So... how legal is this?

[puggsoy]

Recently I showed tSR to one of my friends, and but he wasn't sure if the whole thing was legal. That is, ripping sprites and uploading the sprite sheets.

Now, personally I've always seen this is a generally law-abiding site. I remember reading somewhere that the reason that you can't submit music from games is that you can buy soundtracks (so distributing ripped music would be piracy), whereas the game companies never release their sound effects. I'm assuming that the same counts for sprites, models, and textures.

So basically I'm just wondering how legal ripping all this stuff is. I mean, I don't see too much wrong with it, but you have to admit that hacking a game ROM, decrypting files and extracting sprites, then uploading them onto the internet for the whole world to see and use, all without explicit permission from the game publishers, does seem a bit dodgy.

[Dazz]

Of course it's dodgy. You know as much as us. However;
We also know that we have received a total of 1 complaint since launching the site exactly 9 years ago.
I've also been running sprite rips for longer than that, and never received a complaint.

People have sent emails to the companies who have sprites appear on here, and we've not heard back, nor have they.
We've had the creators of games submit their content to the site themselves, most recently is Dustforce for the PC.

That 1 complaint? That was regarding a game that at the time was only released to the press, and technically under embargo, so they wanted it taken down. So we could put it back up again later once the game was released.

I'm in contact with the PR companies of several large gaming companies, including Ubisoft, 2k Games, Gameloft, Blizzard, Namco Bandai, and many others. I'm invited to press events for upcoming games, and once The VG Resource relaunches, I'll likely be invited to more to cover for the site.



I'm not worried about the legalities too much, but all of this being said, I can't tell you it's legal. Because nobody knows, likely even the games companies. However, I believe that it can be seen as appreciation of artwork rather than plagiarism.
As you said, a soundtrack is sold by companies, and they receive a profit from it. The artwork, sounds and models on the other hand, are not sold to the general public. Using these, you aren't able to play the product, the purpose of a game. If you will, it's like a lot of cropped screenshots with regards to sprites. I can take a screenshot of a game every frame and post them online, and not receive complaint. I see this as the same with a sprite sheet.


However, it is a technical grey area, and that should always be appreciated.

[~Axis~]

Breaking a piracy law is like Dazz posting a ripped sprite sheet/model/sound effect/texture and claim that he made them himself and that they are "totally original", which he isn't doing. It clearly states at the bottom of each page of the site (except the forums) that everything posted on the site is the property of its rightful owner. So, Sonic belongs to SEGA and Mario belongs to Nintendo. I don't see a reason for complaint.

[puggsoy]

Sweet, thanks Dazz, I just wanted to be sure. Your point on how it's basically just like cropped screen shots, that's totally correct. However I didn't know about game companies' disposition on it, and this has cleared it up to me.

So yeah, now I can be confident in saying that it's not clearly illegal. I mean, as you said it's a grey area, but the absence of complaints (and the content of that 1 complaint) shows that it's generally allowed, at least at present.

Once again, thanks!

Breaking a piracy law is like Dazz posting a ripped sprite sheet/model/sound effect/texture and claim that he made them himself and that they are "totally original", which he isn't doing. It clearly states at the bottom of each page of the site (except the forums) that everything posted on the site is the property of its rightful owner. So, Sonic belongs to SEGA and Mario belongs to Nintendo. I don't see a reason for complaint.

I totally forgot about that message at the bottom of the screen. Still, that isn't always full-proof in every case. Whether or not you're saying who owns content, it's still the owner's decision if you're allowed to host it.

[Dazz]

Breaking a piracy law is like Dazz posting a ripped sprite sheet/model/sound effect/texture and claim that he made them himself and that they are "totally original", which he isn't doing. It clearly states at the bottom of each page of the site (except the forums) that everything posted on the site is the property of its rightful owner. So, Sonic belongs to SEGA and Mario belongs to Nintendo. I don't see a reason for complaint.

I totally forgot about that message at the bottom of the screen. Still, that isn't always full-proof in every case. Whether or not you're saying who owns content, it's still the owner's decision if you're allowed to host it.

Puggsoy is right here - I could post a video file of a film and say it's owned by Warner Brothers, doesn't mean they aren't going to sue my pants off. It's only there as more of a clarification that we aren't claiming to own anything.

[ZeldaClassicEXPERT]

Also I told many video game companies about this website and forums of mine with agreements exactly like or similar to
http://anultimateandawesomestwebsite1.angelfire.com/
as well so yeah it is okay to use spriters-resource sprites.

I am infact going to make a make your own Super Mario Bros. game with Game Maker 7.0 Lite Edition
from http://www.filequake.com/
fairly soon.

So no worries.