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Dice Age — Indie Gaming Project vs. Hollywood
ArrowBay writes "Dice Age, a independent game project that raised nearly $35K through Kickstarter, is apparently facing some scrutiny from a certain movie studio that has produced movies with a similar name. From the latest project update: 'As if the Ice Age was exclusively the name of a movie, or if Dice Age was a movie itself, the 20th century fox has just asked for an extent of time (till 10-26-2011) to oppose to the registering of our beloved Dice Age game name. My point of view, as a scientist, is the Ice age is a geological era before it is a movie.""
Hollywood has made it their goal to privatize everything from "Seal Team 6"- registered by Disney, to our fairy tales like Snow White. Stealing from the public domain and threatening everybody not in the club is nothing new for them. I have little doubt that the bean counters at Fox known damn well that most courts in the land will back their insane claim, assuming the small developer can even afford to fight the battle.
Just rename it "Dice Edge"!
Oh... wait, that won't work either.
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Why should anyone pay to see a motion picture from a major studio ever again?
If they're going to have this kind of hostility to society, by claiming all of culture as their own private property, I don't see a single reason why I should respect them in any way.
I have said before, and believe more strongly all the time, that pirating movies is a political act of civil disobedience against elements of private industry who have attacked us first by stealing our shared culture.
They can take a story from Aesop, turn it into a movie, and then sue anyone who uses the phrase "The Tortoise and the Hare".
They have declared cultural war against us. I think we should strike back.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Wasn't it obvious that this would happen when they chose the name? I am not saying the studios are right to do this but really.... didn't the creators of this game see this coming?
...about using Casablanca in the title of their film. Sadly, Snopes says Groucho ws being a bit disingenuous, but still an awesome read.
Never let a lack of data get in the way of a good rant.
Products in different industries with no reasonable claim that it may confuse or mislead consumers. Absolutely no attempt to invoke the film's characters, images, or design. The game's title is not even Ice Age, it's a pun for a common phrase which accurately describes the product.
This isn't even close to copyright/trademark gray area, like parody, fair use, etc. It's simply intimidation and proves we're speeding down the IP-law slippery slope opponents had feared.
Well, if they don't like "Dice Age", they should just propose a rebrand as 21st Century Dice....
Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
How about a game where you have to kill an aromatic herb that's very nice in poultry and dumplings (but don't put too much or it tastes of medicine)?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
When I heard of the name "Dice Age", I didn't associate it with "Ice Age" at all until it was mentioned in the post. Not only that, but I associated it with the geological era before the movie.
This is lawyers nitpicking.
I am not devoid of humor.
perhaps they named the latest transformers movie "dark of the moon" only because they feared they'd get sued from pink floyd if they used "dark side of the moon". "dark of the moon" doesn't even sound appealing. "dark side", however, makes so much more sense.
...
I hadn't heard of Dice Age before I saw this article, but now that I saw THE DICE I am totally on board. Maybe this whole Fox SNAFU will work out in Dice Age's favor by further spreading its name?
Really?
"but Batman," he whined, "my gang and I were going to go hang out tonight!"
Was he as bad as the idea sounds?
*shudder*
Oh... right. The lawyers are taking all the money.