On 2 Jan 2005 20:06:13 -0800 Johnr wrote:
This is something my business law 101 class just didn't cover.
In your opinion would including 45-second video clips of various video
games which instruct people how to cheat at said games, be covered
under fair use?
The substantiality of the material is certainly limited since you can't
"play" a video as you would the game, and it definetly does not
supplant the normal market as the only people interested would be
people who already own the game.
However, the nature of the material will likely be seen as detrimental
to the game by its owners. Also, I've been told it's not going to be
covered in a common fair use category, such as scholarship, research,
teaching, or parody.
Could I somehow make it under journalism? I notice that IGN (a popular
online magazine) sells access to video-reviews of games, and I doubt
they are given permission by the developers - especially when they're
trashing the game.
Another opinion request: What, if anything, makes images (screenshots)
different from videos? I've seen unofficial strategy books use
screenshots, how do they get away with it?
http://tinyurl.com/4vumq
(links to an amazon.com page which shows the first 4 pages of a mario
guide)
One last thing I've noticed: in all "unofficial" game strategy guides,
there are never screenshots or art depicting characters on the cover -
only inside the guide. Anyone know why that is?
I'm getting real legal advice later this month. I just wanted some
opinions from you guys first.
Thank you for any replies!
Best thing to do is to get written permission from the author.
In lieu of that, you can state, "used without permission" and "copyrights
and trademarks are those of the manufacturer and distributor".
Since you're not selling the actual game video, and only using a few seconds
worth of it, I don't see where that would be a problem.
If you were to exploit the video game screen by screen, then yeah, you've
got problems.
Screenshots, like those at amazon.com are generally there to aid in selling
the item so the buyer knows more of what he's getting.
Basically, an advertisement.
