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Cryptic's Retort to Marvel
Voodoo Extreme has a short blurb with links to the players in the Marvel vs. Cryptic legal battle. The short response from Cryptic says it all: "As reported by The Associated Press, Marvel Enterprises Inc. and Marvel Characters, Inc. have sued NCsoft Corporation and Cryptic Studios. The complaint is meritless. Cryptic Studios is confident that the District Court will reject all of Marvel's claims and fully vindicate Cryptic Studios in all respects."
If Marvel is suing because I can play City of Heros and create a character that is modeled after, say, the Incredible Hulk, that is a large green superstrong hero, then they are in the wrong.
But if cryptic is puting out advertisements with characters that look to have the same powers and appearance of various Marvel Superheroes, like the Hulk, or Cyclops, or Spiderman, then Marvel has a point.
My opinion regardless of written law:
I think that Cryptic has the right to make a game where i can design a superhero of my choosing, regardless of what I used as inspiration.
I think that Cryptic cannot market their game by trading on the popularity of characters created by Marvel without Marvels permission.
END COMMUNICATION
...in my time playing the game I've seen countless blatant hulk, wolverine, and superman rippoffs, both in name and look. There's your Kal-els in blue & red, your bearded Logans, and your big, green, angry looking Bulks.
I don't like what marvel's doing, but if I can spot these things without trying, isn't there an argument that Cryptic isn't trying hard enough to prevent these?
-Jeff
Please learn the difference between a dissenting opinion and a troll before you moderate.
I think most of us are super unoriginal and like to make our characters like our favorites.
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I have not played the game, so I ask this. Is the character generator very generic or are there specific character models available?
The discussions on this game to date have never been entirely clear on this. I ask because, it seems to me, that if the character generator is generic and players choose to model their avatar after Superman or the Hulk then that can hardly be the fault of the game maker. If they are premade charcter types that borrow heavily from Marvel or DC property then this is a whole different kettle of fish.
So gamers, I ask of you, which is it?
the complaint is meritless. Cryptic Studios is confident that the District Court will reject all of Marvel's claims and fully vindicate Cryptic Studios in all respects."
Does Marvel has a copywrite on characters wearing blue and yellow spandex? If so, there goes all my weekend outfits.
If Marvel can show that Cryptic has been policing its game with regards to character names, they can claim Cryptic felt a responsibility there, which should logically extend to the character configurations as well. Never mind that it's a lot more difficult to determine whether a particular body style/suit color combination gets too close than to match text strings. The law is kinda funny that way.
I believe that Cryptic has been looking at character designs as well. In their Terms of Agreement, they say that it is illegal to make characters based off of Marvel or other comic book characters, and that these characters will be deleted when found. So, no worries for Cryptic. Marvel is just trying to get them to lose players for their own MMORPG
I already know i'm going to hell, now i'm just trying to get cable down there.
It's a bad writeup when you have to follow the link (assuming you don't already know) to realize that Cryptic = City of Heroes, a MMORPG.
(Yes, I know this assumes the reader knows what an MMORPG etc is, but still...)
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How could they avoid "market[ing] their game by trading on the popularity of characters created by Marvel without Marvels permission"? If it hadn't been for Marvel and DC, who would have thought of "guy who flies while wearing his underpants on the outside" etc etc as a game topic?
Company says lawsuit filed against it is meritless! More news as it develops!
It isn't Cryptic's responsibility to monitor every single superhero character that is created in their game. If Marvel feels so strongly about its copyrights, then it needs to get in touch with Cryptic and sue each and every person with a hero character which infringes on their IP. It's like someone posting bits of a book onto Slashdot.org. The Publishers could inform Slashdot that the text is copyrighted, and they would remove it.They could even ban the user account on the request of the Publisher of the book. Could the Publisher simply sue Slashdot.org for providing the open message forum on which the copyrighted information was posted? To me it's the same thing.Something like a name is easy to check. You don't want any "Superman"s or "Hulk"s running around your game. Similarly in Everquest you might not want Drizzt or Gandalf. But if someone makes a Dark Elven character and dresses him in armor similar to Drizzt, with two swords, and acts and talks like Drizzt..can WOTC sue Sony??? Can Sci Fi channel sue LucasArts if Dargo-like characters start showing up in Star Wars Online?? Unless these are company created and controlled characters, how can the company be liable? Marvel should be going after the players themselves who create a Hero that is exactly like Superman,if they want to go after anyone at all. I think the suit is frivolous, but it will be a blow to the MMORPG industry and fair use rights for consumers, and another blow against public domain rights if the suit gets through. There's no practical way for companies to 'police' this sort of thing.
-Gel214th
+1 Honest. Rarity.
Ghost who walks - man who can never die!
Silly costume - check
Secret identity - check (he travels incognito as mr walker)
Superhuman powers - sort of. Like batman or ironman, the ghost who walks is human, but he does have a habit of knocking out heavyweight boxing champs.
Predates copycat comicbooks - check (Feb. 17, 1936), years before Marvel comics (1939) or Superman (1938) or Batman (1939).
After all anyone that plays MMORPG's has bumped into more than their fair share of characters named Legolas, Gandalf, Drizzt etc. Is every MMORPG developer going to have to censor player characters in case they bear a resemblance to a character portrayed somewhere in popular fiction? IMHO Marvel should shut up - CoH has helped feed the ongoing superhero zeitgeist, which is much more help than hindrance.