Slashdot Mirror
Marvel Sues City of Heroes Makers
Walkiry (and many, many others) writes "In yet another copyright bickering lawsuit, Marvel is suing NCSoft and Cryptic Studios over their MMORPG City of Heroes due to copyright infringement, apparently because of the costume creator. "Marvel argues that the game's character creation engine easily allows players to design characters that are virtual copies of its own superheros, including 'The Incredible Hulk'. Marvel seeks unspecified damages and an injunction against the two companies to stop using its characters." There are quite a few people suspicious that this is nothing but an effort by Marvel to undermine Cryptic Studios' successful game to prepare for the launch of their own comic book based MMORPG." USA Today has the story as well.
A new low in using the courts to unethically hurt the competition. It makes me scared to innovate. For example, I'm writing a music description language. If someone uses it to create music that is significantly similar to a copyrighted piece of work, am I going to get sued? This abuse of the courts is killing this country.
This is akin to suing Bic because it allows users to draw pictures extremely similar to Hulk or Wolverine.
- - - - - - -
"All hail the glory of the Hypnotoad."
Disney sues Macromedia for failing to prevent customers from using their software to infringe upon Disney's Intellectual Property.
I was trying to think of an analogy that would perfectly describe the ridculousness of this suit. You found the perfect one.
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
You're violating our IP rights.
Thanks,
You friends from Marvel
Honestly, though. Companies are taking IP far too seriously these days. Calm down, get over it. If anything, it shows whatever you're doing is working, because it's popular! Don't trash it by being a jerk.
"An infinite number of monkeys typing into GNU emacs would never make a good program."
Expect a DMCA complaint momentarily.
"He who would learn astronomy, and other recondite arts, let him go elsewhere. " -- John Calvin, commenting on Genesis 1
I remember playing Quake II with half the cast of the X-Men present in the game - the idea of using player custom configuration to reproduce trademarked character designs is as old as modding.
This is a blatent attack designed to deal with the fact that no-one is interested any more in the (announced years ago) Marvel MMORPG game, because CoH does it all so well already.
"I Know You Are But What Am I?"
Ah yes, the Hulk - because BIG GREEN GUY with TORN PANTS is such a hugely original concept and - what's that Mr. Hyde? I wouldn't like you when you're...mad... no... wait NOOOOO!
In other news, Bic has been sued as someone used one to draw a copy of Wolverine..
Seriously however. I don't think that CoH is at all designed to allow people to rip off Marvel, unless marvel wants to claim it has copyright to a) people in stupid looking suits with a logo on them, b) women in skin-tight outfits or c) Huge hulking creatures.
AFAIK, these were all around long before Marvel. Also I would say CoH should be praised for making their system of character design as flexable as it is. Unfortunatly this was always going to lead to people making things that looked like other characters.
Combination - fun iPhone puzzling
This is really really stupid. It's like suing crayola cause kids can draw Spider-Man. The game provides the tools to create a character and it's up to the player to make him look how they want.
Is Cryptic supposed to keep a database of all colour schemes of all super heroes that ever existed (also the multiple costume variations they occasioanly pull out to boost sales) and prevent users from picking them. How many do you think there are? Probably over 10,000 from Marvel and then there's DC and all the rest. It's one thing if the game makers were to rip off Marvel but this is entirely different.
If they want to be asses they should follow the RIAA's lead and sue users. I hope somebody at Marvel comes to their senses and stops this BS.
They should sue the end-users.
Then go bankrupt from the bad publicity.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
I guess they forgot that they taught the world how to create these characters, right?? I remember having the "How to draw" books and having a couple of them dedicated to Hulk, She-Hulk, X-men, etc. Look out everyone, hide those books if you still gottem. It's Stan "Wannabe Elliet Ness" Lee comming to get you!
- my $.02? - you can't have it...it's all I have!!
I know they've ben trying for months now.
If they detect user's with "Hulk" in their name, they will often reset that character's name to "Generic Hero x" and give them a day or so to pick a new one. This is even if the character looks nothing like the Hulk.
