Screenshots are depictions of the user experience, this is a website collecting and transmitting asset data. Unless I didn't get a sarcasm or irony tag, I'm sure the difference is enough to give some nuance for why it wouldn't be immediately obvious.
That aside, this website is remarkably well done, and a really valuable collection. I can appreciate the historic value, and I hope the answer to the pertaining question is that there is some fair use grounds. I kinda doubt it though.
Relevant excerpt from the FAQ:
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> Are you afraid of being taken down?
Less than you might think. Companies take down fan projects when they're competing with their in-house projects. I don't see noclip.website as competing with any game out there — it's more of a museum, not a game. The worlds on display are incredible and I hope they encourage you to go out and buy a copy of the game itself.
That said, I have enormous respect for the developers and dev teams and if I received a take-down request, I would honor it. It is their work on display, after all.
Developers are only able to make these fantastic worlds if we collectively support them. noclip would not exist without their hard work and dedication. To ensure that they remain healthy, please try to buy games instead of pirating them. I also put in extra effort to ensure that all assets available on this site cannot be used to pirate the game itself.
Well, because a screenshot is just a picture of the original thing. This literally has the original and copyrighted level files, it's not a recreation by someone.
It's just the level assets for the most part and a camera to move around. You're not plopped into that level in media res style. I liken it to ripping the game's soundtrack. It's just a slice of the game, not the whole thing.
Where does this notion come from? You are seriously mistaken about how copyright works. Your example of ripping a game's soundtrack (and I assume distributing, as per the example we are discussing) is absolutely not OK.
Similarly, game assets tend to be copyrighted, and it doesn't really matter if you are "plopping into that level", or that it's "just the level assets". The copyright owners are entirely within their rights to request it be removed, and I'm sure would have a pretty good case if taken to court.
Inb4 anyone assumes that I dislike this project, or think it should be taken down, I can assure this isn't the case.
Yes, that's the copyrighted bit. It doesn't really matter how you use those assets, as long as you're doing that without the permission of the copyright holder, that's not allowed.
Again, I don't think this project will or should be in trouble due to this - just that as copyright law stands currently, this particular usage is not allowed.
