So, big deal. Super powers didn't originate with Marvel and DC anyway, we've had "superhumans" ever since the ancient myths of Hercules, Samson, and other heroes/demigods.
EQ2, WoW, arn't original in their background, of magic, swords and monsters. Neither is D&D. Even LOTR is based on traditional european tall tales and myths. The fact that games like CoH are not completely 100% original in subject background is totally irrelevant.
There is no more reason for Marvel to sue CoH, than for whoever owns LOTR to sue EQ2, WoW, Lineage 2, etc etc etc for the fact that their copyrighted characters can be recreated in these games. I can make a Dwarf in WoW that looks just like Gimli. I can also make an elf archer that looks like Legolas in Lineage 2... except the hair is shoulder length. Apparantly that would be close enough, since Marvel uses phrases like "closely resemble" and "nearly identical". Not "exactly alike". So if Marvel wins, any character that closely resembles any movie, tv, comic character will be cause enough for a lawsuit.... opening the door for waves of frivolous and idiotic lawsuits in the future.
If Marvel win, you can be sure SoE will be sued by whoever hold Tolkien rights and by whoever hold TSR rights.
Marvel, gratz on losing a case and losing fan faction!
I have a character named Pacini Ro(fire tanker), I dont see Pacini(restaurant chain) or SoE sueing NCsoft because I make a silly toon.
Wolverines argumentation dont hold water, the claws and the regeneration need to be both selected by a player, I didnt see that once. The claws are not internal like Wolverines, they are external warclaws. Regeneration is a very wildspread concept, and for the claws I dont even start it.
Nothing NCsoft or Cryptic is looking like Marvel, nothing.
I invite Marvel to sue the players individually after NCsoft handle them the identities(which is a sue case in itself as I am sure NCsoft will ''protect'' any player the best they can). Marvel would win against the individuals and could request NCsoft to handle them the info...but did Marvel want to sue their very fanbase?
This is an exemple of lame, lazy peoples, that try to rip the benefits of someone else hardwork. NCsoft and Cryptic didnt steal anything from Marvel, superheros is a concept far more bigger then any single company.
And for the copyrights exclusive right, the law say 30 years, so even assuming Marvel invent the superheros(which is not the case, greek myhtology have them), it is well past 30 years!
Marvel, go work something for your fanbase rather then sit on your fat ass!
- "Solo is, will always be, the main market. A MMORPG that succeed with little or no solo appeal is doing great considering they are ignoring the main player base.''
- "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren
Originally posted by Puoltry Bottom line here is Marvel isnt making ANY cash over playerr created content involving it characters.Just to use an example what if you discovered a person dressing exactly like you using your name and doing things AS you? Oh and they were making lets say 250k per month?(id sue to). If marvel wins this suit you can look forward to ALL marvel likenesses to be deleted and the costume creator to be dumbed down.Personally i dont see how they could lose.
They could lose very easily. They will have to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the characters in CoH is Wolverine or Hulk. I don't think likeness along would win the case, as the characters colors, shape and look could be easily changed. How the character acts, moves and the powers they possess would also have to match Wolverine and Hulk pretty closely; or any other Marvel related character for that matter. I doubt Marvel will be able to prove this to that ecstent. What also could happen is NCSoft could throw some bucks at Marvel just to shut their yaps and dismiss the lawsuit. Marvel would most likely accept that offer as going to court would cost them a pretty penny and if they lossed, it would all be for not.
Originally posted by Puoltry What i dont understand is why people get upset over this.They OWN and have owned the rights to the characters for a LONGTIME.I think they have every right to sue over this. Name one reason other than "they already have enough money" that marvel should NOT sue NCSOFT over this. For that matter what makes you CoH players think that NCSOFT is a small little startup company?They are not they are just as big a corporate giant as Marvel or SOE for that matter. What should have been done by NCSOFT is show corporate responsibility from day one and not let the players make Wolverine,Hulk,or anything even close to anything Marvel owns outright.Hey say what you will about the evil corporate giant but cash makes the world go around. NCSOFT is the company that is screwing its players here not Marvel.NCSOFT had an opprotunity to police its player population and they failed.Now its customers are going to suffer with the possibilty of having either the game shutdown or the costume creator being dumbed down. You CoH players need to take a step back and look at what NCSOFT did to you not what Marvel is doing to NCSOFT.
