Hmmm, brings up an interesting question.
I have been quietly surfing the net for inspiration, reference pics, and even models to examine and build from scratch using the knowledge gained by examining others work. I have over 100 spaceship models all skinned by my own hand using my own Photoshop textures.

None of my spaceship models contain geometry from the originals, all are significantly less polygon intensive than any that I examined, and none are outright duplicates (most don't even resemble the original, really) of the originals.

Most spaceships that I have seen tend to take an influence from Star Trek, Babylon, BattleStar Galactica, or other popular shows. Star Trek, Enterprise, etc are not part of the description for the models, so just how much of a shape or look would be considered Trademark infringement?

Cheers!
Mark

No mark , you dont have to worry about them being similar. Unless its an exact duplicate , or it's named the same as the ship , for instance , ship fireballs or whatever (i dont like startrek) , so using them as inspiration wont get u in trouble , at least thats what i think. I mean , look at the other sci fi stuff , a lot of it is similar , you cant get someone in trouble like that , usually it would have to be exactly the same or be named the same , names tend to get u in trouble more.

That's correct, mark. The key to copyright infringement and why it's illegal is the following:

Suppose I create the Enterprise from Star Trek down to the last detail and make a game from it. Let me say that it's a fan game and I offer it for free. The game SUXS! (like on the level of "legacy" ) I mean royally! Now tons of people who play the game are going to say "how could Star Trek have sunk so low? I'm never going to buy anything from Star Trek again!". Now mind you, ST had nothing to do with the game but it's reputation is suffering and all because someone created a product that was identified with the original trademark without their permission.

Hence, as long as your product does not refer back to anything else, you are fine. For example, you could put ST like ship engines on a Tie Fighter and call it "The flying pig" and that is perfectly legit because no one in their right mind would think that the model is referring to either the SW or ST franchise. On the other hand, if you call it "The Tie'd Enterprise"...

In general it's pretty easy to check yourself and you hit upon it: if you are using other copyright for inspiration but create your own work AND it doesnt refer back to the original in any way, you are pretty secure. I see pretty secure because if ST or SW wanted to go after you for "The flying pig", they are free to do so... but then the burden is on them to prove that you were infringing and it's unlikely to happen.

This is why whenever another Stargate clone, Zelda tribute, or Mario Model comes up, I warn people about it because they may not get in trouble for it now, but if they don't know about copyright law and get it in their heads that it's okay to use Mario for a Fan Game, they are setting themselves up for trouble (or at least lost work) down the line.

Will Nintendo or Universal or Paramount come down on a 3DGS user for making a fan game?
Unlikely.
Is it better to be original from day one?
Absolutely!

(BTW Why, it doesn't have to be an exact duplicate. If I take mario and rename him Jario and paint him blue and set him to save the princess on top of a rhino named Moshi, it is obvious who you are ripping off and you could be in trouble. In general it has to be enough to recognize that the majority of the work came from another copyright for it to be infringement)

Well yes , if you just paint him blue and call him jario , but if you make a game about a mechanic in mushroom world thats saves princess turkey from a dragon , your not copyright infringing , as long as the dragon is not bowser and the pincess is not princess peach and you dont have mario , then ur good to go. Hence you can make a pac man clone but instead of pac man eating dots you have a cheeseburger eating fries , and of course ur own levels.

And the reason they cant get u for that , is because they cant copyright gameplay , just like a karate movie cant be copyrighted so that anyone making another karate movie is breaking the law , same with games , and anything else. So inspiration is fine , as long as u dont copy , if you get inspired from more than one source it's even better , as you are less likely to clone something. About the being original , well , look at all the new movies , and games , they are all clones of past ones , I mean , even disney has made millions and millions just ripping old books , so dont worry about just dreaming up everything , everyone uses previous things for inspiration.

Quote:

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everyone uses previous things for inspiration.

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True that. Anyone who complains that a game or movie or book is unoriginal has a very poor grasp of history.

While were at it, I think gregory arndt is a scammer. I don't know if he really is, but I suppose so, because we had a deal, I did concept sketches and he said he'd pay me.
Well, no pay AND never heard of him again

If youre talking about me there, I've never spoken to you before and dont appreciate being slandered like that.

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