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Scabbed Angel

Copyright Infringement

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I'm currently working on a 10 page comic based on Doom (inspired by my contest 7 entry) about the marine using the berserker power up. Though I am doing this for fun, and for practice for a more serious comic endeavor, if I put it on ebay, or offered it for sale on my site, would this be considered infringement? There are several Doom related items on ebay that are considered "inspired by" items, so I assume this may not be the case, but before being sued by id software, I thought I'd seek the expert legal advice of the Fan fics and pics forum users. Either way, I would like (when its finished) to offer the commic as a prize for one of the upcoming contests. (On a side note, would that be appealing for anyone as an incentive to enter? I really liked how Shapeless was creating a sculpture as a contest prize, so I'm shamelessly stealing his idea!) ; )

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I'm not fully enlightened on the subject of copyright, but i know doing art of doomis one thing. Making money of it is another.

I think it's ok if it's one of those one-off\auction things, but if it's something big, widespread and commercialized then be sure to expect a "cease and desist" letter sooner or later. Want my advice? Don't sell it. Better safe than sorry.

Other than that i was thinking about doing a fan sequel to the doom comic, with more funny stoned phrases.

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Or just scan it and stick it on a website, like i will be doing with my doom comic inspired strip "The gun"

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I wonder if the Doom comic(TM) authors got Id's permission back then.

In any event, why don't you email Id about this if you're in doubt?

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myk said:

By all means they got permission... it was published as part of the id Anthology.

I wonder why Id would give people the permission to screw their franchise over like that.

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ID asked someone to make the comic, not the other way around. Of course, back then they had no way of knowing that it would be such a steaming pile of crap.

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I don't think you have to change the monsters much in order to get away with it

here's proof..
http://www.doomworld.com/php/screenie.php?dir=/doom3_120603/

some say that you can't get sued if it's a one of a kind, never to be reproduced again.

on the other hand some sculptors will reproduce a limited amount of copyrighted characters such as sheeva from MK. In this case the guy sculpted and moulded a limited amount of sheeva sculptures he made 30. cause if he went above the production quantity he would have seriously risked a lawsuit. the shiflett brother who have done a ton of Hulk statues claimed that when they started they even sent pics to the licence holders and they didn't to jack as far as sueing, even though they were making it for a company who was mass producing them.

some other guy on a message board said he made a one of a kind of a disney character for sale. And he was told to take it down or they would take legal action. And Walt Disney Pictures will clean your pockets out long before you ever see a court.

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ID could definitely sue you if you tried to profit from a Doom comic. As long as it's a non-profit type of thing, you should be okay, but if you try to turn a buck on it without their ok, you're just begging for a lawsuit.

Definitely contact ID. You might be able to work out some kind of licensing agreement with them.

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Thanks for all your insights, I appreciate it. Its not something I was hugely considering, but weighing the options, I'll stick to offering it as a prize here when I'm finished and keeping it as a portfolio piece. Thanks again, everyone... I'm shooting to finish it by the middle of this month, so check back in a few weeks : )

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Shapeless said:

Say scabbel angel, exactly what were these Doom inspired things on E-bay you saw?

It was a cacodemon sculpture a while ago.

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It was a while ago, so unfortunately no... I thought it was done considerably well though. Can't remember off the top of my head what the mediium was... I'll see if I can find a pic. I've actually seen it several places on the internet.

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I've seen a plush toy of a generic Cacodemon type figure. the pic had a guy holding it. But you speak of a sculpture.

I could probably get away with scultping one, and calling it a bust of that thing from Dungeons and dragons ;)

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Shapeless said:

I've seen a plush toy of a generic Cacodemon type figure.

Heh, that must've been either Ling or Bloodshedder holding Hissy (the plush caco)

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SAngel I will do something, but nothing spactacular. And what about the caco sculpture?. I would imagine it would get more buzz, but then again I don't know how good it was. or how much it looked like the Caco.

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Shapeless said:

I could probably get away with scultping one, and calling it a bust of that thing from Dungeons and dragons ;)


Then you would just be sued for infringing on the copyrights of whomever owns the D&D rights instead of by ID. The D&D creatures in question are called Beholders by the way.

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