What are the laws regarding Making a fan Game of a Movie?
What happens if someone make a , for example, a little star wars game, like Star wars 1 pc (1999) but with mp capabilities? I mean, for free and no $$$$ involved.
Is that a crime ? I saw that sega sued some guys that made a re-make of street of rage 2… But sega is dumb. so Yeah 
Yeah its very simple.
Many game companies actually do usual business by acquiring a license from a franchise, like say James Bond, and then they do a game for it, like 007: Blood Stone.
So a license like that costs money (MAY sometimes also include revenue sharing) and game companies do this sometimes because you already have an audience: people that like 007 might buy the game. So they invest the money and hope that the name is good enough. Some license may be cheaper than others of course.
Basic rule, whenever you use anything copyrighted you need explicit permission.
If you dont make any money from it, a company effectively may leave you alone… but they can send you a cease & desist just the same by law.
Hm, but lets suppose that, hm, in one year i want to make a re-make of star wars 1 pc game… Is that impossible? I mean for a common human like me
No, Its not impossible but you might get sued if they find out about your game. No offense but chances are they’ll never find out about it or even know it exists.
Yeah i know , but still its a risk. Well i could make it only for my friends but, would be a waste… A license may cost millions… Especially now that Disney owns everything 
Yeah, true.
Also, if your a casual guy - they probably won’t sue because it makes them look like an incredibly evil organization. Typically this is why a lot of people get away with just a warning when they pirate stuff.
How many people would support Lion Head Studios if they sued a 16 year old kid (or is parents) for much more than everything they have.
The worst they’ll do is tell your to remove the game (but they probably won’t)
I see. I wonder the laws in my country, Brasil… I mean, i cant be sued if theres a law in USA but not in my country, right?
I wouldn’t bet on that.
Kev
You know you are talking about the big mouse here, do you?
When you touch anything owed by them they WILL sue you into oblivion.
Yeah… That sucks.
Well, i guess i will wait the year of 2050. When The laws will be better… Hopefully.
I don’t suppose you’ll get into TOO much trouble if you keep the game private.
You don’t want The Mouse to finish you have with a “Ho-Ha!”.
Just for the sake of " well at least i asked " , i think the answer will be a NO but…
Is there any chance that disney support small, very small devs and giving some kind of help, like… if someone made a game like that and send them or idk, some kind of special license?
No, right?
they would never do that
There is a better solution: create an “original” game without copyrighted contents. There are tons of materials, models, samples, … that you can legally use for free. You can create your own ones too. Why do you absolutely want to use copyrighted contents without the prior authorization of the copyright owners? Brazil signed the Bern convention; therefore, you can’t use star wars artworks. Sega contacted me once because a computer artist had given me a model coming from “Alien”, the guy just asked me to remove this model from my game. You still risk prosecutions even though your game is free of charge.
I’m not a big fan of copyright but I respect the right of paternity (the attribution), I consider that the artist should have to decide under which license his contents are and I don’t like people who want to use for free things whose creation costed some money. I don’t like people who want to benefit of the fame of something or someone without the efforts. I gave 10 € to the guy who maintain bbbike.org, nobody forced me to do so, I did it because the maintenance of a server isn’t free of charge and his maps are useful for me. I’m just grateful. I don’t mind people telling me my game is ugly, I accept starting with unpleasant models. Can you just accept this idea? We aren’t all good both in programming and in computer graphics with modelers.
Oh its ok.
But you got the wrong idea from me.
I really love star wars. And if i could make my own game of it, would be awesome. But hey, since i cant its okay.I was just checking the idea
Plus i will look into the bern convention.
You’re not really dealing with copyright, unless you literally use copyrighted material (sound, images, video, music etc).
When making a ‘fan’ game of an existing franchise, you’re probably dealing with trademark laws.
The thing is that if you have a trademark, you’re actually legally obliged to defend your trademark. Failing to do so may result in losing the trademark.
So if if Lucas Films find out about your Star Wars fan game, they have basically no choice but to demand to at least take it offline.
I wouldn’t risk it.
(but also, I’m not a lawyer etc)
Well, i can always learn C++, and dedicate my life to go work at disney 
If you just love the material and want to make a game for yourself, go ahead. They can’t say anything to you unless you publish it in any way.
This subject has been tackled before. I myself am working on a fangame of DooM, and I’m fully prepared to scrap the whole thing the instant I get even a stern look from the copyright holders.
So, again, if the enjoyment of making the game is worth it, even with the knowledge that down the line you might be forced to bury it (or modify it to be non-star wars related), go ahead.
Oh, and claiming that copyright laws are crappy is easy to say when you’re not defending your own copyright. Don’t be so hasty to demand that others let you use their content freely.
On a more positive note, anyone noticed how ‘spiritual successors’ became a thing?
The most high-profile ‘spiritual successor’ was probably Bioshock. They didn’t make a sequel of System Shock 2 because they didn’t have the rights to do so.
So they exchanged outer space with under water, but essentially made a new System Shock game.
You see, it’s just a work around.
If you like the Star Wars universe so much that you want to make a game about it, why not make some changes to make it in the same spirit, but in an original setting.
Featuring Dave Waterman with his little droid M1D1, saving the deep oceans of planet D3PA of the evils of Moss Dother (who turns out to be Dave’s daughter). Or perhaps something more serious, but you get my drift 
Why not using some free models? FreeDoom has its own ones.
I like erikd’s suggestion, you can make something a bit similar but different enough not to have any legal trouble.
also game ideas aren’t protected by copyright.
so you can make a clone (which will transform into your own version / spiritual successor anyway in development)
and then later just swap texture, models, sounds whatever
or just use free stuff from the get go
if you really want to do a star wars game you would have to join a company that has a license from disney or open one yourself and acquire one =P
btw, which game do you mean by “Star wars 1 pc (1999)” ? Do you mean the freaking phantom menace game ? ;D