Copyright Question.

[Hipshot]

Hello 3DR.

I tried mailing about this to Remedy, but I'm a bit confused, who made this game really? And also, I haven' recived an aswer from them yet, so maybe someone here can answer me this.

I found the textures for May Payne a while back, on a mod called Spirit of Half-Life I think. I downloaded them, and found this txt inside, with this text:


The textures in this file are property of Remedy Entertainment Ltd., and can be used only as long as the
work is recognized as original artwork by Remedy, and no financial profit is made in the process.

(C)1998-2001 Remedy Entertainment Ltd.


I need to know if that is correct and if I can use the texture then. I'm sorry to say that I already have used them, under the assumption that this was correct. This was a while ago, and I made the correct credits and all that. This summer, I made a new map, this time for CSS, I used one texture from the set, I didn't even remember it was from Max Payne, and I forgott to mention this in the txt, and I'm really sorry for this, and that was a honest mistake, I would never cheat about something like that.

But now I feel that I need to clear this up, cause I wanna use some of the textures still, but I need to know if its legal or if this text file is made up. If it is, then I'm truly sorry, the two maps I used them in are very high quality (the first is a benchmark map for Q3), and dosen't make the textures look bad or in some bad environment (1 (http://zfight.com/misc/images/mappingliga_01.jpg) (If I remember correct, this brick texture is a remake from a MP text from the start) 2 (http://zfight.com/vexii/de_velvet_east13.jpg) (This wall brick is a direct copy)).

I hope you can answer me.

Cheers
/Jock

[Kristian Joensen]

The Max Payne IP was co-owned by 3D Realms(the "producer") and Remedy(the developer), but when the Max Payne 2 was announced they sold the IP to Take Two(the publisher).

From the press release:


Take-Two also announced that it has acquired ownership of the Max Payne brand and all intellectual property rights associated with the brand, including trademarks, copyrights, characters, perpetual license to utilize proprietary technologies, including the Max Payne game engine and associated "Bullet Time(TM)" technology, and rights to license fees from ancillary Max Payne brand extensions such as cinema, television and literary productions.

Take-Two purchased the Max Payne property from Remedy Entertainment and Apogee Software in exchange for $10 million in cash and 969,932 shares of restricted common stock, in addition to certain future development incentives.


(emphasis mine) Source (http://www.3drealms.com/press/max2announced.html).

As for 3D Realms role in the development of Max Payne, Scott Miller, founder and co-owner/partner of 3D Realms had this to say on his blog:


Just to be clear that I do not hijack improper credit, Max Payne was developed (all content and code) by Remedy Entertainment (they did all the hard work!), and produced by 3D Realms (meaning we funded a significant portion of the game, handled the publishing agreements, helped guide the game's design, helped play-tested and polished the game, handled the shareware release, and oversaw and co-designed the game's marketing).


source (http://dukenukem.typepad.com/game_matters/2003/11/max_payne_the_m.html).

In summary Take Two Interactive Software owns the copyrigth to both Max Payne games and they are the ones to contact for premission.

[Joonas]

Remedy Entertainment based in Espoo, Finland did the development. And as the copyright says, you can use the texture for a modification if you mention where you got it from and that it is made by Remedy.

[Hipshot]

Thanks.
Well, then I guess I just need to change the readme for the latest map (the first had a very extensive readme) and I'm in the clear http://forums.3drealms.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
Nice to know, these are great textures.

[Kristian Joensen]

Joonas said:
Remedy Entertainment based in Espoo, Finland did the development. And as the copyright says, you can use the texture for a modification if you mention where you got it from and that it is made by Remedy.



Yes but Take Two may at any time revoke that license, since it doesn't say that it is irrevocable.

[ADM]

Kristian Joensen said:

Joonas said:
Remedy Entertainment based in Espoo, Finland did the development. And as the copyright says, you can use the texture for a modification if you mention where you got it from and that it is made by Remedy.



Yes but Take Two may at any time revoke that license, since it doesn't say that it is irrevocable.



That's not the point though is it? Is it necessary to bring all that up?

Remedy have clearly stated that people are allowed to use their textures IF they follow what that txt says and they include that statement with the mod.

Let's just leave it at that and forget about any "What if's" or any other possibilities that haven't happened yet and most likely won't happen in the future.

[Corwin]

I thought that you can only use textures from a game in a mod actually based on this game.
This is taken from the official tutorials.


Legal information

The copyrighted materials of Max Payne, an audio-visual interactive game, including but not limited to graphics, art & textures; levels, maps & environments (or portions thereof); music, sounds & voices; game objects & weapons; interface; game story & graphic novel screens; and trademarks such as BULLET TIME and SHOOTDODGE, under copyright and trademark laws (herein known as the Copyrighted Game Elements), MAY NOT BE USED COMMERCIALLY, to commercially benefit the end-user or other party, directly or indirectly, including the benefit of other related or unrelated commercial products.

These Copyrighted Game Elements may only be used by legal owners of the Max Payne game, for personal or shared enjoyment with other legal owners of the Max Payne game, for the purpose of prolonging their game play enjoyment of the Max Payne game. This license grants the right to legal owners of the Max Payne game to share and upload modified versions of the Copyrighted Game Elements to online web sites, FTP sites and online libraries, for the express and limited purpose of sharing with other legal owners of the Max Payne game. No other distribution, public or otherwise, is allowed.

[ADM]

Yep so there you go.. only in Max Payne 1 and 2 mods. Sorry Hipshot but you'll have to replace those textures.

[Samji]

As Kristian said Remedy Entertainment effectively sold the copyright of the Max Payne franchise to Take 2 Interactive whose subsidary publisher, Gathering of Developers (also know as God Games and now just Gathering) published Max Payne 1.

Max Payne 2 was published by Rockstar Games (another subsidary company owned by Take 2 Interactive).

3D Realms was the co-producer for both Max Payne and Max Payne 2.

Therefore all the copyright and legal usage side of the Max Payne franchise itself is owned by Take 2 Interactive and not Remedy Entertainment. I'm not sure if this refers all the technology used to create the games (such as textures and engine) which I assume is still exclusively owned by Remedy Entertainment, Ltd.

I emailed Remedy a while back concearning someone selling mods over the Internet for finacial profit (which were not their own) and was told in reply that the Max Payne franchise is not dealt with by Remedy, but rather Take 2.

[Kristian Joensen]

Yes but textures are copyrigthed and the press release specificly mentions copyrigths beeing transfered to Take Two.

[Samji]

Alright, Take 2 owns everything now.