There’s a video game called Smite that has around 130 playable mythological figures. Can another game have the same list of figures (exclusively) or even a smaller list of figures with the same gods that are also used in Smite?
Not a lawyer, not even close, but I’d be a little weary of using the exact same list.
A list of things with no creativity involved won’t fall under copyright, but the argument would be that they exercised creativity in curating a list of those specific figures. They could probably argue it and succeed. But since they’re pulling from the public domain, I doubt they’d go after anyone on it.
Would definitely be a problem if someone bases new things on designs from that game. Derivative work from public domain work still gets copyrighted, right?
Your answer is the best!
It gets tricky, because the character itself might be public domain, but the specific representation of the character may not be.
There’s also the issue of the fact that you may be right, but still not be able to afford to prove it.
A lawyer would obviously be able to provide more details if they knew the specifics, but it really depends on the context and what exactly is being replicated.
If they use original art, no, even if the characters are owned by a company.
It may be trademark infringement, however. Depends on how close you get. See Spirt Halloween costumes for examples.
Okay, not trying to be dense here…is there a “Spirt Halloween” that tries to rip off “Spirit Halloween”?
Wondering too because spirit halloween has licensed costumes…
Nah, just a typo.
Age of Mythology has a lot of gods from various religions. I havent seen Microsoft sue Marvel over it though
Assuming you’re referring to U.S. law, I’m not a lawyer, but if a character is in the public domain, they’re available for anyone to create new material with. Using the same list of characters in a different game/story that’s your own creation should be fine.
I saw Sun Wukong in both League of legends and Dota 2.
In SMITE’s case, the characters come from mythological sources and those sources are public domain. However, the way they’re depicted was chosen by the game developer and their depictions are copyrighted by them.
If someone copied the list of characters and made their own game with their own artwork and gameplay and everything, SMITE’s creators could do absolutely nothing about it. But if they copied any substantial elements from SMITE directly, then it starts to go in the direction where lawyers start rising eyebrows. At that point it’s no longer making original stuff based on the same PD material.