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Ask HN: Movie Parody Game. Fair-use or Violation?

1 points by paliopolis ↗ HN
Hello,

I am thinking of developing a mobile app/game that is inspired from scenes from a couple of hit movies! e.g. a couple of hit scenes from Home Alone and maybe Baby's Day Out !

There will be no scenes from the actual movie but maybe the "thief" character be "inspired" by the thief from Home Alone ! (kind of like you have to stop the thieves from entering the house or a palace)

Will this be considered a parody and fair use or can be it a copyright violation? I will be consulting an attorney but wanted to see if anyone here has some knowledge or ideas? I tried searching but couldnd find anything !!

(Also if you know and can recommend an attorney in the Bay Area, i will appreciate it)

2 comments

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keenrodent
Your attorney will need to know more about your specific plans, but in general as long as you don't use material from the movies (title, major plot elements, character names, images, sounds, etc) you can be inspired all you want. So "Tiny Thief Thwarter--The Game" is more likely to fly than "Home Alone--The Game", and if TTT weren't named Kevin and was defending a meth lab or a palace instead of a house in Evanston you'd give the Home Alone guys less and less to be quarrelsome about.

Now, you specifically mention "parody" and "fair use," do you intend to quote parts of the movies, or actually parody part of it? Based on your short question I don't really get the sense that's your angle. I more get the sense that you're looking for a new scenario inspired by those movies, and I'd encourage you to use the inspiration to drive toward the new idea rather than attempt a parody of the old.

And good on you for not having it be zombies!

paliopolis
Thanks ! I am trying to find out a good attorney to discuss this.

I was trying to figure out and was wondering why aren't there any games that are "inspired" from movies ! So was just looking around trying to find answers.

I was searching for copyright and stuff and came across a whole bunch of posts/sites that talked about parody and fair-use, that's why I was wondering.

I like the TTT - The Game concept, that's kind of what I was thinking and not actually using the material from the movies.

My nephews and nieces are in the age group where all they talk about these days are these home alone, baby's day out kind of movies ! I know there's a whole bunch of games that are either from Disney or are Disney themed but I couldnt find anything from non-animated movies !!

I think non-zombie would be preferred by my target audience ;-)