ID:829403
 
Keywords: book, copyright, fan, game
I know that 'Fan games' has developed some sort of stereotype here in Byond (and probably in other places), which usually involves games inspired in Anime and stuff. However, this is only a very limited perspective of the raw meaning.

My real question is: how wide was this issue with development of games that ended up being halted due to copyright conflicts? Did it involve only FUNimation?

What if I decided to develop a game inspired in books, would I get this sort of Cease and Desist as well? Of course, removing any reference to any eventual movie that followed the book in question (Example: if I wanted to develop a game inspired in Tolkien, yet completely autonomous from Peter Jackson' movies)

Thanks for the attention!
Square-Enix also handed down a cease and desist order to BYOND regarding all Final Fantasy fan-games. It only seems they covered Final Fantasy games though, as we still have a number of Dragon Quest games around that they didn't seem to be too concerned about.

Truthfully all fan works are at risk of being taken down at any time, it's just up to whether or not the copyright holder actually wants to bother with taking legal action. It's hard to say if you'd get C&D'd or not.
If you make a harry potter game - it is a fan game.
If you make a narnia game - it is a fan game.
If you make a hunger games game - it is a fan game.

If you read the definition of "fan game" that was provided when the whole rule came into place, it went something like, "Any game that draws from outside sources with distinct IP holders to gain players". So as long as your game is OBVIOUSLY based off of something else with names and everything, it's a fan game. The Charmed games are fan games, no anime there.
Perhaps that happens inside Byond, because outside it isn't precisely like that. One may draw information by outside sources, although they end up suffering due to copyright issues if they go on too far.

Example: there was a Morrowind's mod that featured the world of Tolkien (the Lord of the Ring's one, before purists throw in my face he had others), which ended up receiving a C&D from EA (I guess it's EA) due to it's use of Lord of the Rings' soundtrack. However, another mod for Mount and Blade, which also features the world of Middle Earth, managed to avoid all references to the movies, making their own way only through the lore of the books. It's been alive for years, and their development has started like five years ago. No copyright issue until now, although you can see very familiar names through the gameplay (like Kili, Théoden, Faramir, King Dáin, etc.).

That's why I used Lord of the Rings in my argument, because of cases such as these above. Then, I assume that a game that's based on the books, but manages to avoid references to the movies, can be hosted on the hubs without a problem.
Those things are still copyright infringing and could be given a cease and desist at any time, the book publishers simply aren't concerned enough to do so. If you're just going by generic middle earth lore, I think The Hobbit might even be public domain by now anyway, seeing as it's ~80 years old. If you tried the same thing with newer books, it could easily turn out just like an unauthorized project that uses a movie.

This shouldn't be confused with drawing inspiration from an established source. If you were to make a game set in a very similar universe with no direct references to whatever it was, it would be completely legal. No one owns a copyright for Tolkien-esque fantasy worlds, so it's fine to use those ideas in your own way. The issue comes when people say, "This is a Lord of the Rings game" and directly include places and people from that universe.

If the Mount and Blade mod you mentioned does that, then they're just as susceptible to a C&D order as the Morrowind mod was, it simply hasn't come up yet.
I think The Hobbit might even be public domain by now anyway, seeing as it's ~80 years old.

A more pressing problem with using "The Hobbit" is that the man behind the "The Hobbit" film is rather fanatical about 'punishing' people who use 'his' brand by dragging them to court for damages.

This has even happened to two or three pubs(!!) who have Hobbit-themed murals/paintings displayed, or Hobbit-themed drinks.
I'm still bitter over Iron Crown Enterprises losing the legal right to MERP. ;)