I mean, please. Some characters are just so friggin easy to copy. The Hulk is a big green (or grey) buy with torn shorts. Is it Cryptic's fault that Marvel isn't very original in their design?
Sure, a character like "The Punisher" or "Wolverine" would also be easy to duplicate in the game, but who cares! People aer building the character they want. They want someone with sharp metal claws and a ever-familar beard, then so be it. If they want to be big and green, so be it. If they want a red and gold armor suit of battle armor, let them.
Personally, I think DC would have more of a leg to stand on. They have tons of heros with pretty generic looking costumes (solid-color tights with an emblem). Many of Marvel's characters have hard to copy designs.
Shame on Marvel, or at least on their legal department.
Oh well, I stopped playing a few weeks ago anyway. It just stopped being fun.
If it is not a default and their open-ended character creation engine allows players to bring to reality envisioned characters, so be it!
I hope they don't realize that paper and pen will let me "design characters that are virtual copies of its own superheros, including 'The Incredible Hulk'.
They might seek unspecified damages against International Paper and Bic.
The thing is, I wouldn't play a Marvel Comics based MMORPG even if they did have one out (which they don't, and I seriously doubt we'd see one before 2006).
I don't want to play a super-hero who is second banana to Spider-Man or the Fantastic Four or the Avengers. I don't want to have to deal with people wanting to be able to storm the Avengers Mansion because they think they should be able to.
I want to make a hero who is as unique as I can make him, and is not burdened down by years of comic book history, much of which is crappily written. (I refer you to the Clone Saga, in particular, and most titles that start with the letter 'X'.)
Kierthos
Mr. Hu is not a ninja.
Pfft, shame on Marvel for trying to pull this nonsense. They're probably the only company doing this, and I can think of a few examples of fans recreating characters they like in City of Heroes. One that comes to mind is a group who have designed their characters to be a tribute to Capcom's Mega Man video games, amongst others.
It's sad when a company has to buy the "krogers" domain name because so many people incorrectly add the "s".
It came down to the EULA which states that your character and all derivations or representations thereof are property of Cryptic and NCSoft. To which I asked pointedly "What about the Fantastic Four?"
This was going to bite them in the ass eventually, as they allege to own everything you create, even if it's not yours to create.
My suspicion, as I've voiced elsewhere, is that they will be required to remove these characters from the game, and pay damages to Marvel, and probably DC and whoever else, in the end.
Then, of course, there's the obvious ownership issue of this guy.
I think God should sue DC for infringing on his intellectual property of humanoid figures that can articulate. Perhaps the Nazi party should also sue DC and Marvel for their use of the Swastika in many of there post 1940 comics. How often has Captain America battled the Nazi's in comic books? That would violate their IP and infringe upon their flag wouldn't it? I also think that Marvel and DC need to stop infringing upon the United States Governments IP including the American Flag colors. While we're at it I think that Mavel needs to change their name to "Corporate United Network of Totality" or C.U.N.T for short.
-=[ Who Is John Galt? ]=-
The Tolkien estate will be sueing World of Warcraft and Everquest cos you can dress up as elves.
HG Well is suing Planetside for generic use of Sci-fi.
I fact I'm gonna sue the rest of humanity for looking vaguely like me (two arms, two legs head, torso)
You better start paying up...
CJC
I am currently going to sue HP because I just realized the scanner I bought can be used to make perfect copys of my copywrited artwork. Plus, I'm also going to use sony because their dvd burners can make perfect copys of my copywrighted home movies. Who's with me? Millions of SCO lawyers are about to lose their job and are ready to work with us.
As these ridiculous examples come to surface, you'll see more public momentum to freeing culture.
It's bad enough that only DC and Marvel can use the (obviously generic, but actually trademarked) term Super-Hero.
It was only 24 years ago that a wrestler took the name Hulk Hogan. Nobody seemed to mind back then. Why is it that we have to avoid 'hulking males with green skin and tattered purple pants' in our video games?
