Stargate mod, important!

[lukemax 0]

Has anyone eactully confirmed that they are to be sued by a MGM lawyer by letter Mail, or in person?

A E-mail is not legal

If not

Then MGM has a bark louder then its bite!

[j w 0]

A E-mail is not legal

Ehrm. In what way?

And besides, I don't think they'll get it trough, after all, they're not making any profit of it.

So fck the lawyers.

[Ironsight 1]

A E-mail is not legal

An email can be a legal document.

[redpride 0]

No it can't..for the very reason that any digital document can be much too easily altered & manipulated without leaving a trace of evidence.

[Ironsight 1]

No it can't..for the very reason that any digital document can be much too easily altered & manipulated without leaving a trace of evidence.

It can. I have passed my first semester of business law and learned that any message can be legally enforceable, even an oral agreement or an email.

[Ex-RoNiN 0]

No it can't..for the very reason that any digital document can be much too easily altered & manipulated without leaving a trace of evidence.

Digital documents are legally enforceable and valid in a court of law.

Especially in the European Union there's a drive to digitise all communication between administrations and citizens under the umbrella of the Lisbon Agenda and the i2010 plan.

The legal frameworks to accept and enforce digital documents are mostly in place, with some modifications required for cross-border validity.

Anyway, as interesting as this debate is, can we please get back on topic.

[MontyVCB 0]

Never mind

[philcommando 0]

Are emails legal documents?

First off, let me emphasise i repect an artist or game studio's creative works and support his/her/their rights to payment for usage of own creative works. Originality is still the best.

However, there is something call 'FREE USE'. One cannot own copyrights to EVERY single atom of a creative work, for the simple reason that NO HUMAN owns exclusivity to atoms!!!

Misconceptions:-

1. Be afraid of legal documents

lol!...legal docs are just a bunch of legal speak written to frighten ignorant schools boys with small lunch money into stopping what they are doing, simply out of fear of running afoul of the law or spending sums of money to slug it out in court.

BUT, legal speak writing hands or mind ( liars..ooops, spelling error, lawyers) ARE NOT judges or juries, and they carry no authority of judgement nor can compel anyone to do anything.

2. Judgement is swift

The entire legal process, from a mail to court appearances takes months if not years to be heard, and judged ( if it doesnt get thrown out by the judge for wasting the court's time over school kids modding efforts)

3. Studios have more money

A simple email to frighten a school kid cost only $50 or free if faked by a clerk. But to go all the way to court would be in the region of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars and hours spent. They would have to seriously consider the worthiness of the effort and do they have a winnable case to fight the school kid.

Contary to pop belief, U DONT NEED to be represented by a lawyer in court for u can defend yourself or plead the 5th admendment, legal aid if u need, etc. There is NO large sums required of u to slug it out, cos judge or juries or or both are not fools to judge a case of a school kid against money grabbing studios!

4. Emails are legal.

Emails are only as legal as the correct addressee is applied to. Sender would have to apply for a court order to compel the ISP to release the name and address of the addressee, which is not easy in most democratic countries. Certainly Terrorism Act does not apply here to release names unless modding is considered a form of terrorism where death to thousands ( human and not AI ) can occur!

So when u received an email that says 'Lukemax, u will be sued', laff at the idiocy of it. Cos, who the hell is Lukemax? What is his social security number? where does he live? Has he been appropriately inform of his offence?

Information is power. Deny ignorance. Do not be bullied. POWER TO OFP FANS

[ubersmack 0]

Just change the name, I had a similar issue like this awhile back and we had to change all names and any references making it very vauge yet you still knew what it was.

[Ironsight 1]

Just change the name, I had a similar issue like this awhile back and we had to change all names and any references making it very vauge yet you still knew what it was.

Starport, Stardoor, Galaxygate, Spacegate, etc.

[redpride 0]

No it can't..for the very reason that any digital document can be much too easily altered & manipulated without leaving a trace of evidence.

It can. I have passed my first semester of business law and learned that any message can be legally enforceable, even an oral agreement or an email.

hehe let me guess this is american "law"? HEHE no wonder other people illegally print your currentcy and you can't do anything about it cause you have no proof.

That's like the equivilant of you saying that someone elses claims (in spoken words) are more justified than somebody else, just because they have a higher rank in society.

lol Had Stalin been alive this day he would have been proud of U.S. "democracy".

[punishment 1]

should have just given them no responce or contact , how are they ment to take action against a person thats invisable

[lukemax 0]

I still think its possible to use the name "Stargate" is it owned by MGM?

[Ironsight 1]

No it can't..for the very reason that any digital document can be much too easily altered & manipulated without leaving a trace of evidence.

It can. I have passed my first semester of business law and learned that any message can be legally enforceable, even an oral agreement or an email.

hehe let me guess this is american "law"? HEHE no wonder other people illegally print your currentcy and you can't do anything about it cause you have no proof.

That's like the equivilant of you saying that someone elses claims (in spoken words) are more justified than somebody else, just because they have a higher rank in society.

lol Had Stalin been alive this day he would have been proud of U.S. "democracy".

