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Setback for Marvel in NCSoft Lawsuit
DeeFresh writes "An article on Gamesindustry.biz is reporting that Judge R. Gary Klausner dismissed many of the Marvel's claims against NCSoft. From the article: 'Judge Klausner also agreed with the defendants that some of Marvel's allegations and exhibits should be stricken as 'false and sham' because they were not actually created by users of the game but by Marvel itself.'" Commentary also available on Gamespot.com.
I could be mistaken, but I believe DC actually did make some "requests" of Pixar due to DC's already-existing (4th-tier) character Elastic-Girl. As I understand it, the agreement reached was that Pixar could use the name in the movie, but not in outside promotional pieces, which is why she's labelled "Mrs. Incredible" in the print ads (at least the ones I've seen). Of course, this is all just what I've heard third-and-fourth-hand, so it could be bunk.
"He further dismissed Marvel's claim for a judicial declaration that defendants are not an online service provider under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which offers a degree of protection in such cases."
I never even would have thought of using that as a defense, although in retrospect I guess it makes a degree of sense.
This is the same protection afforded to ISPs that make them not liable for transfer of copyrighted materials over their connections.
The difference to me is that NCsoft is providing the tool (software) which is allegedly being used to create the infringing works whereas an ISP is merely the transport mechanism that could be used for illegal copyrighted works.
The comparison to the VCR case is very interesting as well. The VCR can also be used as a transport mechanism for duplication of illegal copyrighted works, but it is not a tool that can create materials that violate copyrights.
Go NCsoft! Throw Marvel out of the courtroom!
And for everyone who says that Marvel MUST file this lawsuit or risk losing rights to its intellectual property - if so how come we haven't seen identical suits filed by DC Comics and other superhero creators?
Sometimes my arms bend back.
On the basis of this, shouldn't DC be suing Pixar? I mean, "Elastigirl" is basically "Plastic Man" with breasts
No, it's totally Marvel's Fantastic 4 there.
A) The Incredibles, a superhero team/family of 4 members, lead by Mr. Incredible, who named the team after himself. It includes a husband/wife and brother/sister. One of them is tough and strong, one is invisble and makes force-field bubbles, one stretches out limbs, and one runs fast. There's also a super-powered baby who's not exactly in the team.
B) The Fantastic Four, a superhero team/family of 4 members, lead by Mr. Fantastic, who named the team after himself. It includes a husband/wife and brother/sister. One of them is tough and strong, one is invisble and makes force-field bubbles, one stretches out limbs, and one shoots fire. There's also a super-powered baby who's not exactly in the team.
In case you missed it, the only difference in those discriptions is running fast vs shooting fire. Oh, and the fact that one of them was published 50 years before the other. In a reasonable copyright system, Fantastic Four would be public domain already.
Hold on a second. Back when Universal sued Sony, the Supreme Court ruled that a company couldn't be held responsible for the actions of its customers. This is esstially the same thing. The City of Heroes guys are offering a product, in this case an MMORPG, and certain users are performing copyright infringement using that product. The company can't be held responsible for that sort of thing. It isn't like City of Heroes generated advertising using Marvel characters, they used just said "make your own super hero".