Italian website selling porn games and claiming to own the copyright for them

Notretsam

Well-Known Member
Game Developer
Nov 1, 2017
1,243
1,893
why do people keep mentioning italian law, netherlands law or laws of other nations?

Its the international copyright law that was ratified by 180 countries that governs this (am pretty sure am right on this)

Book a consultation with a lawyer , not sure how much that cost, may even be free. Know in past I needed a lawyer, twice it never cost me anything as I got legal aid.

surely there someone on this forum somewhere who can speak to a lawyer and get advice?
 
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recreation

pure evil!
Respected User
Game Developer
Jun 10, 2018
6,248
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why do people keep mentioning italian law, netherlands law or laws of other nations?

Its the international copyright law that was ratified by 180 countries that governs this (am pretty sure am right on this)

Book a consultation with a lawyer , not sure how much that cost, may even be free. Know in past I needed a lawyer, twice it never cost me anything as I got legal aid.

surely there someone on this forum somewhere who can speak to a lawyer and get advice?
It's called and the dcma is also based off of this.
 

random.person

Active Member
Aug 11, 2017
802
1,291
why do people keep mentioning italian law, netherlands law or laws of other nations?

Its the international copyright law that was ratified by 180 countries that governs this (am pretty sure am right on this)

Book a consultation with a lawyer , not sure how much that cost, may even be free. Know in past I needed a lawyer, twice it never cost me anything as I got legal aid.

surely there someone on this forum somewhere who can speak to a lawyer and get advice?
International treaties oblige countries to respect what's stipulated there, but depending on the constitutional structure of a State they might need a separate act to enter the internal juridical system.
For instance, the italian Constitution dictates the international treaty needs to be ratified and an execution order be given by the Parliament before it can have any effect. Thus the italian government might sign a treaty but only reserving itself to present it to the Parliament for approval and execution (which are usually done together in a single law).
After the treaty has been ratified it is not the international treaty that generates rights and obligations, but the law that has ratified it. It is the text of the italian law that matters. If the latter is unacceptably different from the contents of the treaty there is a consequence though, because in the early 2000s the Constitution was reformed to dictate no law by the Parliament shall violate international treaties or European Union acts, but that only means that the interested party may present a judge with a question on the constitutionality of that law and the judge must then evaluate whether to propose the question to the Constitutional Court, which is the sole organ which can void a law because of incostitutionality.
That's one of the reasons you can't just look at the treaty. Another reason is that often treaties impose minimal conditions to enforce something but leave the concrete means to implement those warranties to the single States. Thus a treaty may say copyright is enforced at some conditions but leave the means to do so unspecified, so a country might fine you an administrative fee for transgression and another one regard it as a criminal offense.
I'm not saying the treaty on copyright does this, I'm just exposing the general scheme that explains why you should always look up at the State laws anyway. Especially since in some systems there might not even be a remedy for a Parliament that makes laws contrary to treaties it has ratified, which would then simply result in a violation of international law and international responsibility of that country, but nothing more internally.
 
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vedpls

New Member
Feb 24, 2018
11
8
I regret that Runey did not contact a professional lawyer at the beginning, and instead tried to "scare" them. Seriously, if you earn money/earn a living from selling products on the internet, it is almost necessary to have a lawyer at this point. They can help you write contracts if you need contractors, and they can pursue issues like this. You don't need the most fancy lawyers around, nor do you need them on a monthly basis. Find a lawyer within a price range you feel comfortable and use them in such cases.

It might suck to pay for them, but they can really end up saving your ass one day.
 

recreation

pure evil!
Respected User
Game Developer
Jun 10, 2018
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In many countrys you don't even need to pay them unless you loose the case.
 

Runey

Harem Hotel
Game Developer
May 17, 2018
3,938
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I regret that Runey did not contact a professional lawyer at the beginning, and instead tried to "scare" them. Seriously, if you earn money/earn a living from selling products on the internet, it is almost necessary to have a lawyer at this point. They can help you write contracts if you need contractors, and they can pursue issues like this. You don't need the most fancy lawyers around, nor do you need them on a monthly basis. Find a lawyer within a price range you feel comfortable and use them in such cases.

It might suck to pay for them, but they can really end up saving your ass one day.
Yeah, I have no clue on how to do any of that.

I actually tried signing up for some online Lawyer stuff, but they required a company name, and making the company was confusing enough to warrant me getting a Lawyer, which I couldn't do without a company... So, my only option would probably be to meet one in real life, and I'm not too keen to tell them I make porn.

But, I still may do it.
 

おい!

