Quote:
5 - Writers must not use the intellectual property of others.
A quick question on this...
Does this rule effectively mean, "Writers must not use the intellectual property of other under any circumstances, even if the holders of the intellectual property have licensed their property for commercial use by the public"?
There are, for example, many texture websites in which the textures themselves are still copyrighted by their creators, but the textures are nevertheless licensed to be used for commercial purposes by anyone. Here's a snippet from CGTextures that shows a pretty typical license agreement:
http://www.cgtextures.com/Quote:
Intellectual Property
All materials including the organization and presentation of these materials on the CGTextures website are the property of CGTextures or it's Contributors and are protected by intellectual property laws. Some images contain graphic materials like wallpaper patterns, logos, names or signs. The use of these kind of images is at your own discretion. The rights for the photo lie with CGTextures and the photo has been taken in a public space, but using the pattern/logo/name in your work might not be allowed.
Conditions of Use
Use of the Textures is only allowed under one or more of the following conditions:
- Private or commercial use
- Use in 2D or 3D computer graphics, movies and printed media
- Incorporation in computer games, 3D models
- Selling 3D models bundled with modified versions of the textures, when the texture is customized for the 3D model
These sorts of restrictions often apply to materials such as sounds, free models, etc., and many at the GoW have been relying on these sorts of licenses to create their Ages. Which means that so far the GoW has already used lots of "the intellectual property of others" in the strictest sense...but is this alright, as long as the intellectual property was licensed by the copyright holder to be used by the GoW? Does the wording of #5 really mean, "Writers must not use the intellectual property of others, unless they have permission."?