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Athletes Don’t Own Their Tattoos – a Problem for Video Game Developers

nytimes.com

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Re: Athletes Don’t Own Their Tattoos – a Problem for Video Game Developers

#11

Post by LeifCarrotson »

wccrawford wrote: post #5

"Lawyers generally agree that an implied license allows people to freely display their tattoos in public, including on television broadcasts or magazine covers. " Seems to me that the digital representation of someone is just another way of displaying themselves. If it's legal to do it in photos and videos, it's legal to do it in 3D models. But even without that, I think it's unethical to claim ownership to any part…

Right, we just need to have a sane court agree that this is the case. Some people saw dollar signs and were able to use the absence of precedent on this question to snag some of them.

Re: Athletes Don’t Own Their Tattoos – a Problem for Video Game Developers

#13

Post by tgb »

If you hire an artist to paint a landscape for you, do you have total ownership of that painting? Could you recreate it digitally and sell it? Assume no extra rights were explicitly transferred, just a standard commission of a piece of art, whatever that entails.

I would have assumed that the answers to these were both yes, but this article makes me think not.

Re: Athletes Don’t Own Their Tattoos – a Problem for Video Game Developers

#15

Post by pubby »

tgb wrote: post #13

If you hire an artist to paint a landscape for you, do you have total ownership of that painting? Could you recreate it digitally and sell it? Assume no extra rights were explicitly transferred, just a standard commission of a piece of art, whatever that entails. I would have assumed that the answers to these were both yes, but this article makes me think not.

Not in the USA and most countries.

Re: Athletes Don’t Own Their Tattoos – a Problem for Video Game Developers

#17

Post by AWildC182 »

Disregarding the insanity of being able to wave your rights to a commissioned piece of artwork, that you paid for, that's attached to your body...I think we really need to rethink how video game content licencing works in the context of copyright law. This is just the current iteration of a debacle that has been ongoing since the first days of video games. Depictions of everyday things are suddenly the property of the original creator of those things, even if they are commodity items or very simplistic depictions. A good example is when video game developers have to pay gun makers to depict their weapons in games. I love FPS games but I would rather not have my money ultimately funneled into the NRA lobbying machine.

Re: Athletes Don’t Own Their Tattoos – a Problem for Video Game Developers

#18

Post by giancarlostoro »

HelloFellowDevs wrote: post #9
giancarlostoro wrote: post #3

Honestly if I'm playing a Basketball game the last thing I care about is the detail on tattoos, just parody them... This isn't such a crucial issue at the end of the day, I don't think you should be able to copyright a tattoo, the design may change as the person ages, or gets into a crazy accident, or whatever. Heck, when they die and decompose / get cremated it's all gone.

> “My tattoos are a part of my persona and identity,” Mr. James wrote in a declaration of support for Take-Two and 2K Games. “If I am not shown with my tattoos, it wouldn’t really be a depiction of me.” It comes down to how realistic you want the game to be. With games that pitch themselves as the pinnacle of being realistic with improvements made every year, not having the correct tattoos would break the realism. Es…

That's a bit crazy to me, but if that's how he feels, it's not like any other game will get any closer to it, that or they can blur the tattoo can't they?

On another note, if I buy a canvas painting from another artist, and then I sell it for millions, but only paid $500 for said painting, can the painter sue me for copyright despite the painting being my property? If not... why are tattoos any different?

Re: Athletes Don’t Own Their Tattoos – a Problem for Video Game Developers

#19

Post by stevehawk »

tgb wrote: post #13

If you hire an artist to paint a landscape for you, do you have total ownership of that painting? Could you recreate it digitally and sell it? Assume no extra rights were explicitly transferred, just a standard commission of a piece of art, whatever that entails. I would have assumed that the answers to these were both yes, but this article makes me think not.

You don't. It's a common topic in game development that if you hire a contract artist that the contract needs to explicitly state that you retain the rights of the work they produce for your project, otherwise they can yank those rights should you have a falling out.
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