The Legality of a CodeProject Article
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Something I've been wondering about for a while - would it be illegal to write an article on the CodeProject describing, for example, how to create a 'Scrabble' game? The game is copyrighted - but are you allowed to write about something like this in an educational sense?
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Something I've been wondering about for a while - would it be illegal to write an article on the CodeProject describing, for example, how to create a 'Scrabble' game? The game is copyrighted - but are you allowed to write about something like this in an educational sense?
No problem, as long as you didn't try to sell it, or use it to make $$. Then you might run into trademark and copyright infringement.
Charlie Gilley You're going to tell me what I want to know, or I'm going to beat you to death in your own house. "Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783 “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
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Something I've been wondering about for a while - would it be illegal to write an article on the CodeProject describing, for example, how to create a 'Scrabble' game? The game is copyrighted - but are you allowed to write about something like this in an educational sense?
Dave Kerr wrote:
but are you allowed to write about something like this in an educational sense?
That depends on what you were trying to accomplish. Are you writing an article describing how to write a Scrabble clone just to write a Scrabble clone? That would, in my opinion, run afoul of the copyright around the original game because you are basically describing how to duplicate the game. Are you writing an article because Scrabble presents an intriguing programming or design issue that you wish to explore? That would be different. But then is the problem unique to Scrabble or is it something that could be found elsewhere but Scrabble just presents an interesting view of the problem? If this be the case, I'd limit the article (or series) to just the problems or challenges you have identified. Describe how Scrabble brings the issue to light, and identify how the problem could apply elsewhere as well.
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No problem, as long as you didn't try to sell it, or use it to make $$. Then you might run into trademark and copyright infringement.
Charlie Gilley You're going to tell me what I want to know, or I'm going to beat you to death in your own house. "Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783 “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
charlieg wrote:
No problem, as long as you didn't try to sell it, or use it to make $$.
Money changing hands or not changing hands is immaterial as to whether something constitutes copyright/trademark infringement.
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Something I've been wondering about for a while - would it be illegal to write an article on the CodeProject describing, for example, how to create a 'Scrabble' game? The game is copyrighted - but are you allowed to write about something like this in an educational sense?
Not as such.. You can't use a trademarked name for anything other than the trademarked product or service. So you could write an article about Scrabble, but you could not write an article called, say, "Online Scrabble" that describe your own creation that wasn't actually Scrabble. Unless, of course, you owned the trademark for Scrabble.
cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project | Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
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Dave Kerr wrote:
but are you allowed to write about something like this in an educational sense?
That depends on what you were trying to accomplish. Are you writing an article describing how to write a Scrabble clone just to write a Scrabble clone? That would, in my opinion, run afoul of the copyright around the original game because you are basically describing how to duplicate the game. Are you writing an article because Scrabble presents an intriguing programming or design issue that you wish to explore? That would be different. But then is the problem unique to Scrabble or is it something that could be found elsewhere but Scrabble just presents an interesting view of the problem? If this be the case, I'd limit the article (or series) to just the problems or challenges you have identified. Describe how Scrabble brings the issue to light, and identify how the problem could apply elsewhere as well.
My thinking was that rather than writing a fairly dry article about creating a game lobby, user database, service etc for some 'generic' made up application I'd do it for scrabble so that theoretically you'd have something fun to play with at the end of it - using it as a means to show how to use WCF to create a service for a game client to communicate via - and showing has business logic can be shifted away from the game client to the server. However, the more I think about it the more I think it would be too close to being an infringement issue to be really worth it - and it would be better to use a game like chess as an example as it is not owned by any party. The thing is that some friends and I would use a scrabble client to play against each other, the one we use at the moment is a bit iffy, and if I was to make one I'd like to write it up. I might just write it off tho! ;)
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Not as such.. You can't use a trademarked name for anything other than the trademarked product or service. So you could write an article about Scrabble, but you could not write an article called, say, "Online Scrabble" that describe your own creation that wasn't actually Scrabble. Unless, of course, you owned the trademark for Scrabble.
cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project | Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
So I'd be fine so long as I call it Sçrabble?
Martin Fowler wrote:
Any fool can write code that a computer can understand. Good programmers write code that humans can understand.
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Not as such.. You can't use a trademarked name for anything other than the trademarked product or service. So you could write an article about Scrabble, but you could not write an article called, say, "Online Scrabble" that describe your own creation that wasn't actually Scrabble. Unless, of course, you owned the trademark for Scrabble.
cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project | Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
So if you were to write it up and call it something like 'Word Game' would that be OK? I have no intention of trying to make money from it, but I think it would make a good article. A client I use is called 'WordBiz' http://www.isc.ro/en/download.html[^] and it made me wonder about legality - it would also be irresponsible to post anything that could put the hosting site in any kind of legal grey area, so your opinion Chris is obviously valuable!
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So if you were to write it up and call it something like 'Word Game' would that be OK? I have no intention of trying to make money from it, but I think it would make a good article. A client I use is called 'WordBiz' http://www.isc.ro/en/download.html[^] and it made me wonder about legality - it would also be irresponsible to post anything that could put the hosting site in any kind of legal grey area, so your opinion Chris is obviously valuable!
