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Marvel Clamps Down On Game Skins
mrleemrlee writes "Marvel Entertainment has sent a cease-and-desist letter to The Skindex, which houses skins for customizing computer games such as The Sims and Freedom Force. The Webmaster has responded by pulling the website's content and publishing a copy of the letter. This is interesting in that such skinning has been going on for a decade, at least since Doom. Only now has Marvel decided to protect its IP; what might it have in store? Do other sites have anything to worry about?" Are user-created game skins of their characters good publicity for companies like Marvel, or an unacceptable copyright violation?
...there have been a few Marvel Comics brought to the Silver Screen and have made them hundreds of millions of dollars.
Mo' Money, mo' Money, Mo' Money!
That and the cruddy Marvel TV shows from the 70's and 80's were REALLY bad. Remember the live action 'Spider-Man' TV series? No way they could have pushed their clout around with those TV series.
Dolemite
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It doesn't matter to Marvel if they advertise, if they don't protect the IP at least in name only, they can't complain if someone sells a 'Marvel Super Heroes Skins CD' along side their latest video game.
Personally, I'd guess a MMPORG based in the Marvelverse.
`Lex - Find Me Here: Text Appeal
This could backfire on Marvel. It is like prosecuting fans who write fanfic for copyright violation. While they are creating derivative works without authorization, and copyright law bans this, they are usually doing no harm, and smacking them down will create a lot of enemies for the copyright holder. Enemies aren't customers.
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I clicked throught the different sections of the website, and it looks like ALL the skins are taken off. I could understand Marvel if the entire site was of Marvel skins and nothing else. If he made any money off of advertising, he is soley making it from Marvels stuff.
I thought skins were like fan art, in that they fell under 'fair use', as long as no attempt was made to make profit from them. At least, those made completely by the fans themselves -- screencaps from movies or games, or scans from the comics might be different.
Very depressing to see that current 'copyright' law is only being used to prevent the fans from trying to live their fantasies.
Actually, I think my comment above isn't quite on target. I didn't realize that Marvel wasn't actually the game maker, but rather was a third party whose characters were being used by skinners to create cool characters for various games made by other companies. So Marvel doesn't really have a financial upside to this practice (at least in a short-sighted view).
Still too bad.
That's the bad thing about it. Marvel is losing no money from this. No one is going to avoid the Spiderman movie because they have a spiderman skin in The Sims.
It is there right, granted. I an not saying they do not have the right to do this. I just wish they wouldn't.
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The problem with the current law is that you cannot win from a company like Marvel -- they can afford the legal costs, but a normal human being cannot. So it does not matter that everyone knows they do not have an argument: you can't win anyway.
:/
Cases like this are a win-win situation for the companies: in almost all cases they scare the poor person they are scre^H^H^H^Hsueing off and the case never has to go to court, and in those few cases where the defendant thinks he stands a chance in court, they still win because the defendant cannot pay the legal costs to keep up with the company, which can keep the case going almost indefinately. No way will the defendant get a pro deo lawyer against Money.
It's as if you're in the debating team, and your opponent pulls a gun -- even if you have the upper hand, he'll still win by default
Unfortunately, due to the way Trademarks work, if you don't protect your Trademark, it will enter the public domain.
They could always license the trademark to the skins site for a token fee (say, $1) under certain restrictions (such as licensing downloaders only to use the skins for personal use, for the site not to sell access to the skins, etc.).
I've said it before and I'll say it again. Until intellectual "property" law gets reformed, all this activity needs to take place on Freenet.
Someone who really enjoys your work draws one of your characters on a computer, in learning how to use a graphics program. Do you stop them?
Someone who really enjoys your work models one of your characters on a computer, for a school project. Do you stop them?
Someone who really enjoys your work creates a model of one of your characters on a computer so they can play as that character in their favourite game. Do you stop them?
The person above finds that their friends can't see them as the character they love so much unless everyone has a local copy on their PC. Do you stop them?
Their friends love the character and want to keep their local copies. Do you stop them?
The fan that first created the model of their favourite character, bouyed by their friends' responses wishes to share the model with the world. You have no official product like this. Do you stop them?
A web site offers a place for people to share their labours of love. Do you stop them?
The web site above is so popular that their ISP starts billing them for traffic. They have no option but to start charging or running advertising. Do you stop them?
Where exactly, Marvel, do you start alienating your best fans?