Fallout licenses

Fallout demo
Preview Product Software Use Limitations and Limited License

SOFTWARE USE LIMITATIONS AND LIMITED LICENSE
 * This special preview version of Fallout (the "Software") is intended solely for your personal noncommercial home entertainment use. You may not decompile, reverse engineer, or disassemble the Software, except as permitted by law. Interplay Productions retains all rights and title in the Software including all intellectual property rights embodied therein and derivatives thereof. You are granted a revocable, nonassignable limited license to create derivative works of this Software solely for your own personal noncommercial home entertainment use and may publicly display such derivative works to the extent specifically authorized by Interplay in writing. A copy of this authorization, if any, will be provided on Interplay's World Wide Web site, located at http://www.interplay.com, or by contacting the legal department Interplay Productions in the US at +(714) 553-6655. The Software, including, without limitation, all code, data structures, characters, images, sounds, text, screens, game play, derivative works and all other elements of the Software may not be copied (except as provided below), resold, rented, leased, distributed (electronically or otherwise), used on pay-per-play, coin-op or other for-charge basis, or for any commercial purpose. You may make copies of the Software for your personal noncommercial home entertainment use and to give to friends and acquaintances on a no cost noncommercial basis. This limited right to copy the Software expressly excludes any copying or distribution of the Software on a commercial basis, including, without limitation, bundling the product with any other product or service and any give away of the Software in connection with another product or service. Any permissions granted herein are provided on a temporary basis and can be withdrawn by Interplay Productions at any time. All rights not expressly granted are reserved.
 * Acceptance of License Terms. By downloading or acquiring and then retaining this Software, you assent to the terms and restrictions of this limited license. If you acquired the Software and do not accept the terms of this limited license, you must return the Software together with all packaging, manuals and other material contained therein to the store where you acquired the Software for a full refund and if you downloaded the Software, you must delete it.

Fallout
SOFTWARE USE LIMITATIONS AND LIMITED LICENSE General Product License.
 * This copy of Fallout (the "Software") is intended solely for your personal noncommercial home entertainment use. You may not decompile, reverse engineer, or disassemble the Software, except as permitted by law.  Interplay Productions retains all right, title and interest in the Software including all intellectual property rights embodied therein and derivatives thereof.  The Software, including, without limitation, all code, data structures, characters, images, sounds, text, screens, game play, derivative works and all other elements of the Software may not be copied, resold, rented, leased, distributed (electronically or otherwise), used on pay-per-play, coin-op or other for-charge basis, or for any commercial purpose. Any permissions granted herein are provided on a temporary basis and can be withdrawn by Interplay Productions at any time.  All rights not expressly granted are reserved.
 * Acceptance of License Terms. By acquiring and retaining this Software, you assent to the terms and restrictions of this limited license. If you do not accept the terms of this limited license, you must return the Software together with all packaging, manuals and other material contained therein to the store where you acquired the Software for a full refund.

Copyright 1997 Interplay Productions. All rights reserved. Fallout is a trademark of Interplay Productions.

Fallout 2

 * This copy of FALLOUT 2 (the Software) is intended solely for your personal noncommercial home entertainment use. You may not decompile, reverse engineer, or disassemble the Software, except as permitted by law. Interplay Productions retain[s] all right, title and interest in the Software including all intellectual property rights embodied therein and derivatives thereof. The Software, including, without limitation, all code, data structures, characters, images, sounds, text, screens, game play, derivative works and all other elements of the Software may not be copied, resold, rented, leased, distributed (electronically or otherwise), used on pay-per-play, coin-op or other for-charge basis, or for any commercial purpose. Any permissions granted herein are provided on a temporary basis and can be withdrawn by Interplay Productions at any time. All rights not expressly granted are reserved.
 * By acquiring and retaining this Software, you assent to the terms and restrictions of this limited license. If you do not accept the terms of this limited license, you must return the Software together with all packaging, manuals, and other material contained therein to the store where you acquired the Software for a full refund.
 * Copyright 1998 Interplay Productions. All rights reserved. Fallout 2 is a trademark of Interplay Productions.

Zeni Max Media Inc. legal information
Fallout is a trademark or registered trademark of Bethesda Softworks LLC in the U.S. and/or other countries.

Chris Avellone's comments
at Fallout Bible #8.

I want to make a MUSH/MUD/mod/PnP/d20 conversion with Fallout! Can I? I figure this may hold off a lot of questions for you potential game developers (or whatever) out there who want to do stuff with the Fallout license. Before you read the following, keep in mind:


 * 1) What follows is the best answer I can give you. It took a very long time to get this answer for some of you, but here is the answer I was able to get. Don't like it? Tough.
 * 2) As long as what you are doing does not have a price tag associated with it, you are not making money with it, it doesn't hurt or misrepresent the Fallout license, there are still risks involved, but the risk is much smaller. Get an intellectual property lawyer and ask them some questions.

Here's the official word, and the official word is that
 * 1) we can't give an official word, and
 * 2) this should not be taken as "no," but as a "if you want to do it, you'll have to proceed at your own risk."

Confusing? Let me explain:
 * To give you an official word, we would have to sign contracts, which Black Isle Studios doesn't have the time to do.
 * If you still want to use the Fallout stuff, you would have to abide by trademark and copyright law regarding the Fallout license, and to do that, BIS recommends you ask an intellectual property lawyer.
 * Lastly, this is not official permission, but as long as you don't use the Fallout license to generate income or in such a way to misrepresent or harm the license (e.g., put it up on a webpage that advertises child porn), or include misrepresentations or material that harms the license in the Fallout game/mod/whatever that you're making, or make it appear as though Interplay is the source of your material (e.g., "This is the official Interplay-sponsored MUSH!"), you should be all right.
 * Again, this is not official permission, just a guide for what BIS suggests you do if you want to use the Fallout license. We just want you to know if you choose to use the Fallout license, you could potentially be taking some legal risks.
 * So basically, you can use Fallout if you're willing to take the intellectual property risks. This isn't a "no" or an "official yes," just a "if you want to do this, you'll be proceeding at your own risk."
 * I wish we could just come out and say, "sure," but we don't have the time for contracts. In my opinion, as long as you hold true to the Fallout license, make sure there's no money involved, and don't claim it's an Interplay-sponsored or official thing, you should be fine.

Example of disclaimer
J.E. Sawyer's Fallout PnP Copyright and Trademark Information:
 * Fallout is Copyright © 1997 Interplay Entertainment Corp. Fallout is a registered trademark of Interplay Entertainment Corp. All Rights Reserved.
 * Fallout reference material is used here without the express permission of Interplay Entertainment Corp. No challenge to Interplay's copyright and trademark are intended. These pages are for private, non-profit use and are not intended to be developed into any form of electronic entertainment. This material may be reproduced and distributed as long as it is for non-profit purposes and does not violate and clearly indicates the copyright and trademark ownership of Interplay Entertainment Corp.