Copyright Sprites

Hey, so I wanted to know if I publish my game on the internet and my game has sprites that are not from my own design, i.e I drawned the sprites (from Star Fox) but they are not my idea, and so i don’t know if I could use them, thanks.

If you create something based on something else, say if I were to draw Mario from the Mario Brothers to use in my game, that is what is called a derivative work if you do it without permission of the copyright holder, that is copyright infringement.

If this is the case, you might want to come up with your own designs to use as sprites, or find sprites online that are either in the public domain, or are under a usable license, such as one of the creative commons licenses.

If you get sprites or other assets online, pay attention to what license they are released under.
Its a good idea to save a link to any art or assets you download, so you can be sure of the license.

When using things you find online, unless they are public domain, pay very close attentions to the license requirements.
Lets take Creative Commons for example.

Just because something is released under a CC license, doesnt mean you can take it and do whatever you want to it.
There are different types of Creative Commons licenses depending on what restrictions the creator used.

Non-Commercial: IE, you can not use it if you monetize your game. So, no ads, no in app purchases, and no purchase price.

No Derivatives: You have to use the work as it is, you can not make changes to it.

Share Alike: If you do make any changes to the work, you are required to release your changes under the same license.

Attribution: You are required to give credit to the creator of the work. This is common, and is the reason why a lot of games have end credits, or a help screen that lists things like this.

If it is marked CC0, then it is public domain and you can do anything you want with it.

Unless its public domain, make sure you follow the rules of the license to the letter.
If you find something that is Attribution-ShareAlike, and either forget to include a link to the author/creator, or if you make changes to it and forget to share alike, you are violating the license, and it would be within the copyright holders rights to issue a takedown request, a cease and desist, or to even take you to court.

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Thank you so much! Now this is much more clear for me and I can more safely show my work to the web :smiley:

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