I've already took a step back and saw the BIG picture. Marvel has the right to sue, but only if the characters in the game not only look, but also act like their Marvel characters as well. Like I said, Marvel will need to be able to prove for a fact that the characters running around in CoH is their trademark characters. That will be hard to do. Also NCSoft did take steps to remove ALL Marvel and DC heroes naming conventions from the game. They also did remove some of the customerizations that may have reflexed Marvel and DC characters. What they should have done is got both DC & Marvel involved in the game and had their characters make appearance within the game. With that in place, they wouldn't have had to worry about crap like this. Marvel & DC didn't try suing the developers who made Freedom Force 1 & 2. I think it'll get settled out of course if you ask me.
Originally posted by Puoltry The person/company that OWNS the right to the name Conan would have every right to sue.You guys need to get with the real world here.Its not about the color green or pencils.Those 2 characters are so similar to the real thing Marvel had no choice. Go read the article on usa today.The lawsuit itself is very similar to the napster suit.They let these people create characters on THEIR servers not someone else's.Napster let people trade music on THEIR servers not someone else's. If someone stole your persona and used it without your consent to make money,aLOT of money what would you do?Your persona became a household name.The way you dressed became identifiable with 3 generations of people?What if said person made 250k a month off of you and didnt pay you one stickin dime?Because that is EXACTLY what we are talking about here. The X-Men and The Hulk are easily recognized by 3 or 4 generations of people around the whole world.Marvel is a company that has worked for the instant recognition of both.This was an issue from day one launch of CoH. EVERYONE knew it. What did NCSOFT do to stop it?Nothing not one thing.Who ultimatley will suffer? The fans of CoH. Imho they have already lost the case. Unless they pay for the license to have these characters in game like Mcdonalds does to have the rights to sell Disney merchandise. Marvel is merely protecting what they see as their property. This would not have even been an issue if NCSOFT had stopped it from day one.It would have been "oh well i cant be wolverine" and the player would be forced to use his imagination.
You're really missing the BIG picture here. Here is the point. Say both of those characters are totally removed from CoH, how much money would NCSoft be losing? How much more money would Marvel be making from it? The answer to both questions is NONE!! Truly, with this lawsuit, so one is going to win. Marvel and NCSoft are going to spend millions fighting the case. It may get dismissed. NCSoft might win, yet they still lose money fighting the lawsuit. Marvel might win, but I doubt they will get as much as they spent trying to win the case.
Don't get me wrong, they do have the right to sue if they think it infringes on their property, but the damages to Marvel are so minor with these characters in the game, that's it's silly to go through with it. If NCSoft was marketing it as a create famous heroes of the past and future, I could understand Marvel's anger. Marvel really needs to take a step back and say, will this hurt our reputation and anger our fans? They need to remember that they were almost bankrupted at one point and that could easily happen again.
First i would like to say is %^&* NCSoft for deceiving me into waisting my $50 on Lineage 2 when half the shit they promised on the box wouldnt be available for play until their expansion came out where again i would have to fork out money in order to get what i was told i would get on the box of the original.
Originally posted by Genjing
So i guess if i go into a fantasy game and create a long haired blonde elf archer named Legolas, then the copyright owners to LOTR can sue them too. Lineage 2 better watch out. Or i can go into WoW and make a Gimli or Aragorn clone just as easily.
If you have played Lineage 2 you would know there are only about 3 different faces with 2 different hair colors. Anyone trying to make a legolas would be better off doing it in SWG for all the customizablity that lineage 2 gives you.