No I am not American but this is goes for every pretty much every country. Read Ex-RoNiN's post. Your post makes no sense and if you don't know what you're talking about, you shouldn't post.

[mattxr 9]

Yeah i wouldnt have of responded and if i had people knocking on my door i would be like what you talking about i don't have a PC.. or the internet close the door. Id be like im not called Mr Blah Blah wrong door

[Guest RKSL-Rock]

I still think its possible to use the name "Stargate" is it owned by MGM?  

The "Stargate" name, "Stargate SG-1", SG-1 and associated intellectual property, the design of the gate itself and the characters on it are all copyrighted materials so in theory its not possible to use the name.

Someone asked why the Unreal Modding community hasn’t been targeted by MGM’s lawyers… they have. Several were threatened and did close down last year. However several did make it to court (apparently – I haven’t found any official/objective sources for this) The difference appears to be that one of the mod teams approached MGM via the Fan club and received ‘limited permission’ (not sure what that means) to carry out a mod. While other mod teams have closed down under threat of legal action.

As I understand it, and I’m by no means the expert on this, the reason MGM hasn’t gone directly after the other ‘freeware’ Mods themselves is that they found it very hard to prove loss of revenue in a court of law. It is much easier to go after the community sites and news forums that have commercial banner ads on them. This allows them to exploit the copyright laws and prove that someone else is making money out of their brand name without a license.

So the upshot is:

1) You could continue using the “Stargate Name†and chance they don’t come after you.

2) Rename and remake your content to be “legally distinct†from SG-1 materials – ie change the gate logos etc slightly but significantly so they are similar but not the same.

3) Run your ‘fan’ website without any advertising or money generating banners – this apparently includes public requests for donations!

Good luck...

[Myst9999 0]

Quote[/b] ]3) Run your ‘fan’ website without any advertising or money generating banners – this apparently includes public requests for donations!

http://www.ofp-sgc.com/

I believe I mentioned this before

[wipman 1]

Hi, say that "have banners or publicity that pays your internet site"

is a reason to chase you in a tribunal because you have any kind of

mod, addon or whatever; for download in your site, sounds very

ridiculous to me. Even stupid and pointless; why Could haven't chased

me or any other of the ppl who ever made 1 of those 3.000.000 of

M4 packs out there?, or H&K the ppl who made any G36's or any other

H&K weapon, based on that stupid reasonment... they could... .

Don't it really sounds stupid and pointless...? we do not proffit for

the OFP addons that we did or stolen (in my case, based on the

opinion of ppl that i don't care about) for me or for ANY reasonable

person in this damn world that sounds pretty stupid; but i haven't

been chased by the MGM lawers so... i can keep thinking in this

way. Let's C ya

[Guest RKSL-Rock]

Hi, say that "have banners or publicity that pays your internet site"

is a reason to chase you in a tribunal because you have any kind of

mod, addon or whatever; for download in your site, sounds very

ridiculous to me. Even stupid and pointless; why Could haven't chased

me or any other of the ppl who ever made 1 of those 3.000.000 of

M4 packs out there?, or H&K the ppl who made any G36's or any other

H&K weapon, based on that stupid reasonment... they could... .

Don't it really sounds stupid and pointless...? we do not proffit for

the OFP addons that we did or stolen (in my case, based on the

opinion of ppl that i don't care about) for me or for ANY reasonable

person in this damn world that sounds pretty stupid; but i haven't

been chased by the MGM lawers so... i can keep thinking in this

way. Let's C ya

Colt, HK etc don’t rely on games and media for revenue so they wouldn’t be interested in suing you. But try printing their logos on Tshirts and selling them and see what happens. MGM on the other hand they do make their money from games and media…

You can say what you want, claim what ever you want but if ‘you’ve’ broken the law then it doesn’t matter what you think. It’s up to the courts…

[Abs_01 0]

This topic has gotten me thinking a lot recently, so I wanted to ask the question:

What if someone makes a picture of the stargate material; will they get sued too? If not, then why would they go after mods that don't sell their work?

Abs

[biggerdave 56]

I still think its possible to use the name "Stargate" is it owned by MGM?

Isn't it owned by the US government? Because the movie was named after Project Stargate, which was some attempt at mind control or something...

[redpride 0]

Then the drug generation is US government's Project Stargate?

Too bad it's spreading to europe, maybe it's an international project.

[redpride 0]

sorry for double post, someone slap me around with a fish please.

[punishment 1]

slap slap upercut

whats the drug generation then? drugs have been around since the 60s and are probably used by the same amount of people if not less than then.

[Thunnder Bunny 0]

I've found that if you look for stargate stuff via google you'll find all kinds of things. That includes media/programs taken directly from the show and available for download....and yes theses sites sometimes have links and adds.

I'm not one for tattling on my neighbor, or turning a lawbreaker into the feds. But MGM is being pretty damn selective here. It just doesn't seem right to me. Although FOX has tore many a ALIEN mods a new one.

Maybe if it's legal to do so an FTP site could be utilized for downloads, and personal webpages (most people get one when you sign up with an ISP) could be used for mod info.....so there will be no need for adds....

Eh ,not sure if any of that would work?