Why be so desperate to ride of the back of another title than to come up with something original?
You are also going way too deep in that Ultima shit, which I don't care enough to research, so no thanks, don't need to bring one specific title to a copyright argument. If thats the case I can point out the lotr mod that got wiped with a C&D letter, or any other similar case.
Both
MERP / and the earlier
MEMod have a particular issue in that they're using derivative works, names, locations which happen to be owned by Warner Bros / the Tolkien estate (with their own nested issues of copyright). Added to this is the fact that an
LOTR MMORPG was licensed at the same time, which is optioned until 2017 (see
here) then they were
obviously going to run into issues.
Any fool could have instantly worked that one out.
This isn't the same as singular games, for obvious reasons.* Garriott himself has an Ultima-esque MMO in the works (
Shroud of the Avatar) but a single player (or even, *swoon* co-op Ultima VII) wouldn't infringe on it, and EA show no interest in the series barring milking it into casual "social" Facebook fodder.
It's pretty clear you've not played Lazarus, U6 project or Ultima VII, so I'll let you off with a mere shrug and a "stick to Final Fantasy" [note: remakes of FF's will also get shot down instantly, fyi]. Stick to youtube & anime -
here's the EFF's guide to avoiding / challenging DMCAs.
Btw, many people love Ultima for good reason.
*I mentioned GoG for a reason - GoG can be a cheap way for companies to maintain TM options / commercial defense without having to worry about innocent modders, but I digress and you're too happy wallowing to see the reasons why this is a good thing.