Besides the fact i was lied too about lineage 2 and hoping that marvel wins, COH has customizablity but lacks depth. Okay need you to go here kill the boss in the area, next go kill 10 mobs and come back and after that go talk to someone else, rinse and repeat.
also you people saying The Matrix online is going to get sued for people being able to make Neo looks-a-likes, do you know who is licensing the game out? Warner brothers and the wachowski brothers own the matrix and they are the ones licensing the game out to monolith to make the game, hell the brothers are working directly with monolith to make the game. Same with WoW, Blizzard, who owns the rights to all the warcraft and other blizzard characters and they produced the game.
Explain to me how they would get sued?
thought they had a swearing filter that woulda caught the 4 letter explicitive that starts with f and rhymes with buck.
Originally posted by DarthSka I hope Marvel is prepared to reap what they have sown when/if they release a MMORPG.
If Marvel wins this lawsuit and releases a MMORPG game I won't play it. I'm sure a lot of people playing CoH won't either. Marvel really needs to rethink this, as a lawsuit like this could hurt their business overall.
NCsoft and CoH fanboys need to check in with reality. I don't know the entire situation but it looks like NCsoft are a bunch of idiots for not getting permission and making the characters so close in resemblance. I don't think there's any defense that can even say they aren't supposed to be similar to Marvel characters, if not near replicas. I know when I looked at the screenshots of CoH, the first thing I thought of was X-men. If Marvel doesn't win this... it will be odd
The editor allows lots of options, which some editors say Sims2 are even more in depth where you can create tons of guys or girls that look exactly like someone famous. So I think this case is pretty vague. I personally don't think NCsoft should lose this but I know they will because courts suck on these issues. And I'm sorry but I think a company that looks to profit by finding a way they can sue people is messed up. Why I think cryptic should win is because Marvel characters are one of a bunch and not just DC and Marvel alone, but Dark Horse etc etc. It truly is a genre like sci fi and fantasy. It should be treated like a genre in a court of law. As for something "looking like and moving like" they didn't move in the comics, how can they prove that? Looking like is limiting an editor.
Despite what I think Marvel will win I'd bet money on it.
Maybe I'm mean but if I was rich and still someone was trying to profit off of my creative work, I would certainly sue them for being unoriginal bums. I agree though some of the similarities are created by the players and NCsoft may have never anticipated it. However, I'm thinking of a screenshot where I saw a guy with claws like Wolverine. I can see how someone could put a logo or letter on their character or make their character a certain color and some how make it similar to a Marvel character. But claws like that, come on now I have a really hard time thinking that just came to the designers randomly.
At the very least this lawsuit is far less rediculous than Mythic Ent. suing Microsoft over the use of thhe name Mythica (the now cancled game).
And the playerbase suffers for the developers shortsightedness its a shame but Marvel has a case here and they will persue it, I never played CoH for long but I remember being struck by some of the customerizations being outright ripoffs, sure the players are the ones doing it but its on another companys server that they can.
Seriously you dont want to ****** around with the Comic megacorps images as they sue anything that moves. Is there anyone who didnt see this coming?
*edit -> I expect that DC will be along shortly to join in on the feeding frenzy.......
I am stunned, not one of you has mentioned that in the EULA, that is agreed to everytime a CoH player signs on it states that copyrighted characters are not permitted and will be removed from the game, this may even cause players to be banned. I am not sure how much of a defence this gives NCSoft/Cryptic but it should help some.
Originally posted by -Jaguar- NCsoft and CoH fanboys need to check in with reality. I don't know the entire situation but it looks like NCsoft are a bunch of idiots for not getting permission and making the characters so close in resemblance. I don't think there's any defense that can even say they aren't supposed to be similar to Marvel characters, if not near replicas. I know when I looked at the screenshots of CoH, the first thing I thought of was X-men. If Marvel doesn't win this... it will be odd
No, you don't know the entire situation, and you just made yourself look the fool but not having a clue what you are talking about.