Any why doesn't Marvel sue the pants off of DC with their obvious Hulk-ripoffs Soloman Grundy and Bizarro Superman? Maybe because Marvel ripped off DC?
And how about the similarities between the civilian careers of Peter Parker and Clark Kent?
The whole super-hero scene is so full of rip-offs, homages, and influences they ought to be ashamed of their action.
Actually, they really ought to be ashamed of the Hulk movie, the more time that passes, the more violated I feel.
My father is a blogger.
I don't play CoH anymore, but I did play the first 3 months the game was released.
The coolest part of the game is the freedom people have to create their characters. CoH has tried to stop people from imitating real comic book characters but people keep coming up with ingenious ways to get around it.
You can't make a character with claws like Wolverine but making a guy wearing yellow and black with a mask and regenerative abilities is possible. Is that same as Wolverine? Probably not. It's all a judgement call. Does DC own the rights to "Guy with blue and red tights who flys around?"
Another problem that CoH is almost powerless to fight is the what names people choose. Matching "Wolverine" is easy but how about: WeaponX, Wolvie, Woolvrine, Wepon Ex, etc?
Hollow words will burn and hollow men will burn.
They should just license the characters from Marvel and then sell an Expansion pack with all of the Marvel characters included.
http://www.kubuntu.org/
The worst part about this little tale is that the makers of COH made a good faith attempt to eliminate look-alike heroes who attempted to use trademarked names. They even accepted lists of names from the major comics publishers for their block list.
About two months ago, I sent an email to Marvel about a web comic artist that I despise who was making money off of their trademarks by using them to sell product in conjunction with CoH. Perhaps they misinterpreted my message and are going after Cryptic now? Who knows, either way, it's pretty funny.
I would think that given the recent court rulings (no time to find relevant links) that have indemnified P2P creators against infringement suits, that as soon as this goes to court it will just be thrown out. Have we learned nothing from the RIAA??
Does this mean perhaps we'll soon start seeing CoH gamers receiving subpoenas because their Akwa|\/|an character is too close to the original for the tastes of Marvel? This, IMHO, is going waaay too far. I suspect the submitter may be right about Marvel pulling this crap just to lay the way for their own game, why else would they really care if some kid in middle America has a digital avatar somewhere that resembles Superman? No one in-game is going to somehow confuse that character as being Marvel's licensed original.
-- I'm not a pessimist, I'm a realist. It's not my fault that life sucks so much. --
Your argument is equivalent to saying that it's ok if the elite (in this case, those skilled in drawing) violate copyright, but to make that available to everyone is wrong.
In fact, neither case is correct, and the horrible nonlogic of damaging a general purpose system with the goal of restricting certain things is stupid.
To take this from the other side, if Marvel wins this terrible case, then that implies that creating a character in City of Heroes is akin to creating one in a comic book- so if your guy has an orange cape and yellow tights and black hair, maybe you can sue someone who introduces such a character in comic books. Meaning that, if you want to create a comic book with an entirely new character, you can't just check the history of comics, you have to access the CoH (and any other relevant MMORG) database to make sure you aren't "infringing" on a similar design that some kid in Kansas came up with at 2 AM on pot.
WWF sued WCW for using "Hulk" when Hogan switched over. Marvel then sued WWF for using "Hulk" for all those years. To the best of my knowledge WCW decided to call him Hollywood Hogan at that point and WWF dropped it's suit. When WWF dropped it's suit then Marvel dropped thiers. In that case Marvel clearly had to counter sue or WWF would have set a precidence and taken the copywright for "Hulk". Incedently the name Hulk Hogan was taken from the Incredible Hulk TV show with Lou Ferregno(sorry if I misspelled that).
i suppose it was only a matter of time
is the term "superhero" copyrighted? i bet stan lee is kicking himself over that one too.
this sig has been discontinued.
The irony is, it's unlikely Marvel's own game would actually let you play the Hulk[tm], Wolverine[tm], et cetera, just as Star Wars online doesn't let you play Luke, Han, and so on.
So they're suing over a game that lets you mimic their own heroes, arguing that it ruins the market for their own superhero game, even though their own game won't let you play their own heroes.
