Saints Row IV Modding - Any legal issues?

Tyrranis

Tyrranis

(I know it's not an overly technical question, but it is somewhat important and wide enough that I felt it needed a topic about it.)

I've enjoyed the Saints Row series quite a lot, and I get the fact that you guys were going for sci-fi, game and other references in the fourth title. Though, looking over what options are available in SRIV, I see a few well-known sci-fi movies and shows that did not get acknowledged in the game.

Now, I'd be more than willing to make weapon models based on these, however before I start I just want to make sure that there aren't any legal reasons as to why they weren't included.

For reference, the weapon models I would be working on are:

Judge Dredd's Peacemaker (Heavy Pistol)
Red Dwarf's Bazookoid (Alien RPG)
Stargate's Zat gun (Stun Pistol)
Stargate's Staff weapon (Alien RPG)
 
From our forum perspective that kind of thing is okay, and we'll only worry about it if we are contacted by the rights holder. To make sure it's even less of an issue, you may want to try a sly reference. For example, name Judge Dredd's Peacemaker something like "The Law" with description being "I am it."
 
When in doubt, just make the item very similar with a similar name, without being totally identical (like SR does with some of it's cars being like real world cars but slightly different with different names). That way you wouldn't have to worry about it at all.
 
Tyrranis said:
Ah, I see. The old 'cheap knockoff' defence, eh? I can work with that.
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Well usually you say it's a homage to the original work or if you subvert the original work it's a parody.

Both are in a legal grey area but are generally accepted. Like, for instance, the Downfall parodies. They got taken down for copy-write infringement for a while but now they are back on the internet.
 
You know it.
 
scanti said:
Well usually you say it's a homage to the original work or if you subvert the original work it's a parody.

Both are in a legal grey area but are generally accepted. Like, for instance, the Downfall parodies. They got taken down for copy-write infringement for a while but now they are back on the internet.
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As mentioned here it is a grey area. The public would destroy any copyright owner who attacked a free modder so they tend to ignore it and sometimes praise it but at the end of the day you are "stealing" someone's creation "likeness" and some of the more powerful company's that don't care about their "fans" and have been known to take people to court over this sort of thing.
 
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