gatekeeper8

Newbie
Jul 3, 2017
29
36
To those saying "why ditch the porn in favor of art?" the answer is simple. Right now Westane could be sued by any of these actors or actresses, and they would probably win their case easily. He is making money off of their likenesses without proper compensation. Saying that the income received from Patreon is not tied to the game because it's given out for free would not fly in an actual court. Any lawyer could easily argue past that, and few judges are dumb enough to not make the connection between Westane's Patreon and the only game he's made. Switching to art is the only reasonable method of keeping this game going without a cease and desist.

Personally I'm fine with the current art style. Simple rough lines and shapes means easier art production, and faster content updates. That said I'd also be fine with the artist just tracing over pictures of actors/actresses like Eva Kiss does for Good Girl Gone Bad. Either way a change to drawn art needs to be done. I don't want this game done in by legal bullshit.
well technically usage of the pictures would fall under fair use since them being used in a game is transformative but he still runs the risk of people with more money then him holding him up in court untill he either gives in or runs out of money. fair use is actually extreamly broad to the point where somebody won a fair use lawsuit because he took tweets off the internet put them in a frame and sold them as art. even though he had no right to the tweets since he transformed them from a tweet to art the court ruled in his favor. same principle would apply in this case.
 

gatekeeper8

Newbie
Jul 3, 2017
29
36
Greetings everyone!

Artwork for The Company has been in development for just over a year now, and in that time I've been getting feedback from all directions. Feedback is great! I love feedback! Unfortunately, feedback can be a little hard to parse sometimes, and incorrectly evaluating feedback can be just as harmful as ignoring it completely.



At this point, I've decided to finally collect some useful and concise feedback on the current state of the artwork being developed for The Company. The poll is more complex than I can post here, so I ask you take a few minutes to direct your attention...



The information gathered from this poll will taken into consideration while we move forward through the next year, so I urge everyone to complete the above questionnaire and get their voices heard.

Thank you all!
hey man just a heads up legally speaking i am almost certain using the real porn images like you are would fall under fair use. it transforms the matireal from just images to charachters in a game. fair use is pretty broad and their have been cases of people winning fair use lawsuits because they took tweets from twitter, framed them, and sold them as artwork. the court ruled that since it was transformative it was ok. oh and depending on the source you got the images from in the first place they might be public domain so you may want to check that out as well.
 

Snugglepuff

Conversation Conqueror
Apr 27, 2017
7,658
8,230
hey man just a heads up legally speaking i am almost certain using the real porn images like you are would fall under fair use. it transforms the matireal from just images to charachters in a game. fair use is pretty broad and their have been cases of people winning fair use lawsuits because they took tweets from twitter, framed them, and sold them as artwork. the court ruled that since it was transformative it was ok. oh and depending on the source you got the images from in the first place they might be public domain so you may want to check that out as well.
Your example isn't the best.
Tweets aren't copyrighted, and a person's likeness isn't being used without permission.

The characters also use the actor/actress names for the vast majority of characters (not including Main Character), which is only an issue because the names are attached to the image of their respective character, which as mentioned already are attached to that person's likeness used without permission and the copyrighted material(s) used in ways that do not match with your interpretation of "transformative" in regards to fair use.

Then there's the issue of how the game's content/fetishes would be interpreted... That's an inescapable point of bias that would have to be overcome, and would be a major negative against the game in practically any court, regardless of the blatant fictional/fantasy settings and elements.
 
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ZunMadun

Newbie
Oct 21, 2017
70
102
But what if I'm right? Is the risk worth it just to keep some live imagery in the game? Are the only acceptable options real images or no game at all?
But what if you fall on the stairs and break your neck maybe you should just stay away from all stairs. Every what if scenario is always stupid.

Right now Westane could be sued by any of these actors or actresses, and they would probably win their case easily.
Yeah I don't think that's how things work unless the pictures, gif or videos are their exclusive content. If they are employed by a company then I'm pretty sure that the company will have the rights to their likeness or whatever in that specific picture or video.
 

temporaryuser

Member
Feb 28, 2018
229
142
I love this forum :) ... guys calm down and ask the dev himself what he is thinking , maybe he is a lawyer a he knows what he is doing ...
 

Westane

Newbie
Game Developer
Feb 15, 2018
48
157
I love this forum :) ... guys calm down and ask the dev himself what he is thinking , maybe he is a lawyer a he knows what he is doing ...
He's not, but he does.

There's several reasons I'm going the 2D art route, getting out of a legally grey area being just one of them. As for the artwork itself, I'm sticking with the style, however I'm also working with the artist to go back and produce a higher quality product. People will always hate the art, I can't please everyone so I'll stick with aiming for the majority. For everyone else, the existing media will continue to be developed and supported in one capacity or another.
 

Ombra

Member
Jun 21, 2017
105
238
He's not, but he does.

