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Marvel / NCSoft Litigation Update
TerraNova has linkage regarding an update to the Marvel vs. NCsoft case. The litigation, contesting the use of Marvel character facsimilies in NCSoft's City of Heroes, has been taken to a new level. NCSoft has retained the services of Cooley Godward LLP and filed a motion to dismiss the case. A lot of good rhetoric in the brief, including: "[City of Heroes] allows young and old to exercise their imaginations to create super-powered beings and send them off to interact with the creations of other individuals in a virtual world called Paragon City. If it should be banned, then so should the #2 pencil, the Lego block, modeling clay, and anything else that allows one to give form to ideas..."
Please someone tell me why Hollywood is allowed to put a Ferrari into a movie (even though the driver is the villain), but you can't put a Ferrari into a video game if you're not EA.
I'm frustrated that we can't have real car names in GTA, that we can't get Porsches or Ferraris in Gran Turismo 4, that you could not drive Ferraris or Mercedeses in pursuit mode in earlier versions of Need for Speed because "it'd hurt the company's image to run away from cops", or that game makers are not allowed to implement car damage because of a handful picky car manufacturers.
This is so ridiculous that you have to drive a Ruf (a Porsche tuner) instead of a genuine Porsche in GT3/4 because EA holds exclusive rights on Porsche cars in video games (but is not using it, as ricers are all the rage at the moment).
Simulations are supposed to, duh, simulate reality. So how an Earth what is possible on a video DVD what is not possible on game DVD? Can you imagine Fox barring Dreamworks from using BMW's because Fox owns exclusive rights to the BMW license? That's utter nonsense.
By the way, the Porsche/Ferrari policy also makes little sense as far as the bottom line is concerned. Games are free advertising. If your game is not in a game, you're losing sales to more lenient competitors.
Exhibit A: Gran Turismo made a star of the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution. Before GT3's success, nobody had heard of this car in the US. But so many asked DaimlerChrysler for EVOs that they eventually decided to import it.
Disclaimer: I'm working at one of the abovementioned companies, and I'm ashamed they still don't get it. I for one hope NCSoft wins, and that game makers are allowed to put in whatever content they wish.
To be fair NCSoft's EULA states that copying characters that would infringe on other companies IP is not allowed and makes you subject to being banned.
They do routinely do this - via forced renames and costume changes of characters.
While I have seen a lot of copied characters - I have never seen them attain high level. All of the fake hulks and spider-men disappear pretty quickly.
Sometimes my arms bend back.