Is making a free-to-play game with existing characters a copyright infringement?

Question

3D

Hello. Please tell me who is in the subject of all this. For example, I want to create a game with anime characters for young people. Free-to-play, that is, no payment for the game itself is planned, only for skins / items, etc. at will. Characters are planned to be created/copied on their own in a 3D editor based on existing references on the web. In general, as far as I understand, the use of any existing characters in the world, whether it's Naruto or Harry Potter for commercial purposes, is a copyright infringement and makes bo-bo whoever does it. But the crux of the matter is, does this really apply to free-to-play games? And if there are a bunch of these characters, will you have to negotiate with each owner individually? And in pursuit of all this, maybe someone knows how to generally get in touch with such people (copyright owners) and what they usually require as approval? (% of the project, money in the amount of 200k bucks or something).
I don’t understand this topic at all, but I have been cherishing the idea of ​​​​creating my own game for many years, however, like many others. I would like to somehow approach this responsibly and have an idea whether it is realistic to implement such a game, without any significant sides with the right to use some existing characters. And without a real understanding of such things, I personally don’t see the point in further creating the game. Killing your personal time in order to release a game for which you will be fined an amount equal to or even exceeding all the years of your work is somehow not pleasant (although I see, for example, a bunch of anime games in the same VK and they hardly care about this. But my goal is not a VK platform, but a full-fledged 3D game with a desktop client).
As they say, they don’t beat the demand, for this I will be mentally grateful to those who can tell or advise something interesting on the case. Thank you for your attention =)

Answer 1

The simplest option, which most people overlook, is to ask the owner for the rights. Quite often, copyright holders give permission to use the image at a discount or even for free. In addition, you will have the opportunity to monetize the game, and only pay royalties to the copyright holder.
As for the use of an image without a request, yes it is a violation. Yes, it will most likely go unnoticed. But if the lawyers of the copyright holder suddenly become bored, then a lawsuit cannot be avoided. Moreover, free-to-play games are most often free because of the advertising distributed through them, and this is already income.

Answer 2

The main thing: you throw out this stupid myth from your head "no earnings - no copyright infringement"! Violation is in itself the use of copyrighted content, and what goals you have there, commercial or otherwise, have nothing to do with the case. Well, the rest, it all depends on the copyright holders. Some are loyal to "parodic use" and other "references", some are not. The most likely option is that your game will simply not be noticed (which is why there is a lot of trash using popular characters / works). But even if they notice, there will be no talk of fines, I think. Maximum - a ban in the stores (or where you will distribute the game there).

Answer 3

In short: you cannot use an exact copy of the character.
There is even a special type of "patent" trolls who make money on characters.
Take the same "Masha and the Bear", they are constantly suing someone. Moreover, they are fined just for using EVERY character from the cartoon.

Answer 4

I won’t tell you according to regulatory documents ..
As for -
And without a real understanding of such things, I personally don’t see the point in further creating the game. Killing your personal time in order to release a game for which you will be fined an amount equivalent to or even exceeding all the years of your work is somehow not pleasant
So create your characters .. and you will not have problems

Answer 5

Disney characters are all trademarked. But not every anime creator has taken care of this.
Specify for each character separately, from the authors (more precisely, the publishers, because the rights to the characters can be redeemed).

Answer 6

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