Has anyone ever thought about this? Like I was just looking at an unofficial Super Mario book, and it made me wonder how do they use all the Nintendo Assets like Mario Pictures and so on then sell the book when its not affiliated with Nintendo in any way?
Really curious about how all this works!
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The basic of using someone else IPs without paying a license is that as long as you don't profit from it, they won't send the lawyers. The moment you sell... and they find out... lawyers will come.
In other words, if they are using Nintendo's IP and they are not paying a license and they are making money out of it, they are doing something illegal (in the countries with IP laws).
There are also rules against using IPs even if you aren’t making money off of it because there is a brand integrity to protect for the property. Bloodborne Kart is a good example of that happening. So is the Invader Studios (before they were called that) Resident Evil 2 fan remake.
But those are complete games, he was talking about guides, written text with pictures or videos, which is different.
For my company we have IP infringement processes even for just images of products being used by non-authorized sellers. If something about the guide rubbed Nintendo the wrong way, they could issue a cease and desist.
Fair Use could be a defense, but I’m nearly positive a printed media guide would not qualify.
You can try to negotiate free license use if they get benefits like free marketing from your products. But it is a fantasy if we are talking about corporations like Nintendo.
This got me curious and I found a good answer here: https://www.justanswer.com/intellectual-property-law/82431-legalities-writing-game-guide-ebook-charging.html
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