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Let's say I'm doing an Indie sports game, and ship it with fictional players, but make the game capable of reading a config file, so that players are able to edit in real names to suit themselves.

The game is a free multi-player, peer-to-peer (p2p) game, and so once the game is published, there is no central server authority which controls what the players are doing, thus allowing them to mod the game as they please.

What's the legal situation with something like that? The file is literally just a plain text file with some names in it. I would imagine that if I were to host that file, and have my game download and consume it on start up, that would be unacceptable, as it would be the same as shipping the game with real player names?

So that makes me wonder, would such a file be illegal for people to share? If I were to make such a file, and distribute it to the community via a forum, would that be illegal? What about if I didn't do that, but a customer did?

Vaillancourt
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Tom Davies
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  • Is it a single player game, or a multi-player game? Currently, this question is broad enough that it appears that it should be asked to a lawyer. What aspect of this worries you exactly? The way you ask it, it reads like you would program your game in a way that you could yourself, on the side, publish anonymously another config file with real player names... – Vaillancourt Feb 24 '21 at 12:38
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    Multiplayer. I'm interested in where the line is crossed. If I ship with real names - I've crossed it. If I allow users to edit and save a config - clearly I've not crossed it. But there's a huge range of things that could be done in between that. – Tom Davies Feb 24 '21 at 12:58
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    That definitely looks like a question to ask a lawyer. We're game developers here: we can help you with the making-the-game parts, but we are not legal experts. – DMGregory Feb 24 '21 at 13:03
  • Ok fair enough. As the game is going to be free, I can't afford a lawyer. – Tom Davies Feb 24 '21 at 13:46
  • I remember that waaaaay back in the day, the first Geoff Crammond's Microsoft Grand Prix didn't have a license so used all fake names but did give the user the ability to edit them and save them on a disk (like the save games) and as far as I know, there was no legal issue but I'm certainly not a lawyer. I also remember that in one of the Grand Prix Manager games, Jacques Villeneuve wouldn't give his permission for his name to be used so he was changed to John Newhouse, even though everyone else's real name was in there. – Stephen Feb 24 '21 at 14:00
  • As the game is going to be free, I can't afford a lawyer. remember that whether the game is free or paid does not make a difference in the eyes of those who could sue you. It is advised to consult with a lawyer anyway before publishing a game. – Vaillancourt Feb 24 '21 at 14:12
  • I remember that too. Then Sensible Soccer/SWIS came out with real names for every football player in the world, and absolutely no licence :) – Tom Davies Feb 24 '21 at 14:12
  • This is related: https://gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/146911/using-real-life-names-in-fantasy-league – Vaillancourt Feb 24 '21 at 14:14
  • That being said, if your game is multi-player, the end user/players should not be able to edit those names as the server should be the authority here. – Vaillancourt Feb 24 '21 at 14:16
  • Wow so I would need to pay for a lawyer in every legal duristriction country from which it was possible to download my game? So eg if I'd only got legal advice on UK law, I should restrict downloads of my game to UK IP adresses only? What about file sharing, and distribtuion of the game that I'm not in control of? Sounds like it's basically impossible to release a free game without paying huge amounts in legal advice? – Tom Davies Feb 24 '21 at 14:19
  • It's P2P. The player names don't influence the game engine, so each player can do what they want with them. – Tom Davies Feb 24 '21 at 14:20
  • Let us continue this discussion in chat. – Vaillancourt Feb 24 '21 at 14:33

1 Answers1

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They can mod any name into the game as they please. If the original product of the game uses fake names, and a user edits them to be real, that shouldn't effect you because it is a modification of the original product, which had no copyrighted names within it. If you distribute the game with the names in it, that's a different licensing area to explore with people like FIFA or the MLB.

WG481
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