If you call it something else then you're not breaching trademark. As to whether your breaching patent laws and IP is a different issue ;) If in doubt you can email us your idea (chris at codeproject...) and I could get an opinion on it.
cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project | Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
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Something I've been wondering about for a while - would it be illegal to write an article on the CodeProject describing, for example, how to create a 'Scrabble' game? The game is copyrighted - but are you allowed to write about something like this in an educational sense?
Read this[^] regarding fair use: Fair use, a limitation and exception to the exclusive right granted by copyright law to the author of a creative work, is a doctrine in United States copyright law that allows limited use of copyrighted material without acquiring permission from the rights holders. Examples of fair use include commentary, criticism, news reporting, research, teaching, library archiving and scholarship. It provides for the legal, non-licensed citation or incorporation of copyrighted material in another author's work under a four-factor balancing test. Since you are doing this for educational reasons... Regardless, this is what lawyers love to get paid for. The issue here though is not whether someone is going to sue you, but whether someone is going to sue Code Project. But usually, before anything nasty like that, someone will just get a letter demanding that the content be removed from the website. I had something like that happen once. I was trying to copyright a name and got a nice letter from a Microsoft lawyer telling me to retract the copyright application, along with the form I had to fill out and the address to send it to. They were polite and firm. :) Marc
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Something I've been wondering about for a while - would it be illegal to write an article on the CodeProject describing, for example, how to create a 'Scrabble' game? The game is copyrighted - but are you allowed to write about something like this in an educational sense?
Call it SharpScrabble and you're fine. (I'm not a lawyer and don't play one on TV.) :) /ravi
My new year resolution: 2048 x 1536 Home | Articles | My .NET bits | Freeware ravib(at)ravib(dot)com
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Something I've been wondering about for a while - would it be illegal to write an article on the CodeProject describing, for example, how to create a 'Scrabble' game? The game is copyrighted - but are you allowed to write about something like this in an educational sense?
I think I may have the exact answer you are looking for in the form of an article that already exists on Code Project. Particularly this: A DirectX Game: Quadrino[^] I posted this article on Code Project in 2002 with the title A DirectX Game: Tetris The Tetris Company probably has more lawyers than programmers and they send out "Cease and Desist" letters like new startups during the .com era. Well in 2007, I got an email that deeply saddened me from Code Project. They had to remove my game article because they got one of these letters from The Tetris Company. But this story has a happy ending, because I got another email from Code Project in October of 2008, that made me happy. This letter also cited the text from one of the previous comments on this topic regarding Copyright and Trademark law. They basically told me, if I were to remove any use of the word Tetris, tetramino and other words under copyright protection, they would and could legally repost my article. So, I removed all references to Tetris, replaced them with the new name I came up with, Quadrino and it has been there for the world to enjoy ever since. Basically, how I understand the law, works of writing and art that are copywrited cannot be copied word for word, or photocopied. The rules for scrabble cannot be retyped, then printed and marketed with your scrabble clone. However, you can paraphrase the rules, avoid all name recognition, and even market and sell your own game called "befuddled" that has similar rules to scrabble. I myself have been contemplating a new version of Quadrino called either Litigatethis, or even Litigate-tris if I was feeling brave enough, but it does contain the word tetris right in that name, so I may be painting a subpeona bull's eye on my back doing that. Only time will tell. Good luck with whatever you decide.
modified on Monday, September 19, 2011 5:15 AM
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Something I've been wondering about for a while - would it be illegal to write an article on the CodeProject describing, for example, how to create a 'Scrabble' game? The game is copyrighted - but are you allowed to write about something like this in an educational sense?
I think you would be more likely to be sued for patent infringement. :wtf:
m.bergman
-- For Bruce Schneier, quanta only have one state : afraid.
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I think I may have the exact answer you are looking for in the form of an article that already exists on Code Project. Particularly this: A DirectX Game: Quadrino[^] I posted this article on Code Project in 2002 with the title A DirectX Game: Tetris The Tetris Company probably has more lawyers than programmers and they send out "Cease and Desist" letters like new startups during the .com era. Well in 2007, I got an email that deeply saddened me from Code Project. They had to remove my game article because they got one of these letters from The Tetris Company. But this story has a happy ending, because I got another email from Code Project in October of 2008, that made me happy. This letter also cited the text from one of the previous comments on this topic regarding Copyright and Trademark law. They basically told me, if I were to remove any use of the word Tetris, tetramino and other words under copyright protection, they would and could legally repost my article. So, I removed all references to Tetris, replaced them with the new name I came up with, Quadrino and it has been there for the world to enjoy ever since. Basically, how I understand the law, works of writing and art that are copywrited cannot be copied word for word, or photocopied. The rules for scrabble cannot be retyped, then printed and marketed with your scrabble clone. However, you can paraphrase the rules, avoid all name recognition, and even market and sell your own game called "befuddled" that has similar rules to scrabble. I myself have been contemplating a new version of Quadrino called either Litigatethis, or even Litigate-tris if I was feeling brave enough, but it does contain the word tetris right in that name, so I may be painting a subpeona bull's eye on my back doing that. Only time will tell. Good luck with whatever you decide.
modified on Monday, September 19, 2011 5:15 AM
Thanks very much for this - really useful insight. As developers intellectual property law and copyright is probably the area we're most likely to run into legal quagmires so it's helpful to canvas people's experience on this - good luck if you do build that new version!
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