Re:Copyright question

[Miguel Angel Parra <tear_it_up@latinmail.com>]

Hi anybody from Spain

I think you won't be in trouble. Just be sure to put anywhere in the web "THIS IS NOT AN OFFICIAL WARNER BROS. PRODUCT" or "THIS IS NOT THE OFFICIAL MATRIX SCREENSAVER" or something like that. The meaning of copyright laws is, usually, to protect the authenticity of the product and, by this way, the final user. In this case you are not fooling people in your web, so be sure to advise them.
I'm just a programmer, so don't take my opinion as the ONE TRUTH. If you can, it's better to ask a friend lawyer (lawyer have friends?).

Good luck

PD Sorry, my english is not very wide nor very right

Miguel Angel



--- Mensaje Original ---
De: Karel Bagchus [H.Bagchus@cable.a2000.nl]
Tema: Copyright question
Para: gameprogrammer@gameprogrammer.com, tear_it_up@latinmail.com

>Hi,
>
>I would like to hear your thoughts on my following problem:
>
>A while ago I went to see the movie "The Matrix" which I just loved from
>start 'till end. After looking around a bit on the net, I found the movie
>website http://whatisthematrix.com. They have a screensaver to download
>("The Matrix Code") that emulates the scrolling characters on the "matrix
>monitors" that you can see in the movie.
>
>However, I wasn't impressed with the screensaver at all, and since I'm in
>the screensaver business I thought, "I can do better then that", and made
>my own "Matrix Tap". But it has gone far beyond being just a joke and a
>replica of the original, it has configuration options for character color,
>character highlight occurence, highlight luminance threshold, string morph
>speed, scroll mode and scroll speed.
>
>and I wrote a fax to Warner Bros. proposing a deal that they can use my
>screensaver for free, and that I would get a copyright clearance so I could
>put it up on my website as well.
>
>My motivation for asking the clearance was:
>
>"Although the therm 'The Matrix' is common in many Science-Fiction novels
>and scrolling characters on a screen are visible in many movies, I do
>recognise the fact the the initial idea came from seeing the movie 'The
>Matrix' that Warner Bros. holds copyrights over."
>
>They responded with:
>
>"Please be advised, as a general policy, Warner Bros. does not license
>material for use on non-Warner websites".
>
>Now my question is this: Would I be in trouble if I changed the name from
>"Matrix Tap" to let's say "Geek Code" and set the default character color
>to blue instead of red, and take any reference to "The Matrix" out of the
>source code, and then put it up on my website.... Would I be safe or in
>trouble ?
>
>Karel.
>
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