Dabz

Going slightly off topic, the original Ghostbusters game was a bit poor, really - just a couple of sub-standard and very disjointed sub-games.

The Megadrive version (a platformer, no less) was infinitely better.

I love it, but then... nostalgia is a funny thing! :)

Dabz

You know... I know a couple of guys that make really intense sculptural models of SciFi and Horror characters... Now you have to realize those images are copyrighted but they communicate with the studio that owns the copyright and say I want to make a sculpture of (for example) BANE. and here is my idea sketches. I plan to make XXX number of copies. This is some of the work I have done so far. Please don't say NO let me at least make one copy and we can discuss a merchandising right or a limited license...

Most of the time it works.

ColinTheConstipatedCamel... took... no dumps...
ColinTheConstipatedCamel... took... no dumps...
ColinTheConstipatedCamel... took... no dumps...
Because Colin ate fi-ber!

ColinTheConstipatedCamel had the hump because he couldn't dump.

Anyway, yeah ghostbusters was a bit pap, the best bit was presing space bar for "ghostbusters" to sing along with the lyrics on the title page. There's about a zillion better C64 games :-) let alone other home computers and consoles.