NCSoft doesn't "make the characters". They have a character generator that has a number of possible costume combinations that closely resembles a stereo serial number. What is happening is that some of the players on City of Heroes have a total and blatant disregard for the rules that Cryptic set out, and make knock-offs of established characters. It's not Cryptic that is doing anything wrong, it's the mouth-breathing pinheads ingame with no imagination that have the attitude of, "I can do anything I want cuz mommy and daddy pay my 15 bucks a month. It's okay as long as I don't get caught, and then I'll just whine and cry because I got into trouble."
The problem I see with this suit (and I admit my limited legal expertise), is that Cryptic has verbiage in place (in the EULA that players agree to every time they log in) that specifically prohibits the duplication of any established property in any way, shape, or form. I think (or at least hope) that Marvel will lose due to an inability to prove intent, of which there was none. Cryptic takes immediate action (by deleting, or altering the offending character) any time a trademarked property comes to their attention, either by player report, or simple GM investigation. Personally, now that this lawsuit has come to the fore, I think that they should simply ban any player that is caught making a copy of any established character, but that's just me, and I have zero patience with people that have the "as long as I can get away with it, it's okay" attitude. The players all KNOW what they are doing is against the rules, and they do it anyway, so they deserve whatever they get.
Mordaris NCSoft will be considered liable for providing an environment where it is possible for players to have characters that violate trademark laws period. However much it may seem to be unfair.
Originally posted by Naos Mordaris NCSoft will be considered liable for providing an environment where it is possible for players to have characters that violate trademark laws period. However much it may seem to be unfair.A EULA is not a licence to escape copyright laws. (still sucks though)
So, I guess intent doesn't enter into it. Pity. I love that game.
Done, and Done! The only reasoin I started buying some Marvel Comics titles again was because of COH. I refuse to buy another Marvel comic or see any movie or buy any other product with a Marvel license.
Too bad. My guess is that NCSoft will settle and be very careful about what items they allow their customers to use when creating characters. So, the claws and the wording about science-based tank will just have to go. Its a pretty simple solution and probably won't affect the gameplay. Players will just have to pick something else.
Financially, however, NCSoft may have issues depending on the stipulations of the settlement.
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In copy write law there is something called fair use. Homage, and even satire are covered by fair use. The fact that players cannot name their characters by a Marvel character is more precisely what copy write intends to protect. 5 year olds cannot be sued if their mother makes them a Spiderman costume for Halloween. Players can dress up as the Hulk, but there is no confusion that they are playing as the Hulk.
This is a fivolous lawsuit; Marvel will not win if NCSoft can aford to get to court.
Originally posted by Puoltry What i dont understand is why people get upset over this.They OWN and have owned the rights to the characters for a LONGTIME.I think they have every right to sue over this. Name one reason other than "they already have enough money" that marvel should NOT sue NCSOFT over this. For that matter what makes you CoH players think that NCSOFT is a small little startup company?They are not they are just as big a corporate giant as Marvel or SOE for that matter. What should have been done by NCSOFT is show corporate responsibility from day one and not let the players make Wolverine,Hulk,or anything even close to anything Marvel owns outright.Hey say what you will about the evil corporate giant but cash makes the world go around. NCSOFT is the company that is screwing its players here not Marvel.NCSOFT had an opprotunity to police its player population and they failed.Now its customers are going to suffer with the possibilty of having either the game shutdown or the costume creator being dumbed down. You CoH players need to take a step back and look at what NCSOFT did to you not what Marvel is doing to NCSOFT.
Agreed. NCSoft and Cryptic were asked time and again by their player base to police characters that were copying copywrite material. I'd seen thread after thread asking for clarifications, actions, and players begging them to do something and in most cases they hesitated, hedged around the issue, or just ignored it and did nothing at all and now they're getting called on the carpet for it, so... *shrugs*
I can't say as I agree with the suit because it does bode ill for the creativeness of the industry, and of course we have no idea if Marvel contacted NCSoft and tried to work something out beforehand, but I have to agree that NCSOft did not help matters much here at all.
It'd be good to see some screenshots, of just how closely these CoH characters resemble their supposed Marvel counterparts.