A.
Had a great looking character, big, with green skin and torn clothes. I was going to call him "The Incredible Bulk". Now I'll have to make him smaller, put him in a business suit, and call him "Marvel Blows Chunks Man". His super power is his magic briefcase, from which he can throw thousands of pleadings and C&D letters, completely papering over his opponent. Fear him!
Soylent Green is peoplicious!
...having thwarted efforts to create new superheroes who might stop him, LawyerMan's sinister plan for world domination draws one step closer to fruition!
What makes the character a rip off?
For example, if I have a character named Ferro Man, who wears an armored suit, am I infringing on Iron Man? Okay, what version of Iron Man, then, is Marvel preventing me from copying? The gray suited one? The red and gold armored one? The one who flies and blasts things? What if I change the name and sex to Ferro Woman and Marvel later comes out with a character named Iron Woman?
And how is Marvel planning on preventing users of their own future game from creating a BattyMan or a Green Lamp character? Will DC sue Marvel when Marvel releases their game?
Cryptic does police as much as they can, but is a character named the Uncredible Bulk a problem? What if the character is a skinny white girl?
What if I have an Asian character with claws named "The China Wolf"? Am I infringing? What if Marvel decides next week to change Wolverine into an Asian girl?
Anyhow, just things that pop into my mind. I currently have a character on CoH whose name was just used on the Cartoon Network's Justice League Unlimited show and was previously not used for a superhero. If DC changes her costume or powers to look like my character, can I sue them (or rather, can Cryptic sue them, since they own that character now)?
Just things to thing about.
Vincent J. Murphy
Spandex Justice
Draw the Marvel Comics Super Heroes
You'd think they'd appreciate the publicity, but protection of their trademarks seems more important than actual sales, these days.
R3
Stuff that matters: circuitbreakers, vacuum-cleaners coffee makers, calculators generators, matching salt+pepper shakers
Marvel is also suing Ticonderoga Pencil Co (TPC) and Ginsu Knives, Inc. A spokesman for Marvel explained "TPC needs to be stopped; we've got thousands of kids sketching Hulk and Spiderman in their school notebooks without sending us a cent, and well Ginsu is clearly enabling many of those same kids to make Wolverine-style claws. We just wish we could have gotten an injunction to ban homemade Halloween costumes altogether..."
When all of your wishes have been granted, many of your dreams will be destroyed - Marilyn Manson
Some of the characters are *DEFINITE* rip-offs of Marvel heroes. In that case, they have a right to defend their IP.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
They have STRICT warnings against this, and in their terms of service is the following.
(e) Character Name. In order to use the service, you must create a character and choose a name for your character to identify your character to other Members (your "Character Name"). You may not select as your Character Name the name of another person, or a name which violates any third party's trademark right, copyright, or other proprietary right, or which may mislead other players to believe you to be an employee of NC Interactive, or which NC Interactive deems at its sole discretion to be vulgar or otherwise offensive. NC Interactive reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to (1) delete or alter any Character Name or (2) terminate any license granted herein, for any reason whatsoever, including, without limitation, any suspected or actual infringement of any trademark or trade name right, copyright, or other proprietary right.
(f) Super Group Names, Super Group Member Titles, Battle Cry, and Character Description. While accessing the service, it is possible to name your Super Group, give titles to members of your Super Group, create a Battle Cry, and write a Character Description. You may not create a Battle Cry, Character Description, give a name to a Super Group, or give a title to a Super Group member that is the name/description/title of another person, or a name/description/title which violates any third party's trademark right, copyright, or other proprietary right, or which may mislead other players to believe you to be an employee of NC Interactive, or which NC Interactive deems at its sole discretion to be vulgar or otherwise offensive. NC Interactive reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to (1) delete or alter any name/description/title given to a Super Group, Super Group Member, Battle Cry, or Character Description or (2) terminate any license granted herein, for any reason whatsoever, including, without limitation, any suspected or actual infringement of any trademark or trade name right, copyright, or other proprietary right
Sadly, in copyright law sometimes you're WORSE off trying and failing than not trying at all, because if you're trying to stop a practice then you can't claim you were unaware of the infringement.
