क्या मैं यादृच्छिक नामों के साथ कानूनी मुद्दों में भाग सकता हूं?

Question

मैं वर्तमान में एक खेल का निर्माण कर रहा हूं जिसका एनपीसी एक यादृच्छिक लिंग और सही लिंग के लिए एक यादृच्छिक नाम सौंपा जा रहा है। ऐसा करने के लिए मैं नामों के "डेटाबेस" (वास्तव में ट्यूपल्स के साथ एक पाठ फ़ाइल) का उपयोग कर रहा हूं। अंतिम नामों की एक सूची भी होगी, जिसे पहले नाम के साथ यादृच्छिक रूप से भी जोड़ा जाएगा।

मेरा प्रश्न निम्नलिखित है। मान लीजिए कि ऐसा एक यादृच्छिक नाम "जॉर्ज बुश" है, और इस व्यक्ति को बेतरतीब ढंग से राष्ट्रपति का काम सौंपा गया है। जैसा कि आप देख सकते हैं, यह आसानी से एक वास्तविक जीवन वाले व्यक्ति से "नकल" होने के रूप में देखा जा सकता है।

मुख्य मुद्दा यह है। नाम यादृच्छिक रूप से उत्पन्न होंगे, हां, लेकिन यादृच्छिक-संख्या पीढ़ी के लिए बीज स्थिर होगा। दूसरे शब्दों में, एक NPC का नाम बेतरतीब ढंग से उत्पन्न होगा, अर्थात मैं इसे नहीं चुनूंगा, लेकिन यह हर खिलाड़ी के लिए समान होगा। क्या इससे मुझे परेशानी हो सकती है? हम सभी संभावित नामों को सत्यापित नहीं कर सकते हैं, क्योंकि एनपीसी की उत्पन्न संख्या संभावित रूप से असीम हो सकती है (जब भी आवश्यकता हो नए एनपीसी बनाए जा रहे हैं)।

Comments

The answer to any "Can I run into legal issues with..." question is Yes - because people can choose to take you to court for whatever reason they like. So you need to think about how to reduce the chance of this happening, which the answers below help with.

— Kylotan

Answer 1

Legally I would be prepared for "change this name" notices and make it very easy to change that name; no matter how much in the right you think you are, it's just a nice thing to do.

Create and maintain a dictionary of names to avoid, no matter how legal it is anyone who sees "George Bush" in your game will immediately lose their sense of immersion.

Combined with a standard fictitious name disclaimer to cover obscure names you should be good to go.

Comments

Wow, this is exactly the kind of thing I was looking for. I'll add a list of names to avoid using. Thanks!!

— Jonathan Pitre

Besides the possibility of legal notices, you may want to be able to exclude randomly generated names that turn out to be... 'unfortunate'... regardless.

— Clockwork-Muse

Dictionary of names? Good luck keeping that up to date. And who gets to decide what name is "famous enough" to be on the ban list? Can any individual contact you and say, "See here, my name is 'John Smith' and I don't want my name in your game!"

— Tim Holt

Indeed it does cause an issue of keeping the list up-to-date. Now you need to ensure that you have the client check for updates, else why the list? However, I do think this is a good idea to have in place so if anything does come up, you can show that you at least tried.

— MichaelHouse

Quick important note: maintaining a list of names to exclude potentially opens you up to legal liability for not including particular names in that list. In a lot of situations, you're legally safer if you don't self-censor randomly generated content at all than if you try to censor and miss things. As always, check with a lawyer in your jurisdiction for the most relevant applicable legal advice in your specific situation.

— Trevor Powell

Answer 2

Add a disclaimer:

"All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental."

Use the above to cover yourself. And I'll use the below to cover myself.

I'm not a lawyer and your legal decisions and consequences are your own.

Of course, since neither of us are lawyers, the amount of covering going on anywhere in there is questionable. So if you want a true answer, seek professional legal advice.

Comments

I'm not entirely sure I understand your personal disclaimer... could you elaborate please?

— Jonathan Pitre

He means: this is a legal question, and whilst he's answering you should use a disclaimer about resemblances, he is not a lawyer and your legal decisions and their consequences are your own.

— doppelgreener

Thanks Jonathan, sometimes the words just fall out of my mouth into alphabet soup on the keyboard. Indeed, the first disclaimer is for your use, and the second is to cover me :)

— MichaelHouse

Answer 3

You've already chosen an answer, but I think you're making this more complex than you need to.

A lot of people have the same names as famous people, whether by choice or accident. You don't see the estates of famous people demanding average people change their names to avoid confusion, and there's no reason you should worry about it unless you are explicitly trying to imply that your NPC "Goerge Bush" is somehow supposed to be the real one. And even then, even if it was satire, you can still use the real name.

Seriously, just a simple disclaimer like was posted in another answer and you're fine.

"All characters appearing in this work are fictitious and randomly generated. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental."

Comments

I appreciate your input, especially since I've already chosen an answer :)

— Jonathan Pitre

Back at you ;) er and I meant "another answer" (edited)

— Tim Holt

Answer 4

As long as you can prove your code (in case of legal action, your code will be used as evidence) is generating those names randomly there will be no problem because depending on the amount of data (names, last names, jobs) it is just a matter of statistics to find the probable chance of having those combinations be the same as a real person.

As Byte56 stated, adding a disclaimer will also prove really helpful. Adding the fact that you are generating the NPCs data randomly to that disclaimer will also be great!