Reply To: Interesting Copyright Infringement

[elessar2590 18207xp 0]

You can’t copyright an idea or concept but you can copyright a Universe/Setting eg. 40K, Warhammer Fantasy, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars. He doesn’t own the concept of a Barbarian but he does own the concept of this particular Barbarian. GW doesn’t have a Copyright on Rat-Men but they do have a copyright on Skaven.

As @mecha82 said the guy was directly ripping off artwork and making money advertising it as Conan which is what got him in trouble. I doubt this will hurt anyone like Unreleased Miniatures who are careful when making minis.

The reason GW won’t get in trouble for Nids is that they didn’t start advertising about how these new minis are the bugs from Starship Troopers and they didn’t just directly rip them off they created a whole Universe then created the Nids within it.