Add Button Men: Space Battles?

[TheOrgg]

I have spoken with the creator of this set, and he is interested in it possibly being on BMO. What hoops he has to jump through and such I don't know, but here's his set and images for it. As soon as he gets back to me with what the 'b' skill represents on two of the characters (ships?) I'll transcribe the set.

https://buttonmen.fandom.com/wiki/Space_Battles

[TheOrgg]

[TheOrgg]

Flavor Text [Note: Some of these were HARD to figure out. I might have missed a word or two, or mistaken a word or two. Someone else needs to click through the wiki page and check these.]

Battlestar Galactica Leading a rag tag refugee fleet in search of a new home.

Colonial Viper Mk II The colonial fleet's primary space superiority fighter/attack craft during the first Cylon War.

Cube 1184 Resistance is futile.

Cylon Raider It's [sic] sleek design means it can speed past nearly all enemy ships.

Death Star A moon sized space station with the ability to destroy an entire planet.

F-302 Fighter Interceptor It is armed with advanced weapons and is extremely durable.

Let's see what this Galaxy Class starship can do!

Gunstar One Defending the Frontier against Xar and the Ho-Dan Armada

IKS Maht-H'a Responsible for the eradication of all life on Indri Vill.

IKS Pagh Armed with disrupters and photon torpedoes.

Millennium Falcon She may not look like much but she's got it where it counts, kid

Prowler A multi-role transatmospheric starfighter used by the Peacekeepers.

RIS Devoras Used for deception and subterfuge.

Serenity The parts are crap, but you put it together you got a Firefly. Thing'll run forever they got a mechanic even half awake. [Note: Terrible grammar, but a direct quote from the fantastic series. This is the one I'm looking forward to fighting with-Orgg]

Talyn A Peacekeeper/Leviatan hybrid gunship, a living spaceship, regarded as one of the most advanced ships ever created.

TARDIS A big ball of wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff.

TIE Fighter The terrifying roar of TIE's engine would strike fear into the hearts of all enemies of The Empire.

USS Defiant NX-74205 One tough little ship.

USS Enterprise 1701-D Fate. It protects fools, small children, and ships called Enterprise.

USS Sutherland NCC-72015 There will be an answer.

USS Voyager NCC-74656 One of the most powerful vessels of its time.

White Star If you value your lives, be somewhere else.

Wraith Dart We call them dart because they're so pointy.

X-Wing Starfighter A versatile Rebel Alliance starfighter which balances speed with firepower.

[dwvanstone]

Some corrections (from my eyesight, using the BGG PDF):

Battlestar Galactica Leading a rag-tag refugee fleet in search of a new home.

Colonial Viper Mk II The Colonial Fleet's primary space superiority fighter/attack craft during the First Cylon War.

F-302 Fighter Interceptor It is armed with advanced weaponry and is extremely durable.

Galaxy Class Starship Let's see what this Galaxy-class starship can do!

Gunstar One Defending the Frontier against Xar and the Ko-Dan Armada

IKS Maht-H'a Responsible for the eradication of all life on Indri VIII. <-- roman numeral at end

Millennium Falcon She may not look like much but she's got it where it counts, kid.

Prowler A multi-role trans-atmospheric starfighter used by the Peacekeepers.

Talyn A Peacekeeper/Leviathan hybrid gunship, a living spaceship, regarded as one of the most advanced ships ever created.

T.A.R.D.I.S. A big ball of wibbly wobbly, timey wimey stuff.

T.I.E. Fighter The terrifying roar of a T.I.E.'s engine would strike fear into the hearts of all enemies of The Empire.

USS Enterprise 1701-D Fate, it protects fools, small children and ships called Enterprise.

Wraith Dart We call them Darts because they're so pointy.

Also, I suggest we just remove the errant apostrophe from the Cylon Raider even though it's there in the original.

[TheOrgg]

Looks good to go. I'd leave in the [sic], but I'm not fully sold on it. I'm fine with correcting the grammar on Cylon Raider.

[blackshadowshade]

So, what do we think about the fact that there's no explicit approval of the use of the images?

[TheOrgg]

One of the creators of the set was excited that the set might be able to be put on here. I've messaged both I talked to (the ones credited with creating the set) on Board Game Geek and I'm waiting for a reply.

[blackshadowshade]

I'm not talking about the set creators per se, but rather the original copyright holders. Note that the set creators say explicitly: "The images have copyright of the original owners."

[TheOrgg]

No clue, there. If they did have someone create the art, it should be fine. What happened in other situations like this, for example, Darth Maul?

[TheOrgg]

Pulled it up and saw the copyright notice. Does this mean I need to go back and do this to every one of them?

[TheOrgg]

Went ahead and looked them all up and did up the notice at the top. They don't look terrible at least.

[TheOrgg]

Feel free to double-check, I might've err'd on ships I'm unfamiliar with.

[jl8e]

Acknowledging the copyright doesn't remove the need (or lack thereof) to get permission. If any of them have public policies on fan works, we'd likely be in the clear there, but giant media corporations tend not to.

This all may be fair use. It may not. Since fair use is a legal defense, not a magic shield against legal action, asserting it would be difficult and prohibitively expensive.

Darth Maul falls under the doctrine of "they probably won't notice, and if they do, and they care, they'll start by sending a cease and desist, at which point it can be taken down." If the people whose necks are actually on the line aren't comfortable, whether legally or ethically, with that for new buttons, that's entirely reasonable..

(The biggest threat is probably not from the major media companies themselves, but from smaller companies that have paid heavily for the license for making games based on the franchises.)

[dwvanstone]

I'm not sure how we should move forward on this.

I guess this is a question for those people "whose necks are actually on the line". Should we go forward and put up images of new buttons that include images from Disney, MGM, etc? If so, should they have the "copyright MGM"/etc. image on them?

It would certainly be fun if we could make new button sets based on copyrighted materials. We already have buttons based on Steven Universe, The Tick, Star Wars, Cowboy Bebop, etc. Some have the trademark symbol on them, some don't.