Creating a Foundry Mission with a well known Personality

tanqqueestador

I am creating a Foundry Mission that is mostly a story, with a few battles and a puzzle
The story is a bit "campy" and fun.

My question is in regards to this
_____

"You may not use New Game Materials to depict a likeness of any real person
(historical or present day)."
_____

I take this as to understand that the character can not resemble in anyway a living or deceased individual.

However what about just a Name? for instance, could I use the names such as

Albert Einstein, Michio Kaku, Thomas Eddison but not have character representing them, but if I did have a character that was suppose to be them as long as they did not look like them is that okay?

I mean in reality there are individuals who have the same name but may not look, act, or do the same thing as they do....

I am about 2/3rds done with the story and I want to make sure that if I go any further that I don't violate any copyrights, or violate any other rules.

thegreendragoon1

Well this is a different take. Usually when a question is something like, "Can I put Captain Picard in my mission?" The loop whole here is that Picard the name is fictitious where as the face (Patrick Stewart) is real.

In your case, the name itself is that of a real person. You could certainly make the argument that it could be any Albert Einstein, but I'm going to bet that you'll be using it in the context of THE Albert Einstein vs. some random shmo off the street.

Truth be told, I don't really know. I seriously doubt that Einstein is going to return from the grave to sue you for likeness infringement. And I suspect the intent of the EULA is more to stop a Hunt down Hitler mission more than what your going for. So I would say, use your best judgement and just don't give Cryptic any more solid reason to pull your mission, and you should be fine.

tanqqueestador

I wish there was better clarification for this rule or EULA

Now the person I intend to use would most likely find it hilarious(if he ever found out about the story)

Going to finish the store and see what happens...the wort that could happen is that they pull it down.

paxfederatica

thegreendragoon1 wrote: »

Well this is a different take. Usually when a question is something like, "Can I put Captain Picard in my mission?" The loop whole here is that Picard the name is fictitious where as the face (Patrick Stewart) is real.

Actually, at least one Foundry mission that I know of does have Picard in it - albeit with a VISOR and a goatee to get around Patrick Stewart likeness issues. "The Inner Darkness" by @Leviathan99 is one of the oldest missions in the Foundry, and as of a few weeks ago (when I last played it) Cryptic has yet to give it the deep-six. The author even made a promotional banner with the Picard NPC from the mission, though as far as I know he only ever posted it on the original pre-PWE forums.

On a related note, I have based some of my alien NPCs and even one of my toons on the facial features of certain real actors. For obvious reasons I will not say which toons, NPCs or actors, but the point is that you can fantasy-cast any real person you want as an alien in this manner, and no one will be any the wiser as long as the resemblance is not too obvious and you don't advertise the fact.

prierin

You could always refer to copyright law when dealing with historical figures. The fact is, there is no law prohibiting the use of names or character likeness of historic public figures such as those you’ve mentioned above.

I am a writer (hopefully soon a paid writer) writing for both full length features and television. The question has come up before regarding the use of public historical figures in writing. The plan truth is, you can. You can’t write about a private individual or, say, the current president of the United States in a bio pic, but historical figures fall into what is known as Public Domain.

So in short, if you want to put Einstein or Ghengis Kahn in your story, feel free. If you want to place actors with the names and likeness of known celebrities (James Doohan, Christopher Lloyd, Harrison Ford, etc.) you’d be running afoul.

Hope this helps.

tanqqueestador

no for the most part its just a list of names with one character being a real person in real life...but the NPC contact with any resemblance what so ever....

thegreendragoon1

Honestly, unless you're planning on doing something absolutely crazy you're probably fine.

lincolninspace

thegreendragoon1 wrote: »

Well this is a different take. Usually when a question is something like, "Can I put Captain Picard in my mission?" The loop whole here is that Picard the name is fictitious where as the face (Patrick Stewart) is real.

In your case, the name itself is that of a real person. You could certainly make the argument that it could be any Albert Einstein, but I'm going to bet that you'll be using it in the context of THE Albert Einstein vs. some random shmo off the street.

Truth be told, I don't really know. I seriously doubt that Einstein is going to return from the grave to sue you for likeness infringement. And I suspect the intent of the EULA is more to stop a Hunt down Hitler mission more than what your going for. So I would say, use your best judgement and just don't give Cryptic any more solid reason to pull your mission, and you should be fine.

It is ok. Here is why. We have William Shakespeare in the foundry. There is no likeness rights to worry about because nobody really knows what the bard looked like, but if it is ok for cryptic to use the name of a historical figure in the foundry, it should be ok for you.

markhawkman

lincolninspace wrote: »

It is ok. Here is why. We have William Shakespeare in the foundry. There is no likeness rights to worry about because nobody really knows what the bard looked like, but if it is ok for cryptic to use the name of a historical figure in the foundry, it should be ok for you.

Or even if it was a real person and not the pen name of several people. :P Might be part of his charm