Starship Corporation

I can't imange Bristish Leyland make spaceships , it can't ended up good even with Top Gear team's help.

Since German or Austrian law applies rather than US law, the creator of any concept, idea, brand etc. always has all the rights to it. There is no formalized copyright/trademark process required unless the creator wishes to use it as a business or product name. As long as the name is sufficiently distinct (which Weyland-Utani certainly is) the original creators of the Alien movies (was it Alien?) would hold all rights to that name in this jurisdiction, should they decide to take legal action.

This is a great project, and I want it to succeed, as does USER47, I suppose. Honestly, folks, I can't see where all the backlash is coming from.

Legally (with the above question of jurisdiction in mind) is is completely irrelevant if this is a beta, an alpha, a final or a tech demo. As long as it is being distributed publicly, the rights holder would have a VERY GOOD CASE for at least a cease-and-desist order. It would just be smart to pre-empt this. Besides, I prefer original ideas to copied ones, because honestly - this is a very novel concept, why not give it a novel setting and background as well?

[quote="monsterfurby"]-Snip-/quote]

Agreed... I've been lurking about here on the forums since I discovered the game, and decided to register just to weigh-in on this. As much as Weyland-Yutani sounds like a cool corporate name, it isn't going to make/break the game. However there is more harm in leaving it in considering it is copyrighted...

Check this out - http://www.brandsoftheworld.com/logo/weyland-yutani -

"The above logo design and the artwork you are about to download is the intellectual property of the copyright and/or trademark holder and is offered to you as a convenience for lawful use with proper permission from the copyright and/or trademark holder only."

"You hereby agree that you agree to the Terms of Use and that the artwork you download will be used for non-commercial use"

"Before you use or reproduce this artwork in any manner, you agree to obtain the express permission of the copyright and/or trademark holder. Failure to obtain such permission is a violation of international copyright and trademark laws subject to specific financial and criminal penalties."

Keywords - "You agree to obtain the express permission of the copyright and/or trademark holder." = "Offered to you as a convenience for lawful use with proper permission"

If that doesn't clear up the issue on copyright content for some people, well, then nothing will. Sadly that is the world we live in. Realistically I don't think Starship Corporation is going to have a lawsuit on its hand if it decides to continue to use the logo/name well after game completion, but why take the chance?

Bottom line is - You shouldn't. As much as someone might love that name, it isn't going to add much to the game immersion in the end and there is absolutely no reason why a game developer should go down that road and take the chance. This goes for any other content that might be copyrighted as well.

In regards to it being non-commercial as of yet (being in alpha, etc), in a hypothetical situation of a pending cease-n-desist. the developer could simply say its a placeholder and that he would change it even though that never seemed to be the intent, but he would still have to cease using the logo due to the fact that:

1 - He didn't gain permission, and 2 - It is, eventually, going to be a viable commercial game.

Regardless of what anyone will argue, copyright is copyright. If you feel the need to religiously defend the game then nothing wrong with that, but the law is the law. End of.