Posted by: WEDGESKYWALKER
Posted by: Ruby of the Blue
Posted by: CubsBlow2
Posted by: WEDGESKYWALKER
Posted by: BAKALAKA
I'm not sure because I am not a lawyer, just a student in an intro legal class.College or highschool?
If your using any part of someone elses work to make money, it's most likely illegal.
He wasn't making money when he was using Halo. The official story used for profit has (should) (to) have nothing to do with Halo; what it was previously used for.
Just because he's going on with his idea, having used Halo to portray it, doesn't mean that his idea is owned by Microsoft. Why? Because he wasn't making money to begin with, so he was free to use Halo however he wished.
There's no reason that Microsoft would have claim over his idea if he wasn't making money in the first place. See, this is why im so concerned. It could EASILY go either way
No, I just said there's no reason Microsoft would have claim over your ideas if you weren't making money before using Halo.
If you were making money (or expanding on the Halo universe through said Machinima), you would have (had to have) formed a partnership with Microsoft (in which case your ideas would belong to them, and you'd not be allowed to branch off with them without Microsoft as that'd be considered copyright infringement (A pretty relevant example would be that Halo hasn't belonged to Bungie for the entire time they've developed the games, as they formed a partnership, giving the rights to the publisher, Microsoft)).
But since you weren't making money, you were never required to form a partnership with them, therefore, the ideas still belong to you; safe and sound in your brain.
But something wild could happen; Microsoft could steal your idea while you were still making the Machinima, and make it their own. That's pretty nasty because it technically would not be considered copyright infringement since you weren't making profit. This paragraph of my post is in response to the second statement of your copy/paste. Although, distribution means that you're making money, and that with Halo, your are not.
So, if you're making money off of a Machinima, Microsoft claims legal ownership of it, and can do with it what they please so to prevent legal conflict between plots if you wanted to branch off with it.
On the other hand (but this is the HIGHLY unlikely situation), Microsoft yoink's your idea while you're still using Halo (nonprofit), them being free to use it to make money for themselves.
But at least that tells you your idea was really good. :P
[Edited on 10.04.2011 8:31 PM PDT]