-quote- "Is it a violation of copyright to make up a character in the virtual world or is that fair use?" von Lohmann said. "This is really untested ground in the courts." -/quote-
we slashdotters know the answer.
the question should be "how painful a process is it going to be before we realize that yes, it is indeed fair-use?"
if I have a character named Ferro Man, who wears an armored suit, am I infringing on Iron Man?
No, you'd be infringing on Ferro Man
if I have an Asian character with claws named "The China Wolf"? Am I infringing [on Wolverine]?
No, but you might be infringing on Lady Deathstrike.
And yes, it is becoming much more difficult to come up with fresh superhero ideas as copyright terms get longer and longer.
The analogy to suing Bic because you can draw a copyrighted character with their pens doesn't hold because Bic has zero control over what you do with their product once you purchase it. If I draw Spiderman in my sketchbook and keep it in my home, I may or may not have broken copyright (not clear on how the fair use falls out there) but Marvel has suffered no damages so they probably aren't going to sue me. If I try to sell that sketch on EBay, I'm now a good target for copyright infringement, but the Bic corporation has no control over my decision to make my infringement available to the broader public. (If they were to market their pens for that specific purpose then they WOULD be open to lawsuits.) By contrast, City of Heroes characters can look only the ways NCSoft has designed into the character builder (which I've heard is pretty robust) and they are actively making money off of letting you play with said characters, derivative or otherwise.
I don't think Marvel will win this one though - as others have pointed out, most superhero designs have gotten pretty derivative over time. (Don't confuse cause and effect though - the big green/grey beast person with tattered shorts is a staple look BECAUSE of the Hulk.) If anything, DC may have a better case - I saw a lot of VERY Superman-looking costumes during the Christopher Reeve tributes.
Yep: Ferro Man being just a grown up version of Ferro Lad, from DC's Legion of Super Heroes.
That brings up the whole Plastic Man vs. Elongated Man vs. Mr. Fantastic.
Vincent J. Murphy
Spandex Justice
I play CoH, and I thought it might be useful to give a brief outline of how you can customize a character. You have two fundamental areas of decision making when creating a new hero: his costume and his abilities.
Costume
CoH has easily the most comprehensive outfit generator I've ever seen in a computer game. The basic principle is that each basic item of your character's clothing is individually selected from a predefined set, and then coloured as you see fit.
So, what does your head look like? You can wear a fedora or a duster or a cowboy hat (amongst many others), a medieval helm (of various styles and sizes), horns (big, small, aligned in various ways), etc, etc. The list is evidently limited by factors such as what the art team had time to create - I don't recall seeing a wizard's hat, for example. But take it from me: it's a big list. And then you need to decide on the colour.
Hair? Long, short, spiky, buzz-cut, bald, whatever. Add a moustache and/or beard if appropriate (and if you can decide what style you want). And make it a lovely shade of fuchsia if you really must.
And then you've got your skin colour, your face, shades/spectacles/implants, eye colour, accessories (fancy a cigar? Or a veil? Can't have both, which is probably just as well), skin patterns/tattooes (leopard spots, lightning bolts, blah blah blah) and so on.
I'm boring myself here, but you get the point - the same process is repeated for the rest of your costume. So I've got an old soldier in dark green armour, a dashing medic in a rather fetching red/blue/green gradiated set of skintight leather, and a whole load of completely different others.
So, anyway, the reality is that you can probably create something pretty close to your ideal hero. And something pretty close to Marvel's ideal heroes, too. But not identical: you can't select Spiderman's 'web' theme, and I don't think you can recreate Superman's emblem - CoH will let you place an S on your character's chest, but doesn't have the right background shape. The upshot is that you can make anything using 'generic' clothing (like, umm, Mr Hulk. Bare, green skin? Not exactly a challenge there) but you can't generally do the little flourishes.