The Hulk can pretty much resemble any big musclar green skinned guy. Wolverine is such an iconic character now that anyone with 3 claws will remind someone of him.
i agree to a point, the WOlverine is VERY close. I remberin beta, you could make a damn near exact replica.. their was no ripped shirt so you couldnt really do a good hulk, but wolverine you coudl de exact, down to the Xmen uniform which might I add they had all the shapes to create a damn near perfect replica.
after 6 or so years, I had to change it a little...
Originally posted by codeboysf <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /> In copy write law there is something called fair use. Homage, and even satire are covered by fair use. The fact that players cannot name their characters by a Marvel character is more precisely what copy write intends to protect. 5 year olds cannot be sued if their mother makes them a Spiderman costume for Halloween. Players can dress up as the Hulk, but there is no confusion that they are playing as the Hulk. This is a fivolous lawsuit; Marvel will not win if NCSoft can aford to get to court.
Not to mention that in Canada, after 30 years(which is the case of Wolverine and Hulk), it is part of culture and copyright enforcing is nearly impossible, especially against individuals that are not following the general code of conduct.
At best Marvel could get NCsoft ordered to a few controls, but I can see this in a email:
''Fellow CoH players, after some court issue, Marvel was able to make it so that we have to restrict some choices you made and delete some costumes''
And I am pretty sure NCsoft would do such emails with a better style then me, a war is 2 ways!
I can imagine a 8 years old kid that love Hulk, which read that MARVEL manage to get their toon costume delete and the administration apologize and all(they are going to make sure NCsoft and cryptic wont be in that email anywhere, administration is them but not saying the name)...guess who this kid is gonna hate? MARVEL have no way to defend themselves and contact the kid, he get a contact with NCsoft only...
- "Solo is, will always be, the main market. A MMORPG that succeed with little or no solo appeal is doing great considering they are ignoring the main player base.''
- "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren
Comments
So, big deal. Super powers didn't originate with Marvel and DC anyway, we've had "superhumans" ever since the ancient myths of Hercules, Samson, and other heroes/demigods.
EQ2, WoW, arn't original in their background, of magic, swords and monsters. Neither is D&D. Even LOTR is based on traditional european tall tales and myths. The fact that games like CoH are not completely 100% original in subject background is totally irrelevant.
There is no more reason for Marvel to sue CoH, than for whoever owns LOTR to sue EQ2, WoW, Lineage 2, etc etc etc for the fact that their copyrighted characters can be recreated in these games. I can make a Dwarf in WoW that looks just like Gimli. I can also make an elf archer that looks like Legolas in Lineage 2... except the hair is shoulder length. Apparantly that would be close enough, since Marvel uses phrases like "closely resemble" and "nearly identical". Not "exactly alike". So if Marvel wins, any character that closely resembles any movie, tv, comic character will be cause enough for a lawsuit.... opening the door for waves of frivolous and idiotic lawsuits in the future.
One word: Laughable.
Marvel will lose, and badly!
If Marvel win, you can be sure SoE will be sued by whoever hold Tolkien rights and by whoever hold TSR rights.
Marvel, gratz on losing a case and losing fan faction!
I have a character named Pacini Ro(fire tanker), I dont see Pacini(restaurant chain) or SoE sueing NCsoft because I make a silly toon.
Wolverines argumentation dont hold water, the claws and the regeneration need to be both selected by a player, I didnt see that once. The claws are not internal like Wolverines, they are external warclaws. Regeneration is a very wildspread concept, and for the claws I dont even start it.
Nothing NCsoft or Cryptic is looking like Marvel, nothing.
I invite Marvel to sue the players individually after NCsoft handle them the identities(which is a sue case in itself as I am sure NCsoft will ''protect'' any player the best they can). Marvel would win against the individuals and could request NCsoft to handle them the info...but did Marvel want to sue their very fanbase?
This is an exemple of lame, lazy peoples, that try to rip the benefits of someone else hardwork. NCsoft and Cryptic didnt steal anything from Marvel, superheros is a concept far more bigger then any single company.
