MArcomage

Yes, also elemental storm is a card from Magic.
I must admit that I don't understood yet how it works copyright on the net.
e.g. your (marsover's )avatar is yoda from star wars, but you don't have to give money to George Lucas if you want to use it.
I know that we alread discussed about that but I don't remember the conclusion of the topic. (good chance to use the search!)

I believe so long as the images are used for non-economic unaffiliated purposes only it doesn't violate anything.

Each individual source would have its own rules and restrictions. Not dealing in money doesn't mean we're safe in all cases. Using copyrighted images from another card game or another computer game could be argued as using their properties to create a free version of what they are offering, in effect giving away something for which they charge a fee, also known as piracy. Even in a gray area such as this, they could very well send a cease and desist order against the entire site. We want to avoid that, no matter how flimsy the case.

As far as our forum avatars, these aren't officially part of the website or the game it offers to visitors. That's not to say that a copyright holder doesn't have the right to send a cease and desist notice, but it wouldn't be directed at the website as a whole. (Fun fact! Nintendo sent one to me once for a webpage I had with Pokemon pictures on it!)

Copyrighters? Let them hang on the yard! YARRRRR!!

The law is clear, if you are using them for non-economic purposes, then unless stated otherwise where you found the picture, you are allowed to use it. If the copyrights don't allow you to use it under any circumstance, but that is not stated where the picture was displayed publicly, then they can only warn us that what we use is copyrighted and they must give us a deadline, by which the picture must be removed. After that deadline if the picture is not removed then they can charge us with illegal use of the picture.

Therefore I agree with Xpoh, AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGHHHHHHH :P

I doupt you studied law, but still, they might as well walk the plank. ;-)

ARRR!

marsrover21 wrote:
I'm concerned that this and other cards by the same poster violate copyright law in regards to their images.

There are a lot of card images (official ones) that uses copyrighted images from books covers, Magic ...
I remember one that was a cover from an old spectrum game...(I think that the copyright would not be enforced in that but the card has since change its image).

Progressor wrote:
I doupt you studied law, but still, they might as well walk the plank. ;-)

ARRR!

lol i ddt study law, but i am a bit of ...illegal uploader :P so i learnt a little something about rights :P

Lord wrote:
The law is clear, if you are using them for non-economic purposes, then unless stated otherwise where you found the picture, you are allowed to use it.

I don't think it's quite that simple. Whether something is being used for commercial purposes is one of the criteria for determining whether it falls under fair use, but it's not the only one, and it doesn't definitively determine it one way or another.

Basically, I think Marcomage is so small that it's unlikely to get into legal trouble. However, just for the sake of principle, it would be nice to be using, if not original artwork, at least stuff that's licensed under creative commons or something.

The question of legality is just one step in determining whether or not one should do something. There is also the question of enforcement. (As well as the moral issue.)

In my home state of Alabama in the United States, it is illegal to drive without shoes on. But no police officer ever enforces this old law; I am willing to bet that most do not even realize that law is still on the books.

Dindon is right in saying that it is illegal. In fact, the use of his avatar is also illegal. But I wouldn't bother switching avatar pictures, because no one would ever enforce that. In fact, unless you are using the image for commercial use, no one is likely to care one way or another with how you use the image.

While it is technically illegal, I see no moral issue with using the pictures this site currently uses, and I see no likelihood of enforcement to ever come through. And even if someone did file a claim against this site, the first step they would have to take is to demand that the images be taken offline; so as long as there is a contact email address clearly posted that is checked regularly, there should be no issues with leaving the images as is.

(I should note that I am not a lawyer, and that most of what I said above comes from my knowledge of US law, and not international copyright law, so the facts may differ depending on your local laws.)

[Progressor: Moved from Bazaars trader Thread, has nothing to do with the card. (End)]

My only real concern about using magic's images is that it might lead them to come here snooping around. And I'm sure that's something that nobody here at MArcomage wants. As an open source web game, it's not like we can take on a big company. Although they're first step would be a simple cease and desist as per the DMCA, there's really no need to bring that heat to the site.

I don't think anyone would care about such banal issues where we live. Arguing over a 60x60, highly degraded picture used in a free webgame and threatening with legal action? That's just absurd, and too much USA-like...
There was mention of copyright infringement regarding Arcomage... We're not copying any actual game data (plusminus some images from the initial development). We're just mimicking the game's concepts and interface, and that's not nearly enough. I know opensource projects that are outright clones of old games - and those have no problems existing.
Also, I believe the Arcomage name is a trademark... but according to the wikipedia article on trademarks, if you don't actively make use of it for 5 years it's voided. plus we're "M"arcomage :)

And finally, I couldn't care less (YARRR!). I mentioned keeping a record of the source of each image for maintenance purposes to Mojko once, though.

@ultramage. I'm not talking about licenses relating to the name or gameplay of Arcomage, I am talking about unlicensed images from Magic.

Ah well, my bad :)