Powers
Your costume has no impact on your performance in the game: it's your selection of powers that determines your play style. In a rather simplified nutshell you select an 'archetype' - melee fighter, healer, ranged attacker, etc - and then a couple of power sets. These can be things like super strength, invulnerability, flight, firebolts, invisibility, mental domination, super speed, ice mastery, and so on.
There are a few dozen power sets in total with perhaps a dozen specific abilities (a big skull-cleaving blow with a broadsword, or a faster one dealing less damage, or a swipe which hits multiple opponents, or a parry which makes you harder to damage) in each.
So, as with your costume, you can perform many 'generic' feats of heroism. But you can't generally recreate those employed by your more imaginative hero - no web-slinging, for instance. And while you can play with a few gadgets, you don't get a Batmobile.
In conclusion, then, Marvel are talking a crock of shit, and the Bic analogy used elsewhere (all over the place) in this thread is entirely justified. Can you recreate your favourite superhero? Yes, if the original idea was devoid of subtlety and imagination. Can you recreate a well-designed and nuanced superhero?
Fraid not.
Cases like these are the driving force behind modern "cost-shifting" court rules. Many states are now implementing "looser pays" or "If you reject a settlement and win less, you pay" rules.
See your local rules of civil procedure for more information.
The end result is that, when a big company tries to file a weak claim and shut down a small competitor, The competitor now has a much easier time finding and affording lawyers for its defense. Unfortunately, small companies in any United State tend to have a high aversion to risk and buckle under the threat even though the law provides them pretty good protection.
Trying to use sarcasm in text-based forums does not work.
No, that book appears licensed. Hover over the picture of the front cover, and under "Browse sample pages", click "Copyright". See the "© 1995 Marvel Entertainment Inc." notice.
This MMORPG isn't.
Wow. I never knew Marvel could be that bad.
Debugging? Klingons do not debug. Bugs are good for building character in the user.
Well I won't be purchasing the marvel MMORPG, nor any marvel comics in the farseable future. Not that I purchased their comics anyway,(I'm a DC man myself) but I was somewhat intrested in their upcoming MMORPG.
I don't think this is just about using the name or the image of the characters.
Wolverine's claws are very distinctive - 3 blades protruding from the top of each hand.
The 'claws' power set is one of the (5? 6?) central power sets all scrappers get access to. There are approx. 30 different combinations of scrapper powers. Scrappers are one of 5 archetypes.
That means that a regenerating character with Wolverine's claws is one of only approx 150 different possible combinations. That's a far cry from one in a million. If the claw power set looked different than it does - looking like an animal's claws, for example - there would be no argument.
But if you created a comic with a regenerating character with 3 bladed claws that emerged from their hands, you might have some trouble with Marvel regardless of what other (cosmetic) changes you made to it, like changing the name, sex, or costume...
You're saying that Marvel isn't the bad guy although they're taking actions that will seriously harm another group of people for utterly selfish reasons?
By this logic, if you sell computers and someone uses one to embezzle from a credit card company, that makes you guilty of felony theft.
But, of course, personal responsibility is far too obvious, clear-cut and functional of a system for utterly co-dependant humans to deal with. After all, you can't get as much money from the person who actually *did it.*
This is completely leaving out arguments as to whether this kind of activity should be illegal or even frowned upon in the first place...
Cryptic kicks off or forces a change in, ripoff characters. I've seen Santa Claus running around on a number of occasions--the spitting image, I'm not kidding.
It's just a testament to the customization engine that ripoffs are even possible.
Marvel sucked before, and they suck now. Cooperation works, lawsuits generate a bad public image. I'm refusing to allow any more of my dollars to line Marvel's coffers.
If I were the maker of CoH, I'd countersue Marvel for their pen-and-ink system's capability of duplicating CoH's trademark characters.
For great justice.
CoH has taken measures to prevent copyrighted characters from being made, and actively root them out.
Does anybody have Marvel's PR department contact info so we here at Slashdot can let them know exactly how we feel about frivalous IP lawsuits?
