Editing with scenario files

Questions about the content creation procedure go here, including using Forge, Anvil, or other editors, or operating emulators like Basilisk II.
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Qtekly
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I don't know if this is the right forum to post this question.
But I wanted to know if I can make shape files using bitmaps and frames from Total conversions or really any kind of shapes file made by someone that's not me without having to ask for the permission of the person that orriginally created that shape file. Because I am experimenting a lot with Shapefusion and i thought it'd be fun to put those exclusive-to-that-conversion monsters or scenery or weapons in vanilla Infinity.

Thanks in advance
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Pfhorrest
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Making them for your own personal use or experimentation is unquestionably fine.

Distributing them requires permission. You may not have to ASK though if they've already granted it in some kind of license.
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Qtekly
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Okay thanks for the quick response.
So i can make them for myself (I've already done a couple) but i can't post them in the Pfhorums without getting permission.
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Qtekly
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Is there any permission for Eternal? Because you made Eternal, right?
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Pfhorrest
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There's no formal license for Eternal and I'm not certain that I have the authority to OK the use of other people's contributions since they weren't contributed under any formal license and nobody was paid so I'm not sure it counts as work for hire (which would make it all mine and clear everything up), but for what it's worth I don't mind if you reuse anything from Eternal, and I really doubt anybody else will mind either.
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Wrkncacnter
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Do people actually have ownership over anything that they create and distribute in Bungie's file format? I didn't find anything relevant with a quick google search, but I know it's not uncommon in other games for you to give up ownership in these types of situations. If that's the case here, they'd have no legitimate right to complain if you use their work.
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Pfhorrest
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I can't think of a legal mechanism by which saving (or distributing) content in a specific format could automatically transfer copyright on it. Something about the format could possibly be patented, though mostly that would be an issue for application developers who want to encode or decode the format, more so than for people distributing content in that format. Maybe file headers could be copyrighted, which would restrict your right to use the format without permission (and I recall in the early days Bungie claimed the file-header-copyright thing, which was part of why patches used to be a thing instead of just whole files, even if they contained no Bungie creative content).

Even then, that would just mean that you're not allowed to distribute files in that format without permission. The copyright owner could offer to grant permission if you transfer copyright of your content to them, but that offer wouldn't mean that copyright transfers automatically upon distribution; it would just mean that you're violating copyright if you distribute without explicitly transferring copyright. (Much like distributing software with GPL'd code doesn't, contrary to popular belief, automatically GPL your code; it just means you're violating copyright if you don't GPL your code).

But I'm pretty sure there was a court case some time in the past 15 years challenging the legality of claiming copyright on file format headers. I don't recall the exact case or outcome, but it seems a pretty tenuous concept to me, and I'd be surprised if it stood up in court.
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Wrkncacnter
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Yeah, I'm probably just thinking of cases where if you create something with the developer supplied editor, you don't own the content (if it's part of the EULA for that editor). That wouldn't really apply for mararthon though.
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