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I have an unreleased game that contains thousands of procedurally generated 3d models, textures and sounds. I've worked for years on those algorithms; they are
by elpocko 2y ago
I have an unreleased game that contains thousands of procedurally generated 3d models, textures and sounds. I've worked for years on those algorithms; they are my brushes and my paint.
So when (if) I release that game, anyone can just rip the assets, not even apply any transformation, and put them in their own product. I would have to let them do it with no legal recourse. That doesn't seem right.
- tpmoney 2y agoRules and algorithms in general (and in the US) are not covered by copyright. The expression of those rules as a creative work is, but the rules themselves are not. To that end, anyone could take your procedures and duplicate the effects of them to release their own game. The combination of those procedures in the specific form of your game is protected, but only to the extent that what is protected isn’t essential to running the procedure. So in its simplest (and most general because law is complex) form, if you release a “game” that uses a deterministic procedure to change individual pixel colors on the screen in response to user input, almost nothing of that is covered under copyright. If your procedure instead places tiles of artwork created by you, those tiles and a game using your procedure to place those tiles in that way is protected, but someone else could replace all your tiles and release their own game with the same procedures.
- actionfromafar 2y agoThe reasoning indeed seems a bit simplistic. As if a C file werena creative work but the resulting EXE file would not be.