Right and wrong....

[JRock]

Is it wrong to use unoriginal character sprites (i.e. ones that someone else created) in a game if everything else is completely original (backgrounds, story, etc.) ?  And I don't plan to make any profit from my game, I'm just doing it because I enjoy it.

I ask because I am HORRIBLE at creating characters and character animations for my gamesÃ, 

I'm using character sprites from RON, which were available for download anyway, so I assume that using these is okay, but give me some feedback and let me know. Thanks!

[Erenan]

If you are creating a game for fun and are not going to make money from it, then I'd say no, though you'd probably want to give credit to the artist.

If you are making a professional game and are going to make money from it, then I'd also say no, as long as you get permission from the artist and make arrangements concerning whether the artist would be paid for his work.

[Peter Bear]

right every material, open, free or commercial is licensed.

Open source materials are submitted - generally - to the GNU GPL license, which you could read and know how you could modify or reuse some elements ( which is allowed, but refer to the corresponding license first ).

respective Authors MUST BE credited, and you must respect the way they authorise you to use their work, depending on each license.

For commercial material, is it seized by the Copyright, I guess, and I guess that you cannot use any of those material, withouth express authorisation of their owners.

And I think they wont allow you to do so, and wont answer to your claims as well.

You should give a try tho

If you make an amateur production that noone will never know, I guess you can use whatever you want, but this is not *legal* , AND if you get caugh, they could ask you to erase anything concerning the copyrighted material, ( this is the best case ), the worst one is that they could sue you in a court of law ...

I dont think they would as long as you dont make any money from your project.

Example : I remember that the GARFIELD adventure game was removed because of copyright issues no ?

My advices :
Always use FREE material - under GPL license ( or any equivalent license ), and everyone should do so, or use their own and original work, of course.

DO this with FREE ( open ) sofware only, or software they own the license for.
I was in many game projects with friends, we always stick to free solutions , examples : The GIMP, BLENDER, apache ...

Many use Photoshop, 3D studio max, ... and  they dont have the license for them. The pictures produced with those softwares contains watermarks ( invisible data ) that tells : "done with such software, such version, such license", and their respective editors then can know if you are using a stolen software.

Anyway, every artistic production can be achieved with FREE software, as they can do almost the same as commercial ones.


(dont care of typos :p)

[Radiant]

Depends which you mean...
* Free graphics from the web. Well, they're free, that's what they're there for.
* Graphics ripped from old commercial games. Legally, this is strictly wrong. Morally, I'll leave for yourself to decide. Practically, several popular indie games do use e.g. ripped Sierra graphics to some extent, and this is tolerated even if people prefer original graphics.
* Graphics ripped from another indie game. That's not very nice, you should definitely ask the author first.

[Elliott Hird]

He said RON. I'd say that's okay.

[Redwall]

RON is all right for use but generally everyone will recognize them.

[big brother]

There is no difference in legality between ripping graphics from an indie versus a professional game. In either case, you would be using someone else's intellectual property.

Just because you didn't pay anything for some graphics on the web, doesn't mean that these are free to use either. Someone created them, and someone holds the copyright.

What you are looking for is graphics in the public domain. They can be harder to find (you're probably better off drawing your own stuff at this point), but they're out there. For instance, if you Google image search from only .gov domains, the results are public domain by law.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

I've always had a rather high level of distaste for ripped sprites in games, but I guess this comes from having made my own even when they were absolutely horrible.  Whether you can draw or not, ripping sprites barks of laziness on the part of the designer and immediately makes me think they didn't care enough to put real effort forth.  Paintovers that are obvious also have this effect.

[The Inquisitive Stranger]

It's not up to me to tell you what's right or wrong. You have to figure that out yourself.

[JRock]

Lots of different opinions.....Hmmmm...Think I'll just create my own characters. 

[cpage]

I dont see this as an issue.
RON was made with the pupose of creating a universe spread among many games.
It dosnt matter who uses the graphics thats kinda the idea behind it.

[Dave Gilbert]

I dont see this as an issue.
RON was made with the pupose of creating a universe spread among many games.
It dosnt matter who uses the graphics thats kinda the idea behind it.

Hm. Not really.

The story is spread out among many games, true, but they all take place in the same universe.  Anyone can use the graphics, but only if they take place within that universe.  Taking the Davy Jones sprite, putting him in another game, and making him a detective or  something would not work.  Nor would it be right.

Progz nailed it.  Ripping sprites is lazy at best.  Most everyone will recognize the RoN sprites and judge your game accordingly.

[mwahahaha]

It's wrong if it's a commercial game that you're ripping them from, but provided you get permission, it should be ok otherwise, unless you make profit from your game (other than donations, they're different)

[big brother]

Wow...ummm...that's so wrong. Permission is not dependent upon whether the game is commercial or not. Making profit off your game has very little to do with it (it's up to the legal possessors of the intellectual property either way).

Safe answer: read my earlier post, but if you decide not to solely use art in the public domain, get permission from the rights holders in writing (including clauses for fair use, etc.).

[JRock]

I guess all of you are right.Ã,  Cuz I decided to design all my own character sprites for my new game and it was a pain (especially since I used MS PaintÃ,  ), but after I completed them and saw the final product, I was very proud of myself.Ã,  I got a good feeling that I could never get by simply using something someone else created.Ã,  And when you create your own sprites, you are only limited by your imagination and not by whats available to download from the net.Ã,  I guess I would be a little upset if someone used my sprites.Ã,  (I put hours of work into it, just for someone to simply right click and "save as"Ã,  )

.....Everything we do, we gotta come original.....You know it ain't easy.....

(from"Come Original" by 311)