Engaged Member
Mar 25, 2018
2,539
7,376
Yeah, I have no clue on how to do any of that.

I actually tried signing up for some online Lawyer stuff, but they required a company name, and making the company was confusing enough to warrant me getting a Lawyer, which I couldn't do without a company... So, my only option would probably be to meet one in real life, and I'm not too keen to tell them I make porn.

But, I still may do it.
Why? Lawyers have no morals, the only thing they are interested in is money.
 

Notretsam

Well-Known Member
Game Developer
Nov 1, 2017
1,243
1,893
Why? Lawyers have no morals, the only thing they are interested in is money.
lol this is so true, a lawyer won't care, they may have a chuckle afterwards but they probably already heard a bunch of crazier stuff.

Also I wouldn't worry about Patreon as well Runy, they may contact you at least but your Patreon account with game listed on it, and the history of posts will clearly show them game is your's. it's a fair point that you just never know for sure what Patreon do, but I just don't see them doing anything about your page.

if anything, you actually have more chance of getting Patreon to close there page, than they do yours.

As someone else stated in thread, they probably didn't even contact Patreon, they just trying to scare you away.


edit,

it occurs to me that you may not actually have to tell a lawyer you make porn games , just tell them you have a game and that you use patreon, but someone has taken the game and selling it as there own, your game is listed on patreon and there T & C + copyright should protect your game.

Then say you would like to know if Patreon T & C + copyright does protect copyright of game (it does, or should), and what options do you have.

a lawyer should be able to tell you what options you have without them seeing your page or game name, but if you decide to go ahead with action, then you will need to say.
 
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Runey

Harem Hotel
Game Developer
May 17, 2018
3,938
19,452
lol this is so true, a lawyer won't care, they may have a chuckle afterwards but they probably already heard a bunch of crazier stuff.

Also I wouldn't worry about Patreon as well Runy, they may contact you at least but your Patreon account with game listed on it, and the history of posts will clearly show them game is your's. it's a fair point that you just never know for sure what Patreon do, but I just don't see them doing anything about your page.

if anything, you actually have more chance of getting Patreon to close there page, than they do yours.

As someone else stated in thread, they probably didn't even contact Patreon, they just trying to scare you away.


edit,

it occurs to me that you may not actually have to tell a lawyer you make porn games , just tell them you have a game and that you use patreon, but someone has taken the game and selling it as there own, your game is listed on patreon and there T & C + copyright should protect your game.

Then say you would like to know if Patreon T & C + copyright does protect copyright of game (it does, or should), and what options do you have.

a lawyer should be able to tell you what options you have without them seeing your page or game name, but if you decide to go ahead with action, then you will need to say.
Thanks, yeah I'm starting to believe Giochi has just said that to scare people. I contacted Patreon and they gave me the basic response of "Here's our guidelines, don't fuck up. But if you do, we'll let you know what you need to do to fix it." I would bet they would say something other than that if something was going on.
 

Finsit

Harder Better Faster Cheater
Game Developer
Jun 2, 2017
1,167
1,377
Even if the threats are vain they should pay for their wrongdoing.
 
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Runey

Harem Hotel
Game Developer
May 17, 2018
3,938
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Giochi did contact Patreon
Here is my response to the above

Hello, thank you very much for contacting me about this issue.

Ashley is indeed a petite looking girl, but she is not under aged, nor is she meant to look under aged. In fact, I'm disappointed some would view her that way as that is not my intention at all. Ashley is 19 years old, attends a college and lives independently. This is made abundantly clear in the story.

There are other characters of the same age. Is the issue here that her breasts are too small? Breasts naturally take many shapes and sizes, and this is what I wanted to represent in the game.

Again, this character isn't meant to look or act under aged in any way, shape, or form. The context and story surrounding the character is very clear about this as well.

I'm currently in the early stages of a legal dispute with an Italian company who is attempting to resell my work. In an early email they had threatened to falsify reports against the project and engaged in other forms of harassment in an attempt to intimidate me into withdrawing the complaint. I'm currently proceeding with litgation against them, and I'm guessing this is where this report has originated from. I had contacted you previously on Friday, February the 8th, 2019 informing you of the situation.

I am completely willing to remove Ashley from the game if you really insist, but as it stands, I honestly believe everything about Ashley is perfectly within Patreon's Terms of Service. And I am in no way attempting to subvert your policies.

Kind regards.
 

Finsit

Harder Better Faster Cheater
Game Developer
Jun 2, 2017
1,167
1,377
Any pen tester around there wanting to practice their Italian ? :sneaky:

Threatening is fine and dandy until it goes beyond posturing.
 
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