I’m planning on making “Twilight Zone,” the original black & white series, into a Blender game. Do you think this is a good idea or a bad idea?
Yeah, yeah, “start it already…” I’m still planning it…
If you are going to put the time and energy into it, give it a twist of your own or spoof it or something.,. If you are too close to the original, you may run into some copyright issues. If you don’t care about that, go for it.
I just wouldn’t call it “Twilight Zone”. The concept of the show has been used by many other shows in varying degrees.
Good Luck
copyright issues? I know it’s illegal to make a game with copyrighted characters and then try to sell it, but if you just make a game for fun and make no money, do you still have copyright issues?
Yes. It doesn’t matter whether you’re making money or not. Creating a “Twilight Zone” game would be infringement. Of course, if you changed the name, didn’t use any specific characters or scripts, and made a “Twilight Zone-like” game, it should be fine. Also, making a Twilight Zone game for non-profit doesn’t garauntee legal troubles… just the potential. The copyright holder would have to find out first, then they’d also have to care enough to take action (they’d likely send a cease and desist notice, and not take it further, I’d imagine CubeFan is fairly judgement-proof for that type of suit). Of course, just because you might be able to get away with it wouldn’t make it right.
I still wish I knew exactly how long the different categories of copyrights and patents lasted. Probably won’t be too long until the “Twilight Zone” starts becoming public domain. “Mickey Mouse” should be public domain pretty soon, but our copyright system seems to be screwed up, as the Disney Corp. got an extension. Copyrights are supposed to protect the artists (in that case, Walt Disney, who is long dead), not the corporations or individuals who inherit or buy the copyrights for decades or centuries down the road.
Trademarks though, may be a bit different. I think they’re good as long as you use them. For instance, IBM is a very old company, and I think they’ve been “International Business Machines” for at least a century now. So the “IBM” trademark name is very old, but they still use it, so it’s not available. It’s possible that even if the older Mickey Mouse cartoons became public domain, Disney, who owns the trademark, would still control it. The older cartoons would still be public domain, and you could still treat them as such, but you may have problems creating your own “Mickey Mouse” cartoons, or using the name. Not sure on all that though.
Imp
Why bother explaining anything to this guy. He comes up with these ridiculous grandiose projects all the time and none of them even come close to getting off the ground.
The only project I killed was “Blender: The Musical.” The title alone explains why.
“Plotless Film” is still pretty much alive. I’m not DOING anything on it right now, but I plan to try and make some time. AP1538… last night I almost got started on it. Plus, it’s not as “Grandiose” as it was: 6 episodes were eliminated because I decided to give the series a new format, and they just didn’t fit.
The “TZ” thing is pretty risky, yes. However, it’s not going to be for sale. Yeah, yeah, “even if it’s free, you could get in trouble,” which is why I’m not using a story from any of the versions of the show. I’m trying to make a totally new story, with twists that do come from the original series, plus mini-games from the series. Risky? Oh, yeah. But I’m not selling it, so hopefully if there’s a law thing, I can use that as defense.
However, you guys are right about not calling it “Twilight Zone.” I’m going to name it later, when I know what it’s about.
However, “not using specific characters” would be a problem for the twists in the story. I’m trying to make it a little more TZ-esque by having characters/situations involved in the plot. For example, the Kanamits (To Serve Man) come to Earth for more humans to take to their planet.
BTW, I thought it took like 75 years for something to become public domain. “Twilight Zone” will be 50 in 2009.
Don’t worry about copyright law. You can’t get sued for something that only exists as a figment of your imagination 
The government doesn’t care about what you do online because they have bigger and better things to worry about. Good politicians always pay attention to polls, read what 42% of them have to say.
what is the twilight zone? ive never heard of it?
It was a TV show produced in the 1960’s by Rod Serling . It was an American show that sort of had twisted plots and ironies.
oh :o
Ok, I see three problems with this post…
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Sure, he can’t get sued now, but if he uses characters, plots, and ideas from a copyritten work in a CG project, it won’t be a figment of his imagination anymore.
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The government doesn’t sue for copyright infringement, the copyright holder does… so it doesn’t care if the government didn’t care.
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The government doesn’t care what you do online??? What cave are you living in? Aside from all the crime they investigate over the internet (child porn, for instance), they certainly do care what we do. One provision of the PATRIOT act says that any gov’t official (federal, state, local) can ask your ISP to read your e-mail (of course, the ISP still doesn’t have to comply without a warrant… I hope). Heard of TIA… “Total Information Awareness”? Luckily, congress cut funding very recently. Another provision of the PATRIOT act says that the government can not only request any corporate or public database, but then the company or organization can’t reveal the government has accessed it. Fortunately, someone let it slip that they got to the Safeway database (NEVER get a supermarket card, they track everything you buy!). Oh yeah… and you haven’t heard of the P2P act that Sen. Berman sponsored? If passed, it’ll give free reign to the RIAA and it’s members (recording companies) to hack your computer if they suspect you of trading copyritten materials.
Imp
Hi all,
The government doesn’t care what you do online??? What cave are you living in?
gotta agree with IMProvisar on this one, just the other day i read
that the Gov.was tracking the sale of, and distribution of “Hummus”.
its sapposed to be a terrorists favorite meal 
dale
iF YOU DON’T CALL IT "TWILIGHT ZONE AND DON’T USE THEY’RE CHARACTERS, THEN IT WILL BE NO FUN!!!
CAPSLOCK!!!
I HATE CAPSLOCK!
Baffoon, you just got told off for too much large font. Now you use capslock?!?
P.S. If I was an government agent, what cubefan said would be my number 1,000,000,000,000,000 priority.
P.P.S. 1960?!?! That was, like, the stone age.
It’s BaFoon. With ONE “f”!!
bless you
Errr… like I said before, it wouldn’t be the government, but they copyright holder.
Imp
BTW, I thought it took like 75 years for something to become public domain. “Twilight Zone” will be 50 in 2009.
don’t count on this… this has been big news in the media lately, and none of it’s been good. Sonny Bono, the senator, before he died skiing into a tree, was pushing through a bill in the congress (which was just passed) extending copyright statutes. So now you’ll have to wait another twenty years. Except that this isn’t the first time they extended them, so when twenty years is up it’s likely that rich people living off of these royalties will put campaign finance pressure on the politicians to extend it again. I’d be very surprised if anything copyrighted now ever became public domain.
bafoon: “Twilight Zone” would basically be a subtitle. For example, the title comes first, then it says, “A Twilight Zone-Inspired Adventure.”
GFX Idiot: Wow, I was pretty sure everybody had seen an episode of “TZ” at some point in time. BTW, many movies, TV shows, and the like take off of episodes from “TZ.” You certainly chose a pretty good name [!] %| 
Haha, that’s what I told him! LOL
Somebody ban bafoon if he keeps posting crap like this.
Wut a mooron.