This is a topic about the legeality of editing maps.

Editing maps or creating brand new content?

Editing maps.

Well in yoyorast map ideas I found out i can't legally edit maps without the author's permission, and then we started talking about legal stuff.

The creators just want to know your making a mod, they cant sue you or anything.

Incorrect they can.

No. According to Dennis, only Microsoft can sue you.

Well Dennis can you reply to this and tell him if that is true or not?

Here. Microsoft holds the copyrights. No one can sue you for copyright infringement if they don't own the copyright. Since Microsoft/Bungie does, then they are the ones that can sue.



Since editing any map would be a violation of the licensing agreement that we were supposed to read, but ignored, they can sue us. (I'm going to read the licensing agreement again). However, creating your own map doesn't violate this (to the extent of my knowledge). But if you modify those maps, even if you have the creators consent, the map still belongs to Microsoft / Bungie, and therefore it's a violation of the licensing agreement.

But Dennis said to me that they rarely or they may even have not hunted someone down for doing it.
And for your answer Destroyer no.
Edited by Killeryoshi on Mar 11, 2009 at 06:31 PM

Yes, they rarely hunt people down. That doesn't mean that they can't. They reserve the rights to hunt you down and sue you, but since there are so many violations out there, it would take them decades to sort everything out.

Yes I know.

If editing maps was illegal MS would have shut this site down long ago :V

Well it could aslo be that the halo editing kit is like for populating your map and stuff your own map.

Creating new content isn't a violation of the license. Modding existing maps, custom and original, violates the license.



Along with all the other 457 thousand results on google?
Edited by Gamma927 on Mar 11, 2009 at 06:41 PM

That is not true. You can "legally" edit maps without the authors permission because the author of the map has no legal right to the map to begin with. This is because Microsoft/Bungie (MS) hold the copyright to the Intellectual property of all things pertaining to Halo and also because the licensing agreement you agreed to explicitly states they own the copyright. In legal terms what that means is that anyone creating any images, photographs, animations, video, audio, music, text, or “applets” for or from the game cannot copyright those things and therefore have no legal right to them.

When it comes to fan creations you can possess them but you can't legally own them. Possession and ownership are ver different legal terms.

It is accepted protocol that you ask permission or notify the author of the map or fan creations that you are going to modify before doing so. However it is not a legal issue and the map author of a fan creation has no legal rights to prevent you from modifying it. Do not confuse moral issues with legal ones.

These concepts are not simple and have plenty of grey areas which was why I consulted my attorney about hosting these maps before starting the website. The basic issue, legally, is that if MS decides to issue a cease and desist order I have no legal recourse but to comply. The likelihood of that happening is very, very small since the license for the HEK allows people to make maps to share.

To summarize do not concern yourself with any legal issues when making or modifying the maps unless your intent is to make money or defame or harm the Halo brand. It is in MS’s best interest to have people making and sharing fan creations, however, they have the legal right to stop anyone doing so at anytime.

oh thanks Dennis.

Of course, don't take moral limits lightly. Even though they can't do anything legally to stop you, if you break a moral limit, you'll still have a lot of angry people mad at you.

Yes that is true

Gamma: That only depends on how much you actually care about the fact that said people are mad at you.

Question was answered, let the topic die.

It's his topic he can use it any way he wants

The topics purpose is fulfilled.

incorrect, they cannot. do you know anything about the EULA for halo? people who make stuff and put it through tool for use in halo forfeit any ownership to whatever that object was, and it becomes intellectual property of bungie. you wanna make a mod of yoyorast? yoyorast cant do a damn thing about it.
edit: should have read further down. dennis hit every point under the rainbow
Edited by Donut on Mar 11, 2009 at 10:54 PM

Most people just scroll down and hit enter.

obviously lol. i guess when you spend enough time here, you start to pick up pieces of the EULA as posted by dennis

Edited
Edited by Polamee on Mar 12, 2009 at 02:43 AM

Stop whining and read the rest of the topic jeez.

Yea a bunch of children between 10-15 years old will yell alot of stuff at you On a Forum somewhere On the Internet wich you shoulnd't take to seriously since it's just a game.

alot of people say 'omg don't use my stuff or else-' but that's morally just to stay friends with, for example, h3mt. there is no rule saying you can't use h3mt content, however they will say it's a beta, it's bad and even say their own map sucks just to prevent you from using it if the huge ammount of flaming didn't help. all they do it "try" to prevent you from using it, there is no law to not use it since it's released. if people didn't want it to be used, then they shouldn't release it in the first place.

So, you can do Anything you want, untill you want to make profit.
yes, even CMT stuff, only fanboys and cmt will flame you to the death, that means, spam you, and if your spamfilter can't handle it, don't do it. that's how it works.

CMT's SPv2 isn't going to be released just because of that H3MT video, I dont know the background of it, but it's all moral stuff that makes people do and don't do something.

So, if you want to use content that you know people don't want you to use, you better make a second account like advancebo did with lots of stuff, or just handle it like i did by just confronting it and ignore the flaming because you shouldn't care about it.

Face it, once it's ingame, you have no rights for the map/content. Once it goes through Tool, its Bungies. Though, their EULA states that Halo Custom Edition allows you to Edit and make Custom Content for the game. Therefore, no, its not illegal.

Yes quite true.

In that case message on this topic if you have a question cause it purpose has been fulfilled like he said.
Edited by Killeryoshi on Mar 12, 2009 at 05:14 PM

wait wait wait WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

CMT ISNT GOING TO RELEACE SPV2, NOOOOOOOOO! SADCRYINGFACE :*(

reed mah lipz.. i dun't caor

Masterz himself.
He posted in the topic like a page or two back. And, I think Exception was being sarcastic with that "OMG NOOOOO!!!" thing.

Ripping tags and using them is as bad as robbing and killing someone? Taking another human life?

You learn something new every day...

</sarcasm>
Edited by drillinstructor on Mar 12, 2009 at 07:52 PM