10-13-2016, 07:00 PM
(10-13-2016, 06:14 PM)ScarletZephyr Wrote: My knowledge on legal matters is a very iffy, but doesn't Pokemon Uranium fall under the Fair Use Act as a parody? As long as no resources are ripped off from the actual games and that Uranium strays away from using canon Pokemon (that means removing stuff like Gliscor), which can be used under a trademark infringement claim, Uranium is relatively safe. Also, Uranium is a completely free game, which would make it harder for Nintendo to pursue under the DMCA.
Again, my legal knowledge is extremely limited so please don't hesitate to correct me.
That would be the normal situation. Sadly the project already received attacks from Nintendo and went down once. This is why I think using the word Pokemon might be a bad idea.
Indeed I think fair use might apply (at least somewhat) to fangames. Problem is that, even if this is the case, no one wants to risk getting into a lawsuit with Nintendo to prove it. In practice, I don't think they'd really pursuit everyone in every part of the world over some fangame, especially if it's not used commercially... they don't really need to however, since the threat itself scares most people into taking things down regardless.