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
The only way to really solve this problem is to criminalize litigation, starting with summary executions for any person found to be in possession of a law degree. To further purge the litigation gene, we would also need to spay every person who shares 50% or more of the genetic content of any lawyer. That should solve the problem in just a few decades. Then, sole judges of fact for lesser criminal offenses such as murder or job offshoring would be chosen from among the top 5% of the population selected by IQ. That'll take are of things just fine....
http://www.pvponline.com/archive/2004/pvp20041112. gif
heheh
in girum imus nocte et consumimur igni
What are they going to do next. Sue the makers of Champions(tm) because the system allows you to create any character you want, including popular superheroes?
Long live the Speaker Bracelet
Rolo D. Monkey
Don't forget that the WWF (World Wildlife Foundation) sued the WWF (World Wrestling Federation) also, which is why it's now called WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment).
(Sorry in advance for the long post)
Does anybody remember the good old days...
...when companies tried to actually be better than their competition instead of taking legal measures to ensure that they don't have competition?
...when you could have a clever idea and actually be free to proudly develop, sell, or give it away instead of hiding it or anonymously distributing it?
...when stupid people sometimes got sued for doing stupid things, instead of smart people ALWAYS getting sued for doing smart things?
I've played City of Heroes, and it's a cool game. It's a very original idea in MMORPGs, and there is NOTHING in the game that in any way helps, steers, or suggests that a player create any superhero that I've ever heard of before. All of my characters are 100% made up by me, as are over 99% of the other characters I've seen online.
Can you create a character that looks like other licensed characters? Sure, but that's by virtue of the flexibility of the character creation options with billions of combinations of body type, costume styles, accessories, and colors available. The "sue people who use pens" analogy is appropriate and right on the money.
I have seen a few characters now and then that are imitations of "real" comic book characters. When I do see them, I tend to think it's kind of lame. (Really, do you suffer that profound a lack of imagination that you can't come up with something original?) Obviously, another reason people may do this is because they are avid fans of existing licensed characters. No one (neither the publisher NOR the player) should be punished for this type of activity. Sometimes when I like a character in a movie or on television, I'll impersonate them in various real-life situations. ("I've got a bad feeling about this...") I'm not trying to rip off or demean the character, it's the opposite: sincere appreciation for the character.
Hopefully, this lawsuit will be tossed out before it sees any kind of light of day for, among others, precisely these reasons:
1. City of Heroes does not entice or conduce players to create likenesses of licensed characters. In fact, they actively discourage it by threatening to ban players who do so in their license agreement and screening character names for all common (and many uncommon) licensed character names. This is a reasonable effort, and to demand more would be holding the publisher to an unreasonably high (and unreasonably costly) standard of vigilance.
2. By asking the publisher of City of Heroes to disallow the possibility or ability of creating likenesses of licensed characters, you are effectively asking them to unreasonably cripple their product by severely limiting the ability of players to customize their characters, an important selling point of their game. It would be similar to asking Microsoft to prevent Microsoft Word from being able to type the scripts to copyrighted television shows.
3. I'm not conceding this point by any means, but EVEN IF City of Heroes did somehow entice or conduce people to copy licensed characters, Marvel cannot possibly prove that they have suffered any damages from the publisher's actions. If they were receiving complaint letters from people threatening to boycott The Hulk because of something a hulk character did in City of Heroes, maybe, but even that's a stretch since it is obvious to reasonable people that City of Heroes and Marvel are not associated with each other. Also worth nothing is that Marvel does NOT have a competing product on the market, so it is not like City of Heroes is stealing customers by swiping the likenesses of Marvel's characters. (sigh)
The key in all of these reasons is the standard of what is reasonable (and unreasonable). I hope with every fiber of my being that the publisher fights this lawsuit for several reasons. First, if they settle, then it is effectively an endorsement for Marvel to continue making unreasonable demands on companies and individuals. Second, if M
Remember: if you make a stumpy guy with green skin and purple shorts, you are breaking the law.
God bless America.
