Alarming news for G1 modding

Reiza made their models too similar to current F1 cars, the likeliness of the liveries and shape of recent cars is copyrighted and while a bit extreme, it's FOM's right. So they are right there, even if it's sad for us. Remember, this is a game for sale, not a free mod.

Then again, do Reiza's Porsches have license? I think Porsche has a contract with EA, if so, then maybe Porsche is behind this. They are very much FOM-like. Remember EnduRacers?



Stats: 139 Starts / 7 Wins / 9 Poles / 5 Fastest laps

Yeah we are banging on about FOM, and a particularly heated discussion on RD gave me the impression that all is not what it seems.
It could definitely be Porsche, but as someone said (somewhere) those Porsches haven't even been released yet.

I do stand by my statement though, the outcome of this is going to shape the industry I think.

FlyingFinn19 Wrote:
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> I would stop short of saying point blank that
> Rezia and Automobilista are in the wrong, they're
> doing something that others have done for years in
> that they have generic cars with throwback skins.
> They've just got so many cars and the skins are
> pretty much perfect representations.

Yeah, fair call I think.

> Tricky I think, strong arguments on either side,
> whatever is the outcome is bound to shape sim
> racing for the next decade.

I'm not so sure of this; I still think this grounded in FOM saying to the next licensees "Look how good we are with securing your investment".
Once a contract is signed in some form, they'll stop caring and it'll be business as usual.
(Especially after the negative reaction this has been getting; I honestly think people are more angry about this than qualifying!)

Story that is similar enough to be relevant:

There was a bit of panic a couple of years ago, when the EULA for a bunch of Lucasarts Star Wars games was updated.
It previously hadn't specified that any Star Wars content made for games set in the Star Wars universe became the property of Lucasarts.
This meant that they could, at will, pull stuff down if it wasn't distributed in accordance with their instructions, which specified that the content we made had to be available to everyone.

A lot of us thought that would be the death knell for the community, and would lead to people stealing stuff left and right.

About three weeks later came the announcement of Disney buying Star Wars.

Only one or two mods were ever pulled, and they came back almost immediately after changing their stance on redistribution of the mod's content.

FOM are simply being more aggressive about this than Disney were.

To paraphrase a certain film: Let's all just have a nice cold pint, and wait for all of this to blow over.

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F1 Graphics Swapper --- Lensdump - Renders and Screenshots --- GP4 Performance Generator

For us the GP4 community we should cross the bridge if we (More specifically the great Modders/Admin) come to it, the key word being "if".

Yes they are on the war path it seems but I think they may see our community as "small fry".

Read this - Article about FIA vs Mods

I don't know if the Copyright act of 1976 in regards of "fair use" or "fair dealing" would come into play. If you don't have profit intentions and only takes it as an artistic expression or altruistic work bit I guess they still own the likeness.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 03/31/2016 05:34AM by Scampson.

tamburello Schreef:
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> I agree with the commentators here suggesting not
> to write the FIA. Currently the MODs for the games
> F1 2013 and F1 2014 were affected. We should not
> bring GP4 to their attention.



I just e-mailed Bernie...

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My Grand Prix 4 Files
I'm a total dick. How many people can say that?

Turbo Lover écrivait:
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> I just e-mailed Bernie...

How much did he suggest you to pay for his answer?

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

A bazillion US dollars!

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My Grand Prix 4 Files
I'm a total dick. How many people can say that?

Excalibur Wrote:
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> We don't have to worry about GP4 mods as long as
> we stay quiet.
>
> Grand Prix 4 is not officially sold anymore, even
> if you can find some legal copies on amazon etc...
> But the game is not sold on Steam, for example.
> Infogrames-Atari has been in compulsory
> liquidation in 2013.
> It is more like an abandonware (even if not
> official, yet) with a community made of fans.
> The FOM and his lawyers ordered to take down
> unlicensed F1 mods due to F1 's commercial rights.
> It concerns F1 games sales. They don't want
> concurrency from others Sim racing games and from
> their enthusiasts who are making F1 mods without
> the F1 official license because they don't want
> that these games such as Rfactor, Assetto Corsa,
> Automobilista etc.. be more attractive than F1
> from Codemasters, which would means that it would
> be less less interesting to buy the F1 license, so
> less money for them.
>
> As GP4 is not on the market anymore, that the game
> do not make money anymore and that we have nothing
> to sell, we are not the ones they are seeking and
> haunting because GP4 is not in concurrency with
> actual F1 or Sim racing sales. But better is to
> preserve us from any arguments which could
> disserve us...
>
> Just let continue to keep GP4 alive and put aside
> F1 commercial arguments to live our passion for
> this game. If the community is threatened, Mal
> will inform us and we will found others solutions
> to keep the community alive.
>
> For the moment, keep calm and drink cold!

Very well written my friend!
However, if the community is threatend in some way down the line, do we have a backup one?
To be honest, I don't see myself letting GP4 go for quite some time, but if they take it away from me, I will fight it!
I read an article that told us what shape F1 is currently in and all the modding is a good representation of the sport and
will help spread the interest around the world. Why on earth would they want to take that away when they are loosing more
and more fans every year? Does not make sense to me.

And of course, if codemasters would make a game good enough, this problem would not even be a problem. I still see GP4 as a better and
more enjoyble representation of F1 than what codemasters have made with their games since 2010. What does that tell you? Why do you
think people mod other racing games? It's pretty clear.

And if they clamp down on every small detail that can pass as an F1 car in another game. I play Project CARS on PS4 every now and then.
In that game, the Formula A car, looks similar to the cars we saw in 2011, with KERS and DRS. Do Slightly Mad Studios also have to delete their cars
because there are some resemblence to the rear world F1?

Im sticking with GP4, it never disapoints me!


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Ice Hockey is my Religion!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/31/2016 03:13PM by SkaaningeN.

If something "looks similar" then it is not breaching copyright laws, it's only if it's an identical representation that there is an issue. That's why there are so many cheap alternatives to big branded products that are similar (but usually not quite as good) as the "real thing".

As for KERS and DRS, I would imagine that the copyrights are on the design and functionality of each individual working part of the systems, rather than the concept itself. Unless there is a trademark on the names themselves, which as far as I'm aware there isn't, there's nothing stopping a game from using that name to describe what is essentially pushing a button to go faster.