New Game: AAA's Revenge

[Twillie]

Even if JS truly didn't care about Neopets, they should still realize that these illegal acts can and will affect their company as a whole.

Yeah, we're a great corporation to work with to bring education to your children! Except for those couple times we stole from other companies and our own fan base, but hey, the site wasn't doing too good anyway, right?

[Reiqua]

I'm no lawyer, but...

So far as I understand copyright laws, there is such thing as "fair use". There are four provisions for fair use, all pertaining to "transformative" use of the copyrighted work. I think the relevant section here is the third provision:

the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole

This is fairly straightforward when you're talking about a text-based work. Taking a short quote from a novel is not copyright infringement, so long as it doesn't comprise too large a portion of your work.
Of course, it's much more complex when talking about images. But I'd say in this case that using the hands on Roothless is definitely okay, using the basis for the AAA sprite is (almost certainly) okay as well, while the use of the pillars is definitely not.
But why didn't you bother colouring the hands, Jumpstaff!

I wanted to point this out, because it's the sort of thing I might do myself, and not consider copyright infringement. But then, I'm just one person, whereas Jumpstart is a (theoretically) well-resourced company with a bit of an image to preserve resurrect.


What will make me more annoyed is that Jumpstart will no doubt refuse to take the (somewhat reasonable) line I've just taken, and instead insist that it's simply a remarkable co-incidence that those RPG Maker sprites share some striking similarity with their artists' original work.
I want to believe that it's just one artist responsible for all these tracings, and I seriously hope said artist finally put a straw too many on the proverbial camel's back so that Jumpstart will wake up and fire them.
(I can dream, all right!)


tl;dr - It might be okay for Jumpstaff to use similar sprites to RPG Maker, but not for them to use identical sprites.



EDIT: I'm not even gonna pretend to understand how these copyright laws might apply to use of audio and code...

[Twillie]

Sept 2, 2016 19:41:45 GMT -5 Reiqua said:

I wanted to point this out, because it's the sort of thing I might do myself, and not consider copyright infringement. But then, I'm just one person, whereas Jumpstart is a (theoretically) well-resourced company with a bit of an image to preserve resurrect.

Which is the reason for such reactions, I think. It may be possible to argue the legal factors of the situation, but even in the best light, it's still unprofessional. JS is a large multimedia-making company that should not have to copy so much off of other people, and by doing just that, it disheartens consumers and gives off a very low budget, desperate atmosphere. It might be more forgivable for an individual without a budget to do this, but a company that already has its own MMORPG and other countless original games should not resort to this.

[Reiqua]

Twillie I agree, it's a very poor show and it shouldn't be like that on Jumpstart's part.

I just wanted to make the comment anyway because some of the attacks on the game I've seen around about were starting to bother me a little

[Twillie]

Reiqua  I can only imagine what some of the neoboards might be saying... *only reads JS talk on this forum, is afraid of the outside world XP*

But yeah, I get ya. It's good to keep reactions within reason, as emotion can often blind you to details that may make a difference in how you think.
Fair use is a concept I'm unfamiliar with as well, so who knows, maybe it could give JS some leeway (at least, legally). Still incredibly frustrating, but perhaps the pitchforks should be kept at bay for now while the situation is still being looked at and understood X)

[Reiqua]

Twillie - Yes, some takes on the game are not very... friendly
You're probably wise to just stick to here The outside world is a scary place, friend

[Twillie]

*edited her post so as to not unintentionally single people out, made the conversation sound disjointed as a result XD*

Haha, if YouTube has taught me anything...

[Reiqua]

*edited her post too in an attempt to make the conversation sound... re-jointed?*

Yes, I've also come to the conclusion that there are places worth steering clear of if you want to retain your sanity

[Herdy]

Yeah, the situation isn't entirely illegal, only parts of it - as you say, the character sprites are almost certainly modified enough. But the throne and columns are most certainly not. All it requires is credit within the game and it's fine - it should be an easy fix. But then, the Spring korbat should have been as well.

The use of programming is fine - it's taken from a free to use tutorial. It's shoddy, but not illegal. The music is an unknown element. It isn't free to use, but the maker does license it so JS could be using it legally. We don't know there and likely never will.

[Carolyn]

Oof. How frustrating. I really hoped this time it would be different, you know?

[Breakingchains]

Okay, it is ridiculously unprofessional to use RPGmaker sprites. In fact, I would say it's unprofessional for a supposed game company to be using RPGmaker at all. It's kind of got this reputation as a n00b engine for n00bs, because while it's easy, it's not very flexible; it produces games that all tend to look and feel and play the same--especially (ironically enough) if you try to use it for anything other than a traditional JRPG.

...But?

The RPGmaker terms of service state that you may modify and use the assets in any game you create in RPGmaker. And professional versions of RPGmaker MV readily export to HTML5 and mobile. So how do we know the game was not actually created in RPGmaker, as per the terms? (Heck, it even looks and feels like an RPGmaker game.) Am I missing something?

[Herdy]

Because JS helpfully left the name of the program they did use in their coding (the bits that aren't copy/pasted from the tutorial, at least) - Phaser.
It's entirely possible that they created a mockup of the game in RPG Maker before moving it over to Phaser, but doing that without crediting RPG Maker or changing the assets is what's wrong.