MERP for Skyrim gets Cease and Desist from Warner Brothers

[Aoikani]

MERP fans: As initially posted on MERP | Middle Earth Roleplaying Project we are aware that you have waited patiently for our news. Recently we have received a Ceast & Desist letter from Warner Brothers Entertainment, and in a disappointment shared among our team we are complying with that request. We are avidly seeking a resolute course to continue modding, but we cannot at this time discuss this publicly and with that I urge you to please be patient and hopeful that we will find a way.
Our development is not closed but we are not developing Middle-earth. So what is going to happen to MERP for skyrim? If you have questions, submit them and we'll try our best to reply with an answer.

[Dark_Ansem]

so THIS was the thing that put everything to a halt.
Then again, I did a small bit of Law homework and they have no basis to ask it.

what will happen to the assets you have to wonderfully done?

[Vuk]

well does that means that Warner Bros is not letting u continue ur work because u do not have Authors rights,or it it something else going on?

[Vuk]

Dark_Ansem is right thy have no basis to send something like this to u because this is non-profit project.
I must say that i really didn't except something like this from Warner Bros.

[Aoikani]

There is basis, however we have a lawyer from OTW willing to assist us currently. There is hope, but I don't know how far that will go. As far as our assets the team has created, models and such.. those are ours. It will be up to the original authors to decide to release those when they choose to for the Skyrim community, but that likely won't happen for a while. I could be wrong though.

[Dark_Ansem]

hoenstly, the Copyright Act of USA has the Fair use section, which MERP respects. No sane judge would go against that.

look here

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/107

MERP respects each one of the 4 points to a more than respectable degree. and the first point ALONE is enough to win any trial.

[Aoikani]

You must consider all 4 factors though. The first is not enough alone.

[Dark_Ansem]

I did.
the only point that could cause some isseus in number 3: but again, you are making your own assets, not ripped them from their games. they're reproductions.

[Wocky]

*Sigh* First the Pokémon MMO, then the Zelda Movie, and now this? These companies just love stomping all over their fans, don't they?

[Clir0j]

Good luck guys. Could almost feel that something wasn't alright anymore.
The other day I found out about the cease and desist, was a damn schock.

I wish you good luck again, hopefully there will be a solution soon.

[john_tgh]

Think on it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzHXt6n1QhM

[Nuvendil]

Actually, number three and four are the ones heavily weighted against us. Number one is entirely on our side, but number two is a coin toss really; that one hasn't nearly as much impact. The best argument to offset our disadvantage is that our work is transformative, which automatically constitutes fair use if the first factor in particular is met. That is the argument we have been doing research on. Findings are mixed though, with the most ominous case precedent being Rogers v. Koons.

In that case, Rogers, a small time pro photographer, took a photo of a couple holding puppies in their arms and it was used for greeting card covers and other small things. Koons, a famous sculptor, saw the photo and decided to do a sculpture of it, ordering his assistants to match the photo perfectly except the puppies were to be blue and the couple was to have flowers in their hair. The sculpture was a huge success and he sold each for over $300,000. However, Rogers saw the sculptures and realized what Koons had done and filed a lawsuit for copyright infringement. Koons made a two fold argument, that first the work was transformative (since it had gone from photo to sculpture and because of its new appearance) and that it was parody. However, the court found that the work was not sufficiently transformed in Koons's version, as any common lay person could spot that it was a copy of Roger's photo. Also, they found that the change from photo to sculpture did not constitute transformative either. They also found that since the parody Koons had aspired to create did not require that he so perfectly replicate Roger's photo, they found that argument moot as well. Koons lost the suit and had to pay reparations and also give Rogers the last of his sculptures.

So the changing of mediums alone does not constitute transformation of the work. But the lawyer we are in contact with from OTW still thinks we might have a chance.

[Sennek]

That Rogers looks like a dick to me D: . A greedy one.

[Panos]

That Rogers looks like a dick to me D: . A greedy one.

+1

[Middle Earth's Bane]

@Nuv, this might be the case if WB has previously made a large open-world RPG based in middle earth around the time of the war of the ring... But they haven't.