02-02-2009, 01:26 AM
You can have your "freedom of expression" or whatever you want to call it, and it's perfectly OK. Parodies and similar are completely fine.
But in the moment you make a profit using something derivated from other people's work, they fall on you like a ton of bricks- that's why Psyguy also had to redesign and rename all of "his" characters to make them look nothing like the edited and custom sprites he was using before. (His store still had to get rid of the previous stuff anyways.)
In general, videogame companies couldn't care less for sites like this one (ripping and archiving their copyrighted sprites and licensed characters at a regular basis, without mentioning the sprite comic and fan game business) as long nobody here attempts to make a profit from their stuff, that's all. Otherwise, things can get complicated and ugly as hell.
But in the moment you make a profit using something derivated from other people's work, they fall on you like a ton of bricks- that's why Psyguy also had to redesign and rename all of "his" characters to make them look nothing like the edited and custom sprites he was using before. (His store still had to get rid of the previous stuff anyways.)
In general, videogame companies couldn't care less for sites like this one (ripping and archiving their copyrighted sprites and licensed characters at a regular basis, without mentioning the sprite comic and fan game business) as long nobody here attempts to make a profit from their stuff, that's all. Otherwise, things can get complicated and ugly as hell.