There's several reasons I'm going the 2D art route, getting out of a legally grey area being just one of them. As for the artwork itself, I'm sticking with the style, however I'm also working with the artist to go back and produce a higher quality product. People will always hate the art, I can't please everyone so I'll stick with aiming for the majority. For everyone else, the existing media will continue to be developed and supported in one capacity or another.
thats my boy
 

evilbob

New Member
Jun 12, 2017
7
26
hey man just a heads up legally speaking i am almost certain using the real porn images like you are would fall under fair use. it transforms the matireal from just images to charachters in a game. fair use is pretty broad and their have been cases of people winning fair use lawsuits because they took tweets from twitter, framed them, and sold them as artwork. the court ruled that since it was transformative it was ok. oh and depending on the source you got the images from in the first place they might be public domain so you may want to check that out as well.
This is absolutely incorrect. You would be using images (or likeness) of people to make money without their permission. Just look around, if you could use Tom Cruise's image 'transformatively' to sell a product without paying him someone certainly would. In reality, lawyers are known to browse big box retailers looking for TV's playing unauthorized movies and suing the retailer because their actors image is being used to sell tvs without payment. And the value of the image is obvious because you are using Tom Cruise's image instead of a generic persons. You can't even play a radio in a store without paying for it, so the idea you could use an actors image without their permission is absolutely incorrect. Its not even a grey area, if a lawyer got a hold of this they would be able to sue for meaningful damages. The game's saving grace is that they don't really care that much, those images are everywhere. But they could release a C&D letter to Pateron and that would end that funding source.

The grey area is if a video game character that is generated in another style (art, 3d image etc) is used. Kate Upton attempted a lawsuit concerning a character that was super obviously based on her and lost, because her image had been changed into 3d and it was just different enough AND it wasn't a focal point of the game (IE no one bought the title because there was a near Kate Upton in it, or at least not enough for a lawyer to argue). In the Company, especially with the massive number of posts supporting the original art, none of that applies. People ARE playing the game because of the images in some cases AND those images are 100% real people. Basically if westane had said I'm switching to 2d art and everyone went meh, then he'd have a tiny scrap of grey area to stand on. Instead people started naming the actresses and bitching about the change indicating that the original art added value.

If westlane wanted a cutout, what he'd do is ONLY release it with the 2d art but still have options for the other art and let an unaffiliated person release that separately as a mod. Then he'd be fine, that's what many of the incest Pateron games did. They don't have any incest, no sir. But every time they release their game, a few hours later some mean old modder released an incest patch that's been fully bug tested. Whatever are they to do? That holds up because mods hold up.
 

evilbob

New Member
Jun 12, 2017
7
26
Yeah I don't think that's how things work unless the pictures, gif or videos are their exclusive content. If they are employed by a company then I'm pretty sure that the company will have the rights to their likeness or whatever in that specific picture or video.
No, that 100% exactly how it works. They still own the copyright so they can still sue. They probably won't because those images are everywhere and he's not making much money. If they take official notice they could just send a C&D letter to Pateron and they would be obligated to kill his account. Pateron would drop westane faster than you can blink.
 

ZunMadun

Newbie
Oct 21, 2017
70
102
No, that 100% exactly how it works. They still own the copyright so they can still sue. They probably won't because those images are everywhere and he's not making much money. If they take official notice they could just send a C&D letter to Pateron and they would be obligated to kill his account. Pateron would drop westane faster than you can blink.
Every movie made is not owned by every person appearing in that movie it would be owned by director/producer or in most cases the company behind it all.
They can however sue for unlawful use of name/likeness.

So essentially if you want to lawfully use any pornstar image you have to get consent from said pornstar so you won't sued for unlawful use of name/likeness and then also get permission from either the photographer or company who took the photo so you can't get sued for copyright violation.

Also keep in mind this is could be easily viewed as non-commercial product since it's available for free and people are donating to it so some laws might not even apply in that case.
 

Snugglepuff

Conversation Conqueror
Apr 27, 2017
7,658
8,230
Also keep in mind this is could be easily viewed as non-commercial product since it's available for free and people are donating to it so some laws might not even apply in that case.
It's a grey area.
Bethesda, so far, allows modders with a Patreon account to be funded for the mods they make. They can still choose to take action against those modders via Patreon.
I doubt that same courtesy would be extended by companies and/or individuals whose likeness/IP/copyrighted materials are directly being use as part of the content of their game.

Any exchange of money for services rendered i.e. a free game that features the use of real porn content, can be viewed as breach of copyright laws even if the person/team/account holder is not profiting.
As much as it may be optional to be a patron, it's still receiving money for an end product.
 
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countryboy

Newbie
Jan 7, 2019
73
6
well the patreon members got the update alpha 6.0.3 on wastane patreon page under the posts link and the public is still waiting on save here after nov 2 the coming in chapter 4 and 6.2 john dom and to take tasha on a date for $50 so that means the public got nothing this time.
 

Davox

Well-Known Member
Jul 15, 2017
1,535
2,345
always gives me a laugh how many internet lawyers crop up in porn forums
Yeah especially when we are talking about porn actresses and studios copy write claims. Its not like 99% of the internet is made up of free porn or anything....

(Before anyone comments on the mindgeeek situation, not all free porn is run out of mindgeek websites)

Anyway this update loosk balls. Thin I'll pass...

Is anyone playing the route where john doms Penny, I don't think so....
 
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