Quote from: CyberShadow on February 28, 2020, 07:53 PM

The remaining elephant in the room is maps which have a large amount of copyrighted artwork (from other games, cartoons/anime, etc.). I'm not sure what to do with it. I don't think it qualifies as fair use.

Any thoughts / opinions on the above? Especially if you are a map maker or are familiar with IP law.

By the way, I think TUS has the same problems, but it's not up to me how TUS wants to address them.

I am not an expert on licensing but as longest author doesn't profit from the source material, it shouldn't be an issue? They are after all in low quality of 112 colors. Inferior to its intended purpose.

Common misconception. Whether you profit or not is irrelevant. Copyright violations are copyright violations. You're not allowed to use someone else's copyrighted work.
Quality is also irrelevant. It's derived from the original work or bears enough resemblance.
Generally this kind of stuff would fall under fair use. So long as you comply with DMCA requests, it should be fine. Minecraft and such games also have loads of copyrighted works that can be downloaded.