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Marvel Comics sues creators of "City of Heros"...

Marvel needs to be smacked for this. I can make a drawing of the Hulk (not a very good one, mind you) with a green crayon. Does this mean all green crayons should be banned?

Dave
 
Um, they've got a point. If your livlihood was based on the exclusive distribution of certain characters, I doubt you'd like companies skirting around the legal issues of having your characters in their game by giving players the ability to create characters just like yours.

Of course, that then begs the question, how do you run a super hero game and NOT infringe on superheroes? Good question that NCSoft should have thought of. It also begs the question, are sword and sorcery fantasy characters currently infringed on in those kinds of MMOs.
 
Originally posted by: HeroOfPellinor
Um, they've got a point. If your livlihood was based on the exclusive distribution of certain characters, I doubt you'd like companies skirting around the legal issues of having your characters in their game by giving players the ability to create characters just like yours.

Of course, that then begs the question, how do you run a super hero game and NOT infringe on superheroes? Good question that NCSoft should have thought of. It also begs the question, are sword and sorcery fantasy characters currently infringed on in those kinds of MMOs.
Click to expand...

I definately see your point, but I personally don't see how the use of names in COH affects Marvel from a business (ie, profit) standpoint. Actually, it kinda seems as though it's free marketing.

This same discussion was on another board I frequent, and here's what a friend of mine had to say:

The problem is that copyright is so messed up in the U.S. these days that if you don't enforce every possible infringement then you could lose your rights in future. This is why Disney has sued daycare centers and the Tolkien estate has sued fan groups. If they didn't then someone could make an unauthorised movie/ book and say that copyright had already lapsed due to prior non-enforcement... and get away with it.
Click to expand...
 
Originally posted by: BlueWeasel
Originally posted by: HeroOfPellinor
Um, they've got a point. If your livlihood was based on the exclusive distribution of certain characters, I doubt you'd like companies skirting around the legal issues of having your characters in their game by giving players the ability to create characters just like yours.

Of course, that then begs the question, how do you run a super hero game and NOT infringe on superheroes? Good question that NCSoft should have thought of. It also begs the question, are sword and sorcery fantasy characters currently infringed on in those kinds of MMOs.
Click to expand...

I definately see your point, but I personally don't see how the use of names in COH affects Marvel from a business (ie, profit) standpoint. Actually, it kinda seems as though it's free marketing.
Click to expand...

Well, as I see it, it's not so much about the names as it is the representations. I saw two guys in Beta dressed up EXACTLY like Ace and Gary the Ambiguously Gay Duo. Now, that took some talent, but looking JUST like Ironman in that game is easy to do.
 
Seriously this is ridiculous. You would have to sue the people that have no imagination and make lame rip-off characters of fairly lame characters. Next fan fiction writers will get sued too. Blah.
 
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