Legality of tributes of third-party maps

[fromhell]

I know tributing a commercial map may be a strong stride into grey territory, but what about third-party maps? Some of my favorite maps ever were third-party, but they, too can be copyrighted but they often have the opportunity for personal contact commercial maps can't offer.


What does anyone think about this?

p.s. some of the third party maps that were GPLed (aggressor, rpg3dm1) are exempt from this thread

[Neon_Knight]

I thought you shouldn't be bothered by that. If you do that from scratch (just like I did with oa_reptctf3, oa_reptctf11 and am_thornish, based on Q3's reptctf3, reptctf11 and UT's CTF-Thorns*) then you're the author of your own version.

Although letting the original author to notice your version would be a nice touch.

[Gig]

Well, I don't know about maps, but AFAIK, with images, making something too similar to something copyrighted (and if there is no license information, one should assume it is "all rights reserved") is still a "derivative work", and needs authorization.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Image_casebook
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Derivative_works
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Fan_art

I still hope that making something that resembles an existing map, but has got some differences, and is done from scratch, may be ok, but maybe the difference level may be an important factor.
Anyway, if there is a way to contact the original author, one may try to ask his permission to make a "remake" of it, or even to get himself re-publish the .map under the gplv2 license. If he answers "no", I suppose it is better to focus on other maps...

[chaoticsoldier]

I pretty sure it would it be classed as a derivative work, even if you create from scratch.

You will most probably need the original author's permission. If you want to look into it, depending on the situation you might possibly be able to claim it is 'fair use', but otherwise it doesn't look feasible without the author's express permission because copyright still exists.