Morrus

Customer
I've been glancing over the Triple Triad game. Looks fun, and I'm considering a purchase.

However, I'm a little concerned about the Intellectual Property issues from the product. Am I right in assuming these cards (and, indeed, the game name) come from existing IP (Final Fantasy?) Is this licensed in some way?

Not that I'm worried about what you guys do here, but I would be concerned about IP complications for myself should I install it on my site. I like the idea of the game, but I'm not comfortable with using existing IP unless I'm clear on the licensing issue.

Could one rename the game? And are there any "generic" card packs anywhere, which don't use Final Fantasy images and names or the like?
 
We've not heard of a single site being asked to take down either ours or any other version of Triple Triad that exists for various forum softwares - I'm pretty sure you're safe :)

Cosmic is our resident armchair lawyer who will be able to give you a more formal answer.
 
Well, it's not a question of "Will I get away with it?", it's a question of whether the IP is actually licensed or not. Like I say, what you do here is your business, but I can't in all conscience purchase from you someone else's IP - and I don't want to take the risk of a takedown notice even if that risk is small.

I assume the phrase manager can be used to change the name of the game and other such references? Are custom cards easy to implement on the Admin side? (we have our own IP we could use for this - the game could be an excellent promotional tool for it). As long as I can ensure that my installation of it contains no third-party IP, I have no issue (there are no IP issues associated with the game rules themselves, as long as the text hasn't been copied verbatim from somewhere else).
 
Formal answer is:

To the best of my knowledge the mechanics of a game cannot be copyrighted (e.g the actual mechanics of the game of triple triad). The images etc used in the basic pack are directly from the game, we have tried a couple of times to find out who to talk to regarding licensing the images but have never received any answer. If anyone at square enix asked us to stop using the images we would of course, and supply our customers with completely new images =)

Creating your own cards is easy, the software won't do the image part for you, but its as simple as uploading an image and inputting the "scores" for each side manually.

Hope that clears things up for you,

Cosmic
 
Cool; as long as I know I can use my own cards I'm not worried.

You're right in that rules mechanics cannot be copyrighted - but the text describing them can. I don't know if you copied the text or not (not familiar with the original source) or wrote your own version of it. The images, obviously, are most definitely copyrighted and the name is a trademark.
 
I don't want to be a downer, but I've had my first "Who are the artists and where's their credit?" query.

Is the art, at least, licensed, if not the trademarks? Please don't tell me you didn't just grab unlicensed art from the internet and then sell it to me. Artists get really funny about that sort of thing (and I have a lot of professional fantasy artists on my site - someone is very likely to see their own art there).
 
All our art for making the images comes from either myself or RokuMerlin, however in some of our packs we use images taken from screenshots of games (for example the pokémon set and final fantasy 7 set, hero and villian sets and the MW2 sets) however our card design is of our own work. it is very unlikely that any of our images are used from artists as they are taken from gaming screenshots, these generally are stock images we need to make the set but backgrounds, statistics and colors are all of our own work.

Since we don't limit you to having to use our stuff you can create your own cards and upload them as Cosmic mentioned, if your worried about text and things then i believe TT is fully phrasable meaning you can alter it as you choose.

Cosmic will most probably explain this a little better than i can, plus we wouldn't sell anything we don't own. if anyone asks us to take down our sets due to whatever reason we will without question.
 
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All our art for making the images comes from either myself or RokuMerlin, however in some of our packs we use images taken from screenshots of games (for example the pokémon set and final fantasy 7 set, hero and villian sets and the MW2 sets) however our card design is of our own work.

I've not used those sets, fortunately, because I was concerned about that issue. I was well aware that if I recognised the name, the likelyhood was that it was someone else's IP. So I just used the generic "Magc Wood" and "Fire" sets.

it is very unlikely that any of our images are used from artists as they are taken from gaming screenshots,

You're kinda missing the point. Art doesn't materialise in the universe spontaneously. Someone is paid to create the art, and someone owns the IP - whether that's the artist, a company the artist worked for, or someone the artist sold the rights to.

