Hi. I own browser based game. I have got a few questions about legal stuff. In game, I have a feature that players can fight with monsters. Every monster has its image. However, images are from one game (yu gi oh). Can konami sue me as using their copyrighted images? (I used yu-gi-oh cards but cut off the images of actual monsters so there are no borders or description of them) or should I keep disclaimer? Another question is about Paypal. Do I have to pay any taxes if I get $1000 or more/month from V.I.P. purchases or am I free from taxes as it is like donation? Thank you for you answers.
Will they first warn me or just sue? and what amount could be of suing? thousands? hundred thousands? millions?
If your having to ask these questions, maybe you should reconsider your business strategy. This is not a lawyers office, anything anyone post here should be taken as opinion, not as legal fact. On a professional level, you should not be using someone else's property. Hire some artist and have them make you your own images. Check out the local comic book stores. Kids with artistic talents will sometimes hang out there. Local colleges with an arts class might be a good place to ask for help. How much could the sue you for? I am not an attorney, but from previous examples and copyright infringement cases - you will spend the rest of your life working for konami to pay the fines, court cost and lawyers fees.
They may warn you, but they are not required to. If the copyrights are registered (and I presume they are), and you are sued in the US, you can be liable for statutory damages between $750 and $30,000 per work and if they can show you were aware that the images were copyrighted (which would be easy if you took them from playing cards), you could be liable for $150,000 per work. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statutory_damages_for_copyright_infringement You are in the UK it looks like there is also the possibility of having to pay damages if you know the work is under copyright. It's not clear to me how much. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright,_Designs_and_Patents_Act_1988#Enforcement_of_copyright Note that the character designs are likely also trademarked, so you could also be liable for trademark infringement. Why not hire an artist to make you new monster designs? A student artist would probably be willing to do that inexpensively. That way they will be free and clear of copyright and trademark issues, and when (if) you start making money, you don't have to worry about it being taken away from you.
I agree with everything you said, and especially this point. If you are thinking about making $1,000 per month for vip access, you should certainly put a lot more of that money into the game {the character design}, and anything else that may step onto the borders of copyright infringement and trademark issues.
I was thinking the same thing happy. And just putting a disclaimer or giving credit to someone does not count as keeping you from being in violations of copyright laws. And just a friendly bit of advice, if you want to start making a grand a month off of subscriptions, you probably should not use the same boring layout that every other RPG uses. Get creative.
Why not save yourself a huge amount of legal fees a put a simple disclaimer stating that the images are copyrighted to their respected owners and you are in no way affiliated with them. Also for the paypal thing I'm not entirely sure but in my opinion from what I know is that paypal can't tax as they are not goverment affiliated and they are not an official bank. However, they will charge you fees as usual, but if you get a business account you can look up how much the fees are etc.
Putting a disclaimer up will not help your case, because you are using their copyrighted material. It would be like selling soda in a bottle with a coca cola label and a little disclaimer saying this really isn't coke, wouldn't fly for a second. If you are US based and you build any kind of following you are going to get sued and loose your site and a ton of money. Pay some one to make up new images and cards, it is poor taste to steal other people's work (even if they are giant companies). On the paypal question if you are US based you are legally required to report all income regardless of the source for tax purposes. The IRS can go to paypal and figure out your earnings, if you get audited. I would never mess with the IRS they can turn your life upside down and there is almost no way to get out of paying them if they catch you cheating, which is pretty easy considering the electronic paper trail that you are leaving. Not to mention the possibility that you could go to jail for tax fraud.