Purchasing a TV show adaptation rights, how does it work?

Posted by Mikalichov on Game Development See other posts from Game Development or by Mikalichov
Published on 2012-04-13T21:59:25Z Indexed on 2012/04/13 23:45 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 199

Filed under:

legal

|

copyright

Basically, I was thinking about a game based on a TV show, just for fun, and ended up thinking "well, it's not like it can be made anyway". Or can it?

In the present situation, developing a game by myself/ourselves on my/our free time, and then using crowdfunding to purchase the rights is not that crazy, if the show is really popular... and the rights not too expensive.

Purchasing the rights of the whole show is obiously a sh!tload of money, but what about adaptation rights? What is the range of price it can be? Is it a percentage of the full rights? Does it depend on the kind of adaptation (novel vs. toy vs. game)?

ps: if it can help answer, I was thinking about a MLPFIM retro RPG. Please don't laugh at me.

© Game Development or respective owner

Related posts about legal

SCALE 8x: Free software legal issues

as seen on Internet.com - Search for 'Internet.com'
<b>LWN.net:</b> "But in reality the FLOSS ecosystem relies on a complex legal framework in order to run smoothly and to stand up to proprietary software competition: the various software licenses, contribution agreements, copyright and other "intellectual property" law." >>> More
Copyright infringement - inside the legal minefield

as seen on Internet.com - Search for 'Internet.com'
<b>New Zealand Herald:</b> "Several weeks ago the Australian high court ruled in favour of Aussie ISP iiNet in a landmark legal battle where AFACT (Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft) argued that iiNet was as guilty as some of its subscribers of online copyright infringement… >>> More
Signing redistributed files

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
In order to submit a desktop application for the Windows 8 app store, you need to digitally sign any driver or .exe associated with the application. However, the application I was trying to submit contains several files that are redistributions of other companies' software, and some of these are not… >>> More
Is it illegal to rewrite every line of an open source project in a slightly different way, and use it in a closed source project?

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
There is some code which is GPL or LGPL that I am considering using for an iPhone project. If I took that code (JavaScript) and rewrote it in a different language for use on the iPhone would that be a legal issue? In theory the process that has happened is that I have gone through each line of the… >>> More
Is it really free to deploy SharpDevelop apps?

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
I'm trying SharpDevelop to develop c# applications. Regardless of the language and the IDE, is it free to deploy applications that use WinForms? I've been developing with MonoDevelop just because it has a designer for Gtk# (client doesn't want to pay more for licences as to use VS...), but it's too… >>> More

Related posts about copyright

How to insert a blank line above my copyright text inside the comment lines in intelliJ IDEA?

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I'm using intelliJ IDEA 9. It has a function to make a copyright profile and apply to all files I create. What I'm trying to do is to format the copyright comment right. Suppose I have a copyright text as this: Copyright (c) 2010 my.company. All rights reserved. I wish it to be inserted in files… >>> More
How (and Why) to Copyright your Web Images

as seen on Internet.com - Search for 'Internet.com'
Helen Bradley explains the basics of protecting your ecommerce product photos on the Web. >>> More
Making a copyright system that works

as seen on Internet.com - Search for 'Internet.com'
<b>Free Software Magazine:</b> "Aside from a few vested interests in the entertainment industry, nearly everyone hates the system we’ve got — it’s clearly overreaching and ill-adapted to the electronic world of the internet. But what sort of system would… >>> More
Copyright infringement - inside the legal minefield

as seen on Internet.com - Search for 'Internet.com'
<b>New Zealand Herald:</b> "Several weeks ago the Australian high court ruled in favour of Aussie ISP iiNet in a landmark legal battle where AFACT (Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft) argued that iiNet was as guilty as some of its subscribers of online copyright infringement… >>> More
Music Rhythm Game: Copyright Music Question for Independent (Indie) Game Developers

as seen on Game Development - Search for 'Game Development'
I have a curious question regarding on musics used in music rhythm game. In Guitar Hero for example, they used all different music albums in one program. Then, each album requires to ask permission to the owner, composer of the music, or the copyright owner of the music. Let's say, if you used 15… >>> More