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Red Cross Condemns Misuse of Emblem In Games
Heartless Gamer writes "The British Red Cross has told GamesIndustry.biz that it hopes to work with developers to prevent the 'illegal and detrimental' misuse of the red cross emblem in videogames. From the article: 'It is important for videogame manufacturers not to use the emblem in their games, including for matters related to its humanitarian purpose, such as first aid or general medical care,' said Michael Meyer, head of international law for the British Red Cross."
According to Wikipedia, "The Red Cross is an emblem which, under the Geneva Conventions, is to be placed on humanitarian and medical vehicles and buildings to protect them from military attack on the battlefield."
Seems to me the Red Cross organization doesn't have exclusive rights to the symbol.
The Red Cross was founded by a guy from Switzerland, and he adopted as their logo the Swiss flag with the colors inverted.
In the U.S., the Red Cross doesn't depend on trademark law. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode18/us c_sec_18_00000706----000-.html is a special law just for them:
Whoever, whether a corporation, association or person, other than the American National Red Cross and its duly authorized employees and agents and the sanitary and hospital authorities of the armed forces of the United States, uses the emblem of the Greek red cross on a white ground, or any sign or insignia made or colored in imitation thereof or the words "Red Cross" or "Geneva Cross" or any combination of these words shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.
"pharamaceutical snake and staff"
It's called a Caduceus.
You know, at first I thought you might be confusing it with the safety merit badge, which has a white cross on a green background. But then I looked at the actual emergency prepardness badge, and sure enough, there's a small green cross on the top. It's also interesting to note that the cross makes up only a small portion of the badge, which makes me wonder if it was more prominent in the original badge.
The first aid badge is also a cross design: a green cross on a red background. Quite a bit different from what we'd associate with typical first aid kit: a red cross. -- Paul
OpenSource.MathCancer.org: open source comp bio
From the article:
We would be willing to work with a videogame manufacturer to produce a game which shows the emblem in its correct use, as a symbol of protection during armed conflict, and where the player is rewarded for using the emblem correctly.
It's not a matter of a trademark, it's a matter of having gamers understand what the Red Cross is and does.
"Wow. The folks who provide humanitarian aid and save lives around the world are "fuckers.""
Considering they still have the unofficial "no jews allowed" policy , yeah they are fuckers, its been almost 60 years and Israel still hasnt been allowed to join.
The war with islam is a war on the beast
The war on terror is a war for peace
When I was a Cub Scout, many many years ago, we had a Den Mother. I don't think we ever went overnight camping, but I don't see much less "liability" in leaving a bunch of boys with an older woamn in a suburban basement than in the woods.
IOW, your "liability" excuse is a poor attempt to retconn homophobia. Especially when the Scouts themselves state, "Boy Scouts believes that homosexual conduct is not compatible with the aims and purposes of Scouting and that a known or avowed homosexual does not present a desirable role model for the youth in the Scouting program...Boy Scouts regards homosexual conduct as not morally straight as required in the Scout Oath."
So, BSA are avowed homophobes. Fuck them.
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
You cannot wash away blood with blood
Any good gamer knows to kill the healers first!
I don't know about the "battlefield" situation, but the Red Cross has to charge hospitals (then billed to patients/insurance) for the blood they draw or they wouldn't be able to provide the blood at all.
I worked in American Red Cross Blood Services for seven years (1989-1996) and the blood people donate costs a lot of money to process and distribute. Testing (infectious diseases, blood type, etc.), processing (dividing the blood into its constituent parts - red blood cells, plasma, platelets, cryoprecipitate), storage and distribution all add costs to the process. That part of the American Red Cross doesn't sell blood to make a profit but rather has to do so in order to cover the costs of the operation.
One example: The department I worked in - covering a large number of hospitals' blood needs - had 8-10 people who were responsible for the clerical side of positive test notification, checking donors against a list of "deferred" donors, etc. That's 8-10 paid employees just for "paperwork" (most of which was federally mandated/regulated), never even laying hands on the blood products; imagine how many more were necessary to actually deal with the blood physically.
There are for-profit operations that provide blood products (most notably the places where you can sell your plasma) and they often do pay people for their blood. Of course, that cost gets passed on to the hospitals/patients as well...
Umm... i don't mean to be callous but what do you think medics and hospitals do on the battle field ? They patch people back together so that they can go back and fight some more. The presence of medics (and an evacuation system and hospitals) also keeps morale up since soldiers know that, if they get shot, they still have a decent chance of survival. In the short term they limit suffering and save lives that otherwise would be lost, but in the long term they're supporting the war effort. (note: i'm not commenting on war in general here just the role of medical personel in wartime)
Just as an example, from the other foot. The very first thing we did during the siege of Fallujah was take out the hospitals (the military viewed them as being sympathetic to the insurgents because they'd release civilian casualty figures, in addition to the obvious fact that they were rescuing wounded insurgents for medical care). We siezed the main hospital, bombed a smaller one flat, and shot up half a dozen ambulances.
I'll provide references on request (I'd have to dig them out of my files). I don't deny at all that the Koreans, Vietnamese, Germans, and Japanese did it. But to only mention nations that you're hostile to and conviently leave out the fact that your nation has done the same is jingoism.
It's time for Operation Crazy Plan.
No, you've recieved quite a few bills for emergency care, they are called taxes in Canada.
