One of us is getting sued for his fan-made game: Smurf Rescue

[Nebulon]

Even giving away one's version of copyright material can be as damaging as selling them for profit.

 

Hence why sharing movies and music online is illegal. Sure there may be no one profiting from such activity, but in the end your robbing someone else of a sale.

 

Granted, yes I know that Peyo is not selling Smurf games for out of date systems; BUT, if it IS allowed it sets a bad precedent and opens up opportunities for people to weasel there way into saying if activity X is legal, then therefor activity Y must be legal too, which may even lead to activity Z being legal, and so on.

A law is a law is a law.

Why is it so hard to abide by a law, and such incredibly simple one at that?

Without permission, don't copy copyrighted material.

 

Easier said than done and nothing is so cut and dry.

 

For example, copyright exists on a work from the moment it's created. So people could really just be dicks about it and nail anyone who infringes (or appear to infringe) on their copyright.

 

Then you get into the game of 'who has the most money?' Those with the cash are able to legally enforce their copyright and even ruin people who are perceived as violating their copyright. Those with limited resources are S.O.L., even if they're in the right.

 

There are cases -- like in music -- where components of a work may or may not be a violation of copyright. You can't copyright a song name. You also can't (in most cases) claim copyright on a chord progression. So now there's the grey area of substantial similarity between works. That would have to be proven in court. If taken to too great an extreme, the strict "cut and dry" approach can lead to massive stifling of creativity. Is that what we want?

 

Hence a judgment call does need to be made, based on quantitative and qualitative analysis.

 

Nothing is ever quite as simple as it seems -- including the law. Again, consider why each and every law is drafted and how many of the existing laws are now irrelevant because people blindly accept them as absolutes without re-evaluating them based on the context of the times.

[Tron Unit]

2000 euros is chump change. If they were actually going to go after you for copyright infringement they would sue you for much MUCH more. It will cost them considerably more in court costs and attorney expenses alone to go after you for such a miniscule amount. It's simple intimidation tactics to get you to pay. Just ignore it. Nothing will ever come out of it.