Posters

[Nitzy]

Dear Hinterland,

I love your game and really need real life versions of the in game location posters.

Please let me give you my money.

Thanks ❤️

[Sgt Socks]

Hmm. I'm a printmaker, screen printing would be an ideal medium for the posters. A possible fan art project methinks 🤔

[hozz1235]

Hi-res screenshot and send it off to a poster-maker?

[Sgt Socks]

2 hours ago, hozz1235 said:

Hi-res screenshot and send it off to a poster-maker?

Would that be allowed Hozz? Not sure if a direct print would infringe something somewhere? Fan art is different, it isn't a direct reproduction.

@Admin could you please clarify?

[hozz1235]

Quote

Would that be allowed Hozz?

I would certainly think if you're only hanging it on your wall, that would be fine.  Now, if you were selling the posters, that may be something else.

Edited October 31, 2022 by hozz1235

[Sgt Socks]

Fair point Hozz. And you may be right.

I'd be interested to know the official answer though.

Edited October 31, 2022 by Sgt Socks

[Guest jeffpeng]

1 hour ago, hozz1235 said:

I would certainly think if you're only hanging it on your wall, that would be fine.  Now, if you were selling the posters, that may be something else.

From a judicial perspective this isn't this cut and dry at all. (I'm not a lawyer, but I deal in intellectual property. Still: this is not legal advice, but an unqualified opinion on which should not be acted upon nor be referred to.)

In fact you do not own The Long Dark, not your copy of it, not even the right to run the game. You have paid an amount of money for which in exchange the copyright owners grant you the revocable license to use their copyrighted material in the way explicitly stated in the license.

Since Hinterland owns all material depicted in that screenshot technically they own the screenshot, not you. However, due to limitations to copyright most jurisdictions have implemented, like §107 17 USC (which is based on the 1710 Statue of Anne common law tradition), which are understood as "Fair Use" or "Fair Dealing". So printing a screenshot for your own amusement and hanging it on your wall would fall under those guidelines, even if not explicitly permitted.

However sending a screenshot to a company to print it and make a profit of it would not count as "Fair Use" in the sense that it does not serve public education or furthering the creative effort of original intellectual property, but could indeed be considered copyright infringement since the act of reproducing copyrighted material does occur not within aforementioned boundaries, a fact exacerbated by being motivated by profit alone, and as such would indeed require written statement of the copyright owners permitting such use.

It's the same reason you can make a copy of a VHS tape with The Lion King for yourself and keep it for yourself, but you cannot pay a company to make a copy of it for you.

Edited October 31, 2022 by jeffpeng

[Sgt Socks]

1 minute ago, jeffpeng said:

From a judicial perspective this isn't this cut and dry at all. (I'm not a lawyer, but I deal in intellectual property. Still: this is not legal advice, but an unqualified opinion on which should not be acted upon nor be referred to.)

In fact you do not own The Long Dark, not your copy of it, not even the right to run the game. You have paid an amount of money for which in exchange the copyright owners grant you the revocable license to use their copyrighted material in the way explicitly stated in the license.

Since Hinterland owns all material depicted in that screenshot technically they own the screenshot, not you. However, due to limitations to copyright most jurisdictions have implemented, like §107 17 USC (which is based on the 1710 Statue of Anne common law tradition), which are understood as "Fair Use" or "Fair Dealing". So printing a screenshot for your own amusement and hanging it on your wall would fall under those guidelines, even if not explicitly permitted.

However sending a screenshot to a company to print it and make a profit of it would not count as "Fair Use" in the sense that it does not serve public education or furthering the creative effort of original intellectual property, but could indeed be considered copyright infringement since the act of reproducing copyrighted material does occur not within aforementioned boundaries, a fact exacerbated by being motivated by profit alone, and as such would indeed require written statement of the copyright owners permitting such use.

It's the same reason you can make a copy of a VHS tape with The Lion King for yourself and keep it for yourself, but you cannot pay a company to make a copy of it for you.

Thank you Jeff. I don't know as many of the technicalities as you clearly do but I certainly thought the restrictions were along these lines. Your knowledge is greatly appreciated as always.

[Sgt Socks]

5 minutes ago, jeffpeng said:

VHS tape .

I had a good laugh at this... I bet there's a lot of people here who don't even know what a VHS tape is/was! 😄

[hozz1235]

Oh, just get the thing printed and stick it on your wall (for your own enjoyment).  I doubt Hinterland is going to come knocking on your door and have you arrested for that...

Betamax!

[Guest jeffpeng]

2 minutes ago, hozz1235 said:

I doubt Hinterland is going to come knocking on your door and have you arrested for that...

Oh, I doubt that as well. However that wasn't the question. 😅

[hozz1235]

1 minute ago, Leeanda said:

I still have VHS tapes.. unplayable of course .no one makes video recorders.. 

But betamax..boy was that a short lived thing!

I thought so too...Sony definitely lost the war to VHS, but believe it or not, Sony continued to sell Beta until 2016.

[Leeanda]

Just now, hozz1235 said:

I thought so too...Sony definitely lost the war to VHS, but believe it or not, Sony continued to sell Beta until 2016.

Really??  My dad bought betamax the minute it came out,one year later he swapped it for VHS as it went down the pan,so to speak!🙂

[Admin]

17 minutes ago, Sgt Socks said:

Would that be allowed Hozz? Not sure if a direct print would infringe something somewhere? Fan art is different, it isn't a direct reproduction.

@Admin could you please clarify?

Happy to clarify. 

You can find (almost) everything you need to know about this here: https://hinterlandgames.com/innovation-and-intellectual-property-rights

You cannot reproduce elements of the game (images or otherwise) for profit. We've seen Survivors reproduce and print labels for things like Pinnacle Peaches as part of a cosplay, and that's not a problem. It only becomes an issue when work is advertised or reproduced without our permission. 

We appreciate the check-in, and we're happy to clarify other questions as they arise! 

[Sgt Socks]

4 hours ago, Admin said:

Happy to clarify. 

You can find (almost) everything you need to know about this here: https://hinterlandgames.com/innovation-and-intellectual-property-rights

You cannot reproduce elements of the game (images or otherwise) for profit. We've seen Survivors reproduce and print labels for things like Pinnacle Peaches as part of a cosplay, and that's not a problem. It only becomes an issue when work is advertised or reproduced without our permission. 

We appreciate the check-in, and we're happy to clarify other questions as they arise! 

Great, thank you very much for this response. Indeed it is as I thought, but full clarification is appreciated.