And for the copyrights exclusive right, the law say 30 years, so even assuming Marvel invent the superheros(which is not the case, greek myhtology have them), it is well past 30 years!
Marvel, go work something for your fanbase rather then sit on your fat ass!
- "Solo is, will always be, the main market. A MMORPG that succeed with little or no solo appeal is doing great considering they are ignoring the main player base.''
- "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren
Xander
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Xander
If you have played Lineage 2 you would know there are only about 3 different faces with 2 different hair colors. Anyone trying to make a legolas would be better off doing it in SWG for all the customizablity that lineage 2 gives you.
Besides the fact i was lied too about lineage 2 and hoping that marvel wins, COH has customizablity but lacks depth. Okay need you to go here kill the boss in the area, next go kill 10 mobs and come back and after that go talk to someone else, rinse and repeat.
also you people saying The Matrix online is going to get sued for people being able to make Neo looks-a-likes, do you know who is licensing the game out? Warner brothers and the wachowski brothers own the matrix and they are the ones licensing the game out to monolith to make the game, hell the brothers are working directly with monolith to make the game. Same with WoW, Blizzard, who owns the rights to all the warcraft and other blizzard characters and they produced the game.
Explain to me how they would get sued?
thought they had a swearing filter that woulda caught the 4 letter explicitive that starts with f and rhymes with buck.
Xander
Xander
NCsoft and CoH fanboys need to check in with reality. I don't know the entire situation but it looks like NCsoft are a bunch of idiots for not getting permission and making the characters so close in resemblance. I don't think there's any defense that can even say they aren't supposed to be similar to Marvel characters, if not near replicas. I know when I looked at the screenshots of CoH, the first thing I thought of was X-men. If Marvel doesn't win this... it will be odd
The editor allows lots of options, which some editors say Sims2 are even more in depth where you can create tons of guys or girls that look exactly like someone famous. So I think this case is pretty vague. I personally don't think NCsoft should lose this but I know they will because courts suck on these issues. And I'm sorry but I think a company that looks to profit by finding a way they can sue people is messed up. Why I think cryptic should win is because Marvel characters are one of a bunch and not just DC and Marvel alone, but Dark Horse etc etc. It truly is a genre like sci fi and fantasy. It should be treated like a genre in a court of law. As for something "looking like and moving like" they didn't move in the comics, how can they prove that? Looking like is limiting an editor.
Despite what I think Marvel will win I'd bet money on it.
Maybe I'm mean but if I was rich and still someone was trying to profit off of my creative work, I would certainly sue them for being unoriginal bums. I agree though some of the similarities are created by the players and NCsoft may have never anticipated it. However, I'm thinking of a screenshot where I saw a guy with claws like Wolverine. I can see how someone could put a logo or letter on their character or make their character a certain color and some how make it similar to a Marvel character. But claws like that, come on now I have a really hard time thinking that just came to the designers randomly.
At the very least this lawsuit is far less rediculous than Mythic Ent. suing Microsoft over the use of thhe name Mythica (the now cancled game).
And the playerbase suffers for the developers shortsightedness
its a shame but Marvel has a case here and they will persue it, I never played CoH for long but I remember being struck by some of the customerizations being outright ripoffs, sure the players are the ones doing it but its on another companys server that they can.
Seriously you dont want to ****** around with the Comic megacorps images as they sue anything that moves. Is there anyone who didnt see this coming?
*edit -> I expect that DC will be along shortly to join in on the feeding frenzy.......
No, you don't know the entire situation, and you just made yourself look the fool but not having a clue what you are talking about.
NCSoft doesn't "make the characters". They have a character generator that has a number of possible costume combinations that closely resembles a stereo serial number. What is happening is that some of the players on City of Heroes have a total and blatant disregard for the rules that Cryptic set out, and make knock-offs of established characters. It's not Cryptic that is doing anything wrong, it's the mouth-breathing pinheads ingame with no imagination that have the attitude of, "I can do anything I want cuz mommy and daddy pay my 15 bucks a month. It's okay as long as I don't get caught, and then I'll just whine and cry because I got into trouble."