The American Red Cross was given protected use of the red cross symbol in a federal charter in 1900. It was already in popular use at that time, but so be it. Therefore it isn't likely to be the trademark law that you'll have to deal with.
http://www.redcross.org/museum/charters.html
The charter granted full legal standing to the organization and protected its right to use the red cross emblem while setting fines and punishment for misuse of the emblem and for false representation of the organization.
Otherwise, you guys would be right.
Controlling complexity is the essence of computer programming. -Brian Kernigan
The Red Cross was founded by a guy from Switzerland, and he adopted as their logo the Swiss flag with the colors inverted.
Bonus points if you knew he did this because Switzerland was neutral, and that he wanted the Red Cross to have the same benefits of neutrality.
Thus, if you see a red/white cross on a red/white field: don't shoot.
I am unamerican, and proud of it!
From the flag of Switzerland... Since Switzerland was traditionally neutral, they created the red cross to be similiar to signify neutrality. They reversed the colors.
If the Red Cross is going to go after video game developers, I think that Switzerland should go after the Red Cross.
Just as an example, from the other foot. The very first thing we did during the siege of Fallujah was take out the hospitals (the military viewed them as being sympathetic to the insurgents because they'd release civilian casualty figures, in addition to the obvious fact that they were rescuing wounded insurgents for medical care). We siezed the main hospital, bombed a smaller one flat, and shot up half a dozen ambulances.
Only because the militants used the hospital as their base. It wasn't taken out strategically to weaken the enemy.
sad thing is, this jingoism you speak so highly about is rather called for. those hospitals and ambulances wearing the red cross were found to house weapons and transport enemies. if anything, the red cross society needs to fight that battle and leave innocuous reality-imitating computer games alone.
Same system here in India, my blood donation gives me a card which entitles me blood for myself or immediate family in case of need.
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Jingoism stems from a period of British history when the Empire was finally beginning to overstretch; in London, and subsequently around the country, an extremely well received song, 'By Jingo', was performed, essentially bemoaning the treachery of foreigners, nobility of British civilising Empire, and staunch support for our boys out there fighting the evil fuzzy wuzzies and smelly Russkies... By Jingo.
It refers to an innate, inaccurate, emotive patriotism that has little to do with a rational assessment of the facts, that is keyed simply around 'Us' and 'Them'. Appropriately, the original song was also justifying the support of power-politics with fairly severe humanitarian outcomes.
Jingoism is a real word with a specific meaning, context and history, all of which are appropriate here. Simply because you don't understand a word, or the precision of its usage doesn't mean its pretentious; it means that if you wish to fully understand the references an author is making you need to discover more about the words they use.
Matt
A red cross sign doesn't mean "the red cross corporation (tm)" to anybody, it means:
a)This guy patches people up
b)He doesn't carry a weapon
c)Don't shoot him.
Nope - a red cross on a white background means that the bearer is a Knight Templar in the Middle Ages (around 1200AD), a European Crusader warrior for the Christians involved in a Holy War against the Moors (Muslims of Turkey and the Middle East). The Templars also happened to have hospitals which were open for public use - as did pretty much any holy order of most religions - but you can be pretty damned sure they carried some very nasty weapons, and were known for meting out some very unpleasant retribution on Muslim civilians (the Moors were also guilty of some awful attrocities- it was a particularly bloody period of history on all sides, but that's religion for you).
Various bodies still associating themselves with the Knights Templar still exist today, most of which are fairly harmless religious sects (well, as harmless as monotheism can be), but a small minority are fronts for racist right-wing extremists.
The word "hospital" also comes from related Crusader cult, the Knights Hospitaller (aka the Knights of Malta) who were charged with protecting Christian pilgrims on their journies to the Middle East. "Hospitaller" was the word for the staff of a "Hospice" or "Hostel"- words meaning a hotel for pilgrims; primarily providing bed and food, but usually also some basic medical facilities (pilgrims would usually be old or ill anyway, and usually embarked on their pilgrimage in the hope of divine intervention against a terminal illness). However, the Knights Hospitaller's symbol was a white Maltese cross on a red background - the opposite of the Red Cross symbol.
Andrew Oakley - www.aoakley.com
The very first thing we did during the siege of Fallujah was take out the hospitals (the military viewed them as being sympathetic to the insurgents because they'd release civilian casualty figures, in addition to the obvious fact that they were rescuing wounded insurgents for medical care).
I can't claim to be an expert on this topic, but it's well-known that insurgents in Iraq and Israel use buildings like mosques and hospitals to store munitions and for protection. Ambulances are often used in a similar way. If you were a soldier fighting the insurgents, would decide to simply take fire from a mosque or hospital without being able to respond? You may want to consider that the medical helicopters the US military uses cannot carry guns by law; even though they often draw fire from the ground, they cannot defend themselves except by getting away fast. It's difficult and sometimes impossible to obey the rules of war if the other guys aren't.
I'm not trying to excuse everything the US is doing in Iraq; I'm just trying to point out that there's a very important context for those decisions by the military that you're leaving out.
I have discovered a truly remarkable proof of this theorem that this sig is too small to contain.
They're not preventing use of the trademark (RTFA). They want it used strictly in the way it's supposed to be used in war--not, for example, as a disguise for your covert ops to penetrate enemy defenses, etc. They don't want it portrayed in any way that can be viewed as a threat, making them look like a viable target.
And whether people respect it as such now, the ideal that they're going for is that people don't attack medics for humanitarian reasons. They would at least like to get the soldier home alive, even if he can't fight anymore.