Quote from: xtraelv on July 28, 2018, 04:02:12 PM

there is nothing to guarantee that someones original design that they are submitting doesn't resemble an existing design and therefore infringe copyright or trademark

After further communication with Google it turns out that:

1. The idea itself can not be copyrighted - copyright law concerns the embodiment/expression only.
2. If someone's design in fact resembles the design of "another someone" substantially, it infringes the copyright law.
3. Trademark law would be infringed if someone's design will somehow affect the reputation, market position etc of the original brand since trademarks exist "to distinguish goods and services from those manufactured or sold by others" (from here), to ensure that "consumers can easily identify a particular company as the source of a product" and to encourage "brand loyalty" (both from here).

According to these if you go out with the idea of something eating something in the maze, you do not violate the copyrights of Pacman owners. But if you use the original design of Pacman without permission - you do. And if your scheme somehow affects the brand, you additionally violate the trademark law.

More topic-related links:
Article about copyright limitations (USA) | Article about trademark limitations (USA)
Comparision of copyright and trademark (graphical) | Article about differences between copyright and trademark

Quote

a letter stating that it can be used (Even though it would fall under fair use as a parody) would be the absolute safest option

Correct. But this could require not one letter but entire correspondence process (since bitcointalk.org is not some tiny unknown resource from the back of the Internet). I'm not sure that theymos wants to deal with this (since he stated the "copyright-free") - and that Namco won't claim a tangible refund.

Quote from: TryNinja on July 29, 2018, 05:01:43 AM

Sorry, but this isn't a good idea

Most likely I wouldn't use it also, but it could be optional. The question is how many users find it useful (and thus how expedient the development is) - something tells me that they're few.