The problem I see with this suit (and I admit my limited legal expertise), is that Cryptic has verbiage in place (in the EULA that players agree to every time they log in) that specifically prohibits the duplication of any established property in any way, shape, or form. I think (or at least hope) that Marvel will lose due to an inability to prove intent, of which there was none. Cryptic takes immediate action (by deleting, or altering the offending character) any time a trademarked property comes to their attention, either by player report, or simple GM investigation. Personally, now that this lawsuit has come to the fore, I think that they should simply ban any player that is caught making a copy of any established character, but that's just me, and I have zero patience with people that have the "as long as I can get away with it, it's okay" attitude. The players all KNOW what they are doing is against the rules, and they do it anyway, so they deserve whatever they get.
Mordaris NCSoft will be considered liable for providing an environment where it is possible for players to have characters that violate trademark laws period. However much it may seem to be unfair.
A EULA is not a licence to escape copyright laws.
(still sucks though)
So, I guess intent doesn't enter into it. Pity.
I love that game.
Too bad. My guess is that NCSoft will settle and be very careful about what items they allow their customers to use when creating characters. So, the claws and the wording about science-based tank will just have to go. Its a pretty simple solution and probably won't affect the gameplay. Players will just have to pick something else.
Financially, however, NCSoft may have issues depending on the stipulations of the settlement.
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
In copy write law there is something called fair use. Homage, and even satire are covered by fair use. The fact that players cannot name their characters by a Marvel character is more precisely what copy write intends to protect. 5 year olds cannot be sued if their mother makes them a Spiderman costume for Halloween. Players can dress up as the Hulk, but there is no confusion that they are playing as the Hulk.
This is a fivolous lawsuit; Marvel will not win if NCSoft can aford to get to court.
Agreed. NCSoft and Cryptic were asked time and again by their player base to police characters that were copying copywrite material. I'd seen thread after thread asking for clarifications, actions, and players begging them to do something and in most cases they hesitated, hedged around the issue, or just ignored it and did nothing at all and now they're getting called on the carpet for it, so... *shrugs*
I can't say as I agree with the suit because it does bode ill for the creativeness of the industry, and of course we have no idea if Marvel contacted NCSoft and tried to work something out beforehand, but I have to agree that NCSOft did not help matters much here at all.
It'd be good to see some screenshots, of just how closely these CoH characters resemble their supposed Marvel counterparts.
The Hulk can pretty much resemble any big musclar green skinned guy. Wolverine is such an iconic character now that anyone with 3 claws will remind someone of him.
i agree to a point, the WOlverine is VERY close.
I remberin beta, you could make a damn near exact replica..
their was no ripped shirt so you couldnt really do a good hulk, but wolverine you coudl de exact, down to the Xmen uniform which might I add they had all the shapes to create a damn near perfect replica.
after 6 or so years, I had to change it a little...
Admin / Owner of warcraftradio.com (World of Warcraft Radio)
Not to mention that in Canada, after 30 years(which is the case of Wolverine and Hulk), it is part of culture and copyright enforcing is nearly impossible, especially against individuals that are not following the general code of conduct.
At best Marvel could get NCsoft ordered to a few controls, but I can see this in a email:
''Fellow CoH players, after some court issue, Marvel was able to make it so that we have to restrict some choices you made and delete some costumes''
And I am pretty sure NCsoft would do such emails with a better style then me, a war is 2 ways!
I can imagine a 8 years old kid that love Hulk, which read that MARVEL manage to get their toon costume delete and the administration apologize and all(they are going to make sure NCsoft and cryptic wont be in that email anywhere, administration is them but not saying the name)...guess who this kid is gonna hate? MARVEL have no way to defend themselves and contact the kid, he get a contact with NCsoft only...
- "Solo is, will always be, the main market. A MMORPG that succeed with little or no solo appeal is doing great considering they are ignoring the main player base.''
- "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren