Hi

I am wondering, how LFGcomic managed to make comics that resemble so much the Warcraft Universe, without running into any Copyright problems with Blizzard. Where is the limit?

Alex

Look. It is NOT strictly a Warcraft-only comic. It's based on all sorts of fantasy settings.

This also needs to go in comics.

But it's still obvious, that it is mainly inspired by WoW.

This could be considered a paradody, in which case they could even use Blizzards Music and direct imagey and still be fine for their own copywrite. But don't quote me on that I got a D in media law.

Well there are a few questions to ask here....but honestly, none of Blizzards "classes" are unique. Nor are their "races". So copyright would be hard to prove on any of that.

Mod edit: if you can't say something nice, don't say it at all. That was just rude. --Kay

No.

that seems just a tad rude, manta.

Lol, wish I knew what he said.

Anyway, yah, the majority of what they use is Generic for any DnD style (Hell fantasy in general). Undead, minotaurs, etc.

They haven't mentioned any WOW locations, they haven't mentioned any WoW names or references at all really. So I think this place is actually far and away from a copyright.

Lore is completely unique, the races may be somewhat similar? But not really.

It's not really a copyright, they don't use anything from WoW Lore & to be fair, it's not exactly that alike to WoW anyway.

Orc / Troll hybrid, Elven Warriors (Assuming Cale is most alike to a High Elf), the 'Sisters' are nothing like the Cult of the Damned & so on, plus there's no major Dragonflights.

It's just funny how everyone thinks of WoW when reall, it was games like DnD that started out the whole idea for classes & wide landscapes & fictional kingdoms, so I believe.

And D&D spawned from Lord of the Rings, and Lord of the Rings spawned from actual lore.

Everything in life is a re-hash of some other past idea. The trick is getting away with it. LFG may resemble the WoW, but because it does not actually take anything concrete or crucial from it, the copyright is not violated.

How did Blizzard manage to avoid lawsuit with Games Workshop?

resembling things is not grounds for legal actions... damn americans...

It wasnt inpired by wow at all, Infact Lar doesnt even play WoW
It was inspired by a book... Also a recent Wiki Search actually makes me wonder how they are avoidng law suits..
Not by blizzard but by, well take a look

The Sword of Truth is a series of eleven epic fantasy novels written by Terry Goodkind. The books follow the protagonists Richard Rahl, Kahlan Amnell and Zeddicus Zu'l Zorander on their quest to defeat oppressors who seek to control the world and those who wish to unleash evil upon the world of the living.

Also a T.V show, Legend of the Seeker.

Parody.

Also fair use. You cannot copy right a phrase.

A television series adaptation of the novels

o.O lol other then the fork... i dont quite grasp any similarites between this adventure and that of SOT

uhh

the name of the characters... the swords name and ablity (to make you really angry)
Ya................
what simliariets cant u grasp?

Don't forget that they HAD the sword in one of the panels.

Okay.. Name of the character and sword are two totally irrelevant things.

Yes, there is a "Sword Of Truth" and please note it was made fun of as a paradic manner.

Second, Richard isn't good. Richard isn't the one wanting to Sword of Truth. It's Cale.

In the SOT, the person who is the "Seeker of Truth" is a humble dumbass woodsman named Richard who gets named seeker by his grandfather yaddayaddayadda.

If we're going to talk about copyright, please know what you are talking about regarding the books and about copyright instead of throwing just similarities out there. Otherwise, I can say that Harry Potter is copyright infringement off of Star Wars (I can show you the nifty graphic on that one )

Not to mention Lar has said more than once that they named the warlock Richard just so they could make dick jokes. No other reason.

Just had to add it as i found it again.

hehe good one

I asked about this copyright issue, because I have a website www.toonhaze.com and just finished a big project Leavers 3 - based on Warcraft3: DotA. Now I am planning on making alot of short episodes about DotA, and wanted to make sure that I don't cross any copyright issues. I guess that as long as I use my own drawings (that are far away from the original Warcraft artwork), record my own voices, use my own made music, and avoid any references to Warcraft Lore, I should be allright?

How legalize do you want me to get on that answer? I can give the litmus test of Fair Use and see if that helps you at all.

Sad that I studied Copyright law, but it's necessary as a journalist....fun times.

O.o honestly gothic, like i said other then the fork and the blatant joke tie in to the SOT. Really does not resemble much into the SOT line. All fantasy stories will share some basic ideas and quest lines.

It's not obvious and it's not inspired by WoW though, so there's no risk involved with copyright at all.


There are a few vague similarities to WoW. That's because LFG is a fantasy comic, and WoW is a fantasy game. Fantasy races and classes are, of course, going to feature in both. Since WoW never made these and they've existed in fantasy for hundreds, even thousands (depending on the race), of years there's no reason any copyright would be breached at all. LFG and WoW are two completely different things,there's no reason why LFG's makers could be sued because they use ancient ideas also used by WoW.

*Sigh* Sorry Kay. It's just that the "OMG Warcraft=LFG" posters set me off. I'll try not to do it again.



That was the point.



I laughed. A lot. In all caps.

Sounds like you are the right person to ask I would appreciate so much, if you could point me into the right direction.

In stead of copypasting the concrete info, or write it all over, I save some space here and link directly to my problem. There are already some answers, but most of them seem like a pure guessing: http://forums.dota-allstars.com/index.php?...287003&st=0

The litmus test is simple and Fair Use can be justified with the following questions

1. Did you need to use this copyrighted material to illustrate the point you are making in the documentary (or other non-fiction work)?
2. Did you use only as much as needed to make the point?
3. Is the connection between the item you are using and the point you are making clear to the average person without further explanation?

Your use will never be considered fair use if:
1. The use is not at all transformative (meaning you have not altered the original or added something of your own creation to it).
2. The use elbows into the market for the original.
3. You use a lot of the work just because it's really cool and not for any other apparent reason.

So in the case of a comic, you're using races/classes/whatever, but it''s your story. You'll find that those races/classes story appear other places as well. However you have added to the original, changed it and made it your own, so there is no copyright infringement.

Long story short, they cannot copyright a phrase, class, race, etc. They can copy right the way their story is in written form. Meaning if you took a Warcraft book and decided "i'm ging to make a comic out of this" then used their text verbatim, that would prolly be bad mojo.

Another example, taking Sohmer's work, translating his text into another language and passing it off as yours. The whole thing is copyrighted. Changing the text to a different language does not change the text.

Wow, thanks so much! That is the best answer I have recieved of them all about this confusion. So I guess, that I should stop being so paranoid and start animating, still in my own drawing style, with my own sounds, music and voices

Saw the video, and my unlawyerific eyes, you've altered it more then significantly, and you should be safe.

Also it's pretty damn funny.

Hehe thanks Took some willpower to finish it alone, and it's so great to know that I am safe. Let's hope that Blizzard are too busy counting billions, and UMG is too busy suing the LARGE companies! Thanks everyone for great input. Will sleep tight

Replace Ricahrd with Cale in that book and i say it fits....

And unless mods or you get specail privlages where not aware of Richards "intentions" are not all that well known

OK.. so if it fits... where is Cale's grandfather? Where is the confessor?
To answer before you do... Richard is not in it for the "seeker" nor is Benny, Both of them are in it for the WRONG reasons.

In the book the Sword of Truth is immediately given. Not searched for.

As far in as the comic has gone.. by now Cale would have fallen in love with Benny... if this "fits" as you say.

Oh.. and since it fits... where is Cale's father? You know.. since that's who's the main antagonist in the first few books.


Simply put.. it doesn't "fit" the mention of the sword was nothing more than a nod to the SoT book series for any fans of it.

Not really. The only similarities are with classes and races. Witch, as some have pointed out, are not exclusive to Warcraft.

Now if this were the story of an Orc named Thrull, wielder of the Terrorhammer, who goes on adventures with a Human sorceress named Jeena, who he is obviously banging, THEN we would have a legal problem.

The Bloodrage resemble tauren, but are not referred to by that name, and the bovine humanoid model has been around since ancient Greece. All names are original, and the plot line is unique. Therefore, there are no possible copyright issues.