Gaming screenshots? Yeah, very much the "not public domain" end of the spectrum. Seriously man, you can't do that. You can't sell me someone else's art. How would you feel if I sold someone your software?

these generally are stock images we need to make the set but backgrounds, statistics and colors are all of our own work.

I'm not talking about the card design, just about the art you used.

Since we don't limit you to having to use our stuff you can create your own cards and upload them as Cosmic mentioned, if your worried about text and things then i believe TT is fully phrasable meaning you can alter it as you choose.

Yes, I've completely rewritten the rules text just to be sure, since nobody confirmed to me it wasn't copied. That said, I don't think it was (from the grammar).

plus we wouldn't sell anything we don't own.

You just told me you had sold something you don't own.

Did you pay for any of the art? Is any of it in the public domain (unlikely)?

I really need clarification on this - and quickly. I can have one of my artists produce a set of cards with original art no problem, but if you've sold me someone else's intellectual property we have an issue.

On the flip side - the software itself is extremely well implemented. I'm very impressed with it. Smooth and professional-looking. I don't regret my purchase of the software one bit. But your problem here is that my site is exactly the sort of site many of those fantasy artists are likely to visit - and it just takes one to recognise their own art and they're suing you for a lot of money. And it'd snowball from there.
 
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It's now come to my attention that the music used is from a computer game, also.

I've replaced it in my installation with a piece of original music that we own (the soundtrack to a fantasy product series we produced).
 
I'll be looking into this over the next couple of weeks - the music images etc were supplied to DBTech from external freelancers. I'll look into the licensing situation from their end (I personally wasn't able to get a hold of anyone re: licensing from square enix).

Cosmic
 
(I personally wasn't able to get a hold of anyone re: licensing from square enix).

You attempted to license it, didn't get a reply, and just used it anyway?

Oh, man.

Anyway, that's your problem, not mine, so I won't go on about it. I deliberately haven't used any of the Final Fantasy sets, or the ones with DC characters and the like in them. What I am concerned about is the card sets I've bought and used - "Magic Wood" and "Fire"; could you confirm for me that those are original art or art to which you own a transferrable license?
 
You attempted to license it, didn't get a reply, and just used it anyway?

Oh, man.

Anyway, that's your problem, not mine, so I won't go on about it. I deliberately haven't used any of the Final Fantasy sets, or the ones with DC characters and the like in them. What I am concerned about is the card sets I've bought and used - "Magic Wood" and "Fire"; could you confirm for me that those are original art or art to which you own a transferrable license?

Not quite =)

The assets were supplied to us by freelancers which we use(d) in good faith. I've been attempting to get clarification on the licensing of them.

The Magic Wood and Fire sets were supplied to us by RokuDaMerlin and again are sold by us in good faith as being artwork he has the license for.

Until I am able to verify the licensing status of images we supply i'm going to remove them from sale - we act as publishers for 3rd party work with many of our products and all of our artwork (rather than these assets being created/supplied from employees of the company).

Until i can get the legal status of the items sorted (e.g what steps we are required to take under law to verify the status of things supplied to us) I will be removing all artwork with any potential licensing issues.

Cheers for bringing this to my attention.

Cosmic
 
The Magic Wood and Fire sets were supplied to us by RokuDaMerlin and again are sold by us in good faith as being artwork he has the license for.

Excellent! They're the only two I'm using, so the only one which worry me. Thanks for the clarification. :)
 
Incidentally, if you do decide to replace the music and/or art, I may be able to help. Up to you, but let me know - I'll probably have an artist on the job anyway.
 
Incidentally, if you do decide to replace the music and/or art, I may be able to help. Up to you, but let me know - I'll probably have an artist on the job anyway.

I might take you up on that if it turns out we do need someone, cheers.

Cosmic
 
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