I just thought that I'd say hello, and that I'm trying to get people to play Anima with me, though I don't know the specifics of how.

Anyway, the name's pronounced ZAH-MOO-SELL, just to clarify.

At any rate, I'm wishing to get my hands on all the books once they get released in English.

In any case, suppose I were to make a computer game for Anima: Beyond Fantasy, and it needed to be legalized... I'm a game developer, to be honest, but more of a hobbyist. Anyway, would I be allowed to make such a game, and even have some of the final profits? This question was just out of curiosity, due to my nature as a game developer, as well as that of an author.

Thank you all for your time.

What you are talking about is licensing Anima for a Computer game. This a thing for layers. It is complicated further by the fact that Fantasy Flight didn't create Anima, they actually pay some Spanish company for the English translation rights. FF may have all the English rights or only the translation rights. To know for sure you would have to contact the legal department of the company in Spain.

So the short answer is: It's complicated.

If you are part of a company and really planning on selling this game, then you are fine.

If you are just making it for fun and never really plan on distributing it, well, technically it is copy right infringements, but I doubt if any one will care.

If you are planning on making the game and maybe selling a few copies on Armor Games or something like that then you basically can't do it.

All of this is my opinion, I am not a layer. I am not an expert on copy right laws, and defniatly not an expert on international copy right laws.

Okay, thanks for clarifying, Hrathen.

By the way, I was told that only fan fics were legal for the Anima system, but I'm not privy on the details. Could someone clear that up?

I know a little about Fan Fic (in general not Anima spacific)

My friend is a published author, and people ask him all the time what he thinks of Fan Fic. He has to tell them that officially it is copy right infringment, but unofficially he takes it as the action of a fan, hence its name.

The truth is that no one really cares if your not making any money. (though they have the right to if they wanted to)

Again this is not the advice of a layer. It is just my understanding, and Fan Fic may work differently for spinning off a role-playing game rather than actual fiction. The creators of Anima may have actually asked for Fan Fic, if that is the case then it is totally legal as long as you give it to them.

Okay, I'm a bit clueless with the "give it to them" part of it, so could you please re-iterate that?

You may consider looking into a rights contract. This is what EA did with Games Workshop. They bought the rights to use the content of the Warhammer World for their game Warhammer Online. This contract indicated where they wanted freedom and where they would remain consistent with lore, appearance, trademarked names and ideas, etc. I don't know if that required an initial payment, or a percentage, but I'm sure it was a good deal for GW to have agreed to it.

According to rumor, GW is rather upset about this now, as the absolutely horrific failure of the online game's deployment and PR has affected GW's reputation in a bad way. Considering that this is recent history and fresh in the minds of RPG and Computer game producers, I would just write to Mr. Aparicio (lead developer/writer) and ask him personally what he thinks of the idea. You will have to deal with him eventually, and he would be able to bring the appropriate stakeholders to the discussion as well, so why not start with him right up front?

Let's say FF wants to do an advertising campaign for a new product. They may ask people out in the Web to right some short fiction set in the setting of their new product. Their may even be a contest of some kind. If you participate you are writing in their world, but they asked you to, so it is 100% legal, but part of participating means you will give the fiction to them. They may even pay you for it, but in terms of copyrights for the story they will own it.

It all comes down to who own the intellectual property rights, and that answer is the original creator. If you write in someone else world and give it to them you don't get rights to your own work. This is even true if you are a writer who works for Wizards of the Cost writing is Forgotten Realms. Wizzards of the Coasts keeps all the rights even though you were the author of the novel.

Back to your original question. If whoever owns the rights to Anima (be it FF or the original Spanish company) asked for Fan Fiction, or even made a place for you to post it on one of their web sites, you would be totally okay to write some and submit it to them. However, if you were to write some and post in on your own website or somewhere (not the company's) you would technically be in violation of copy right law.

But I would like to point out that not to many people care about Fan Fic, likely you would get a cease and disist order if any one did care. So I wouldn't worry about it unless someone complains. (That is assuming you didn't make any money)

Okay, guys, you both raise valid points. Okay, then, one more question: Who's Mister Aparicio?

.
.
.

I'm sorry for being that clueless... is the guy even American or is he spanish?

Xamusel said:

If you open the Anima rulebook, you will see he's the first name that appears: Carlos Aparicio.

Anima Project Studio owns the copyrights, and its a good bet that he, being the lead developer/writer, will be at least a key person in product decisions that have to do with using Anima content.

You may also want to read this:

arkofsinners.wordpress.com/2010/10/28/anima-games-studio-presents-its-wiiware-project-at-fnac-store-valencia-spain/

Okay... *facepalm* Why me?

In-game footage

Hmm... I think I'm starting to see a business venture. Now if only they decide to translate the game into english!! If they decide to have a novelization of the game, I'd be willing to write it, just as long as they give me a script to work from (in english mind you).

Anyway, I'll get over to talking with the guys at Anima Project Studio soon, though I just hope that they understand english well enough. My spanish is as close to non-existant as you can get it without being non-existant. This does, however, lead to a different question: What time is it over there? With me, it's almost 5:15, and I don't know the time there well enough.