(I could, concievably, draw Pac-Man in Nintendo's PictoChat and Namco would get no royalties. What are you waiting for, Namco? Sue the bastards!)
you're right. here's the section in question
6. CONTENT AND MEMBER CONDUCT (c) Member Content. Members can upload to and create content on our servers in various forms, such as in selections you make and characters and items you create for City of Heroes, and in bulletin boards and similar user-to-user areas ("Member Content"). By submitting Member Content to or creating Member Content on any area of the Service, you acknowledge and agree that such Member Content is the sole property of NC Interactive. To the extent that NC Interactive cannot claim exclusive rights in Member Content by operation of law, you hereby grant (or you warrant that the owner of such Member Content has expressly granted) to NC Interactive and its related Game Content Providers a non-exclusive, universal, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, sublicenseable right to exercise all rights of any kind or nature associated with such Member Content, and all ancillary and subsidiary rights thereto, in any languages and media now known or not currently known. You shall indemnify and hold NC Interactive harmless from and against any claims by third parties that your Member Content infringes upon, violates or misappropriates any of their intellectual property or proprietary rights.
I used to have a copy of GURPS Supers, in which the heros are refered to as 'Metahumans' because Marvel and DC jointly own the rights to 'Superhero', 'Supervillan', etc. I think it may be a trademark though (I know, how the fuck could it be a trademark when it's not the name of a company? Same way Barbie is). It's pretty fucked up, but then so's all American Content Law.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
odd that they won that case considering that wildlife preservation has absolutely nothing to do with wrestling or sports in general, usually trademarks are pretty specific.
Snowden and Manning are heroes.
Was the term Super-Hero a term used before DC and Marvel started using it? I would think probably not.
Snowden and Manning are heroes.
http://www.marvelcomics.com/company/feedback.htm This lawsuit pisses me off and I don't even play CoH yet. Though I'm thinking about it now. What is next the makers of DnD suing Everquest because you can make Fantasy based characters. The Tolkein Family suing Worlds of warcraft because you can create Gimli? No I think Slashdot is next on the lawsuit list because I can possibly impersonate Spiderman...Or can we all sue Marvel because it's possible for them to use our names in a comic book? I say we all send mass feedback to Marvel about their lawsuit. Tell them what we really think.
In yet another copyright bickering lawsuit, Marvel is suing Crayola over their line of colored pencils due to copyright infringement, apparently because of the ability to draw marvel's characters.. "Marvel argues that the colored pencil's wide range of colors easily allows players to design characters that are virtual copies of its own superheros, including 'The Incredible Hulk'." Marvel seeks unspecified damages and an injunction against Crayola to stop using its characters.
This is not about copyright. Copyright is the right you have to distribute a work you are the creator of. Marvel is obviously not the creator of the characters in City of Heroes. Compare with the fact that you can copy someone's drawing, even their stroke style, as long as you don't claim it's an original.
This is about trademarks and IP. Apparently Marvel have trademarks for their characters names and looks. The trademarks would include specific clothing etc, but ofc they might have several for each character. IANAL so I wouldn't know what the law says, but don't mix copyright into it...
You decide with your wallet ( i know what i believe)
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
NC Soft should counter sue Marvel, because the Pen and ink nature of the Marvel comic industry allows for the possibility for them to create an exact replica of "The Statesman" an NC Soft Trade marked character.
The 2 suites would have the same Merit.
IF the judge were to rule in favor of Marvel, the ruling would be unenforceable. What can you do? Disallow Green skin on huge characters? And no purple pants either. And brown costumes on characters with claws, or claws on characters with brown costumes. Of course claws with pink costumes are OK because marvel hasn't inked that yet. (Or have they?) Also disallow Black and yellow costumes totally because marvel has given the various X men pretty much every power imaginable already. Spider man is red and blue, so we cant have that either, Iron man has Gold, Cap America is Red white and Blue.
So we have disallowed green, purple, brown, black, yellow, red, gold, white, blue. And we have only considered 5 out of the 4700 Marvel trademarks. Freaking ridiculous!
This amounts to nothing more to anger because NC Soft thought of it first.
Its baseless, the limits are virtually indefinable, and totally unenforceable.