Hi Bryan, Well, there are ways of working around the copyright issues, keeping in the legal boundries, but it is risky, and may not be practicle for a software developer. There are some fair use provisions in the U.S. copyright laws that state when, where, and how one may use copyrighted works legally. However, the problem is even though there are some fair use provisions they are hotly being contested by big corperations that want total and absolute control of their copyrights. For example, let us say I do want to go ahead with Jedi Strike and release a game with a Star wars theme. Under fair use provisions I must offer the game for free, it must be available for an educational purpose, I must acknowledge Lucas as the original copyright holder, and renounce any claim to a copyright to the work. If I except those provisions then I could legally release the game, but I can't make any money off of it. Even worse in order to clasify it as for an educational purpose the product might have to be open source, but doing that would force me to allow everyone to have the Genesis 3D source code. Since Genesis 3D is completely my creation I might have to give up my right to the Genesis 3D copyrights in order to meet legal fair use rights for Star Wars. This is the kind of catch 22 game developers have to face if they don't have legal permission directly from the copyright holders.
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