Developer blog #362: Odessa map update, MP video competition winners, request for photos

[Duckman]

Love the inclusion of the real photos in the cockpit. Elevates the game and honours those who were there in one swoop.

[IckyATLAS]

I am wondering how it goes regarding the rights to use publicly photos depicting real people and in a certain context.

It may hurt living relatives. Anyway it is a delicate legal issue.

In Europe there are a bunch of laws that restrict a lot the usage of real people image.

[Aapje]

I'm not a lawyer, but EU law doesn't protect the privacy of the diseased. So if the picture shows the child of the pilot in the picture, that may be an issue. Or the wife may still be alive. But otherwise the privacy law doesn't apply.

 

Copyright can be an issue, because the absurd copyright periods for 70 years after the death of the author, means that WW II pictures are almost certainly still copyrighted. And if it is a family picture, the copyright may very well be with the family, although if it was taken by a professional photographer, that may be less clear.

 

And if you on your own put a picture that you found on the internet in the game, rather than 1CGS doing it, you might be able to benefit from the laws allowing more if it is just for private use, rather than that you are the one distributing it.

 

Realistically speaking, it seems not worth the risk for 1CGS to use pictures without permission, while us users are probably safe if we just put a picture in your own game.

[Trooper117]

The strange thing is, you can't show or display Nazi symbols, yet many on here identify with Nazi pilots as they display them in their avatars with impunity... but people worry about showing pictures in their pretend cockpit?... c'mon 🙈

[AEthelraedUnraed]

Aapje is correct. European privacy law (GDPR) doesn't consider deceased people, so you can freely publish any personal details including photographs as long as the persons depicted have died. Which for girlfriends/wives is by now 99.9% certain.

 

If any children are depicted, there's a reasonable chance they're still alive. However, 1CGS makes it quite clear what they intend to do with the images so if the person depicted is the one who provides the photograph, then the providing itself could be construed as permission to use their personal data (i.e. photo).

 

Things are probably different yet again if the person in question is a woman who later married and took on her husband's name. For GDPR to apply, the person in the photo has to be reasonably identifyable. That's why GPDR doesn't apply to people randomly walking a street, for example. A children's picture from 80 years ago isn't really identifyable either and should therefore not be much of a problem either, *unless* the name of that person is also published. Which 1CGS may well like to do. However if the person's name has changed because of e.g. a marriage, this would again require a disproportionate amount of searching to link that photo to a specific living person.

 

Things are again different for US or Russian pilots. GDPR only applies to people in the EU so doesn't cover US or Russian citizens. If the photograph in question was made outside the EU and depicts a non-EU citizen, then GDPR doesn't apply. Of course, relevant regulations of those countries may apply (with 1CGS's legal obligation to comply probably left to whatever international treaties may exist).

 

TLDR; there shouldn't be much of a privacy issue with people in cockpit photos. They likely either have died already, are the same people who provide the photos, or are not reasonably identifyable.

 

38 minutes ago, Trooper117 said:

The strange thing is, you can't show or display Nazi symbols, yet many on here identify with Nazi pilots as they display them in their avatars with impunity... but people worry about showing pictures in their pretend cockpit?... c'mon 🙈

It's a matter of law. Under European legislation (which applies to 1CGS since it's a Cyprus-registered company as well as gathers data from EU residents), you can get into legal trouble if you don't take privacy seriously, while Nazi symbols are legal for gaming purposes in most of the EU (though not all; that's why they're not allowed here).

 

EDIT: I should probably mention that I'm not a legal expert; however I do have some experience with writing policy to comply with GDPR.

EDIT2: I only consider privacy regulations. As Aapje says, there may be copyright issues.

Edited May 25, 2024 by AEthelraedUnraed

[LukeFF]

Guys, all of the default cockpit photos are either or deceased persons and/or were provided with the express permission of someone in the community. There aren't any legal issues here. 🙂

[Jaegermeister]

11 hours ago, Aapje said:

 

Copyright can be an issue, because the absurd copyright periods for 70 years after the death of the author, means that WW II pictures are almost certainly still copyrighted. 

 

I'm not a lawyer either but this is not true. You might want to research copyright laws a little further. Actually many pictures from the World War II era are now public domain and have been for quite a while. An original unaltered personal photograph scanned out of a copyrighted book would probably be an exception. Some websites and museums have valid copyrights as well. Unless the copyrights to pictures posted on the internet were renewed correctly when they expired before the internet even existed they are public domain and there are no legal issues with using them. It is of course better to err on the side of caution and ask for permission first.

 

 

Edited May 25, 2024 by Jaegermeister

[Aapje]

@Jaegermeister

 

That is true for the US, but I think that in some/all EU countries, the longer period of 70 years after the death of the author was applied retroactively, and there was never a registry. If the person who took the picture survived WW II, the picture of for example a German family, could very well still be under copyright in the EU.

[Jaegermeister]

34 minutes ago, Aapje said:

@Jaegermeister

 

That is true for the US, but I think that in some/all EU countries, the longer period of 70 years after the death of the author was applied retroactively, and there was never a registry. If the person who took the picture survived WW II, the picture of for example a German family, could very well still be under copyright in the EU.

Yes, I was referring to US. It could quite easily be very different in the EU and apparently is.

[ITAF_Artiglio]

Odessa=Macchi MC 200 Saetta

[LuftManu]

This map brings the opportunity to have some early war scenearios, alongside late East front.

I think it's going to be really interesting! also another home for the IAR and the I-153 😀