10 minutes ago, Scouting Ninja said:

The problem is misuse of someone else's property.

Misuse of digital property? something that is intangible? Never heard of that. Something that has billions of copies existing in the hands of others.

13 minutes ago, Scouting Ninja said:

 

Imagine I started sharing your games with other people, telling them I made the games.

Nothing I can do about that, digital content can very easily be copied, changed and manipulated. Besides, they are not making any money from it. But I was talking about fan games that are often different sans the characters in them.

16 minutes ago, Scouting Ninja said:

 

Copyright laws don't have a clause that only applies to selling games. Using someone else's content without their permission is illegal, in most countries.

Not in Uganda. I assume 'Using' means doing everything under the book with it, playing with it, using it as reference. This form of use is unstoppable.

Barlkey Slam-Jam Gaiden was nothing but copyright infringement, being a sequel to 2 licensed properties, but still being its' own thing.  The game has a cult following and a sequel in production which the creator is choosing to omit intellectual properties with copyrights so it can be sold commercially.  The original was made with RPG maker and re-made with GameMaker to add more features and the production story is interesting too.  I can say that this game existing is a net-positive and I'm glad someone made it, even though it uses elements of visuals and stories made by other people, it has lots of artistic merit IMO and more originality than most properties that just model themselves around other successful games while changing just enough to avoid copyright infringement.  I don't think this game existing took money out of anyone's pocket, food out of anyone's mouth or hurt anyone in any way.  This is why I think blanket statements of all instances of copyright infringement being theft are not only detrimental to creativity but incorrect.

If you are making the game with no intention to profit off of and ride the coattails of someone else's success then I see no problem with using characters or scenarios someone else holds the copyrights to, people do the same thing with public domain properties all the time.  Skill and originality always shines through.  Do what you feel inspired to do, if you come up with something amazing the art and story can always be changed pre-publishing.  The original Donkey Kong started off as a Popeye game until Nintendo ran into licensing issues with the characters, and that little sprite swap led to the creation of 2 of the most iconic characters in gaming. 

@deltaKshatriya Still many people own that music on the youtube videos and there should be no point of taking it down, but we are talking about games here. I don't know what IP means but as I said, nothing can be done about someone giving away digital content to others, as others too will also be giving it off an so on and on. And as for what you mention something about someone using a character in their videos that represent a bad image and give it a bad image, that is also unstoppable because it is super easy to do with digital items. Except maybe for humiliation, there would be no harm done to the creator unless money was involved.

6 minutes ago, sprotz said:

@deltaKshatriya Still many people own that music on the youtube videos and there should be no point of taking it down, but we are talking about games here. I don't know what IP means but as I said, nothing can be done about someone giving away digital content to others, as others too will also be giving it off an so on and on. And as for what you mention something about someone using a character in their videos that represent a bad image and give it a bad image, that is also unstoppable because it is super easy to do with digital items. Except maybe for humiliation, there would be no harm done to the creator unless money was involved.

No...

Look, you have received answers from people who are professionals in the industry.

Maybe you'll get the answer that 'you want to hear' on the GameMaker forums, where the age of the members average in the low teens and they don't know any better.

But over here, the rules are not going to change, no matter how much you want to argue your point.

@DarkRonin I can't see anyone on this forum so I can't verify their age or profession. Anyone can pretend to be somebody on an internet site.

1 minute ago, sprotz said:

@DarkRonin I can't see anyone on this forum so I can't verify their age or profession. Anyone can pretend to be somebody on an internet site.

Why would every single person here tell you it is illegal then?

Are they worried your use of Mario or Sonic will make your reputation soar and turn you into the next biggest coder, putting you above them?

50 minutes ago, sprotz said:

1 hour ago, Scouting Ninja said:

Copyright laws don't have a clause that only applies to selling games. Using someone else's content without their permission is illegal, in most countries.

Not in Uganda. I assume 'Using' means doing everything under the book with it, playing with it, using it as reference. This form of use is unstoppable.

I assume you're trolling now, Uganda has a copyright law that clearly states that 'fair use' is very limited, includes that you may not distribute (with very specific exceptions), and even goes so far to protect unpublished works. I mean this is the age of the internet, go check your facts before you throw them out there.

Link for reference. https://ulii.org/ug/legislation/act/2015/2006