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A question about the usage rights of the Simutrans logo

Started by Mirradian, February 10, 2014, 09:33:41 PM

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Mirradian

I was looking at the usage guidelines for the Simutrans' logo and wanted to ask if it is alright to use the logos to create custom thumbnails for YouTube videos. I am making a Let's Play Simutrans series right now and wanted to make sure it was alright to use the logo for the thumbnail image. I have attached an example image to demonstrate how I would most likely be using the logo. In the example, I simply copied the logo and pasted it into Paint, so it has not been re-sized or modified but if I were to use it in an actual thumbnail, I would probably have to scale the logo somewhat to fit YouTube's 1280x720 custom thumbnail guidelines.

Anyway, I'm a big fan of the game and thought a custom image would make the Let's Play seem a little more professional, but I don't want to "copyright infringe."


Mirradian

Thank you for the help, but I actually read the guidelines before posting. I guess what I'm really looking for is verification that I'm not misusing the logo.

The "You Can" lines make it clear I can use the logo, but what I was more concerned with was all the stuff concerning space percentage and text and all of that. I'm not a graphic artist, so I'm not use to dealing with things like this.

The guidelines say you CAN NOT use the logo to represent "other projects." Does a YouTube let's play of Simutrans count as "other projects?"

Also, you CAN NOT include other objects, CAN NOT change the objects placement, and CAN NOT change the font. I would assume these rules refer to any kind of manipulation of the Logo, in and of itself. So, like in the example, it would be okay to put in the "Let's Play Simutrans" title as long as I don't edit the logo itself. But do I need to use Roadgeek 2005 for the title or can I leave my title font set as Century?

And I am guessing the space percentages refer to how much space needs to be left empty around the logo itself when I use it.

I'm sorry to be such a bother, but I do take copyrights seriously.

Leartin

I happen to be a graphic artist, so I think I can answer your questions.

1) A Let's Play of Simutrans is not an "other project". You use the Logo to represent Simutrans, not something else. For example, you are not allowed to use the Simutrans-Logo for an OTTD Let's Play...

2) The text you added is not in the logo, it is next to it. Therefore, you can use whatever you want, as long as it is far enough away from the logo.

3) Yes, the space percentages refer to the space around. For example, how far your text has to be away. In the sample Image you showed, the logo is ~190 px wide. 7% of 190 is 13, while you only left 9 pixels to the left.


However, there is something else you might have overread:
QuoteDo not modify the logos in any way if you want them to represent Simutrans or the Simutrans project, they can only be represented by these unmodified version.
In other words, if you don't want to represent Simutrans itself, you might alter the logo. This was done for several paksets and the experimental-fork, which represent "project which are close to simutrans, but not quite simutrans itself/as a whole" While I said in (1) that you represent no other project but Simutrans, I'd argue that you can have a logo representing "The Simutrans Let's Play", not "Simutrans", effectively allowing you to do whatever you want to the original logo. I don't recommand that, but I think you can relax about the usage and don't need to count pixels. As far as I remember, YouTube kinda cuts the borders anyway, so even if you create a perfect thumbnail it might appear on YouTube in a way that is not 100% okay.


On a sidenote: Please reconsider using Century. It's a bad choice for a title, especially one with two lines.

Mirradian

Thank you for your help. I appreciate the advice. No I'm not going to modify the logo itself, just wanted to use it as is.

And as for the side note, the font was actually Monotype Corsiva. Oops, my mistake!! But I kind of agree on changing it. I use a capital blue Monotype Corsiva M as an avatar/icon on some of my accounts. When I created the thumbnail image I quickly threw it together and that was just the preselected font. Now I'm actually thinking a "sans serif" font would look better.

Anyway, thanks again.