A Not So Good Lawsuit

I Am Not A Lawyer(tm), but it appears to me on first blush that the issue raised by Marvel's lawsuit against an MMORPG company may have ramifications for SL. /May/ have ramifications, may not.

http://wired.com/news/games/0,2101,65722,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_5

</alarmist Kage>

I've seen the Lindens rip down a McDonald's parody build, and I would imagine that if there were someone building/using/selling copyrighted or trademarked material, they'd do it again.

In SL, all Marvel would have to do is make a complaint to LL, and LL would remove the offending objects.

LL certainly doesn't encourage that sort of activity, such as it looks like CoH does.

- Ace

Cory Doctorow's last little quote:

"Marvel is supposed to be a company that stands for fun, imagination and storytelling, but this lawyer-happy thuggery is the hallmark of a Stalinist dictatorship, not a game world."


snap.

If I were Linden Lab I'd be keeping an eye on this lawsuit:

http://www.ipnewsblog.com/node/view/2714

Marvel has lost all my future business. What are they thinking!? They are not being damaged by City of Heroes!!

They're just jealous they didn't think of it first.

Lynn are you here ???

I agree with Aaron Levy, vote with your dollars, or pounds in my case.

In the future anything labeled as Marvel does not interest me.

I do know that LL relies on the DCMA to protect itself from copyright infringement/violations. While that particular listing deals with the written character of Peter Pan; I am unsure how the DCMA would apply since LL was in co-sponsorship and especially since artistic 3D character replications were created. As stated previously, other companies have gone after "fan" websites to protect their vested interest in the character.

From reading, I do know that there is a huge difference between European and USA copyright laws; however, the hospital is claiming that they have the copyright up until 2038 on the Peter Pan character. They use the proceeds of the royalties from schools and organizations doing the plays to help fund the hospital.

Well, as far as I can read into it, LL ensured they were covered a while back.

1/ They have items within their policies against creation of copyrighted material

Its not protection legally, but does give LL the stance of the cooperating ASP. If there is a complaint pertaining to copyrights, they immediately remove said materials until the matter is resolved. Before, they actively used to control this, and ensured that copyrighted material was either replaced or they'd tear it down apon either noticing it or complaint.

2/ The announcement that we own our stuff.

Needless to say, LL very strategically pushed the responsibility onto us the users. If a lawsuit ensues, LL has nicely been positioned as the pure ASP, and we are the responsible parties. Most individuals never say that edge of the sword coming, while overall its a great benefit for us and LL, we have also taken on more responsibility for the ingame content, and LL got to step away.

Pretty simple, eh? Of course, the above is just my own outlook on it, just gotta wait for the troll to come and hit me on the head with a flaming turd now

I want whatever the lawyers at Marvel are smoking!!

That would be Darl McBride's ashes.

It's my understanding that trademark protection is a sort of use-it-or-lose-it thing. If you don't see to the protection of your trademark, you can lose your right to do so. So if Marvel doesn't, say, put the smackdown on anyone they are aware of who's allegedly infringing their trademark Captain America star costume or whatever it is, then they could lose their trademark rights to Captain America. The the way the law is written does not allow them to overlook this kinda stuff.

I imagine LL would only get into trouble regarding copyright or trademark infringement by members if violations were brought to LL's attention and they didn't do anything about it.

If City of Heroes is using a ripoff of a Marvel character to promote and advertise their game, they should remove the character from their advertisements and such.

Marvel seems like it's bullying CoH, though. Their case is valid, and they should protect their material, but suing CoH seems a little out of hand, why take away the fun for thousands of people? Why couldn't CoH and Marvel make some sort of agreement to include Marvel sponsored costumes in the game, and Marvel would get advertising and some amount of money?

I don't think this really threatens SL much, because the Lindens would just remove offending material if asked. Plus, the game doesn't use ripoffs of trademarked characters in its advertising. CoH kind of put up a sign saying "HEY WE ARE KIND OF COPYING MARVEL HERE!" SL doesn't do anything that would attract people who would go looking for broken trademark laws.

No, CoH did no such thing. Marvel didn't invent superheroes(despite having joint ownership of the term with DC Comics... who apparently aren't suing anybody over this... hmm), and CoH isn't using any characters that look like Marvel's property in their advertisements. Marvel isn't even claiming that someone IS ripping their characters off... they are complaining that the costume generater in CoH (which has literally millions of combinations) allows players to make an avatar that looks like a Marvel character. CoH has had a policy since beta that stated clearly that representations of copyrighted and/or trademarked characters were most definitely NOT allowed, and when found would be removed... gosh, just like LL does.

Marvel doesn't have a case...

I think CoH should ditch this "Statesman" character, being on the box probably attracted these Marvel people to go in and "investigate" the game.

Good thing everything I build/sell is 100% original. I never, EVER, make something based off an exterior design (except when I was a newbie, but only for the first month.) However, this will have ramifications in SL.

Cereal Milk's vehicles
Joshua Chaos's Nexus battle armor (master cheif design)
The Subero eXploder
My own HK G36 Class 5
David Gilmans avatar and things (grats for doing the right thing)
My Spinner and Alfa Romeo Spinner (taken off market)
Countless clothes

And those are just a FEW of the items based off other intelectual properties. The ones I listed above were the first to come to mind (mainly because of quality and/or recent forum posts).

To my knowledge, Fran's Seburo is more of an inspired-by than something directly based off of the GITS weaponry, including the name. The Seburo line in Ghost In The Shell itself is based off of preexisting firearms, such as Fabrique Nationale's FN P90.

Francis?

Didn't a linden make a Kyle from Southpark Avi? If so, then why isn't it o.k. for David's Avitars to stay in SL?

Just curious

i got rid of my avatars bc i didnt want any problems with teh copyrights of the characters i created. For instance, Ragdoll owns teletubbies (to my knowlege) and if Ragdoll was to see my Teletubby avatar to be sold, theyd definately do something about it. I am jsut playing it safe, and getting rid of it so i dont end up into any type of situation i dont want to b in.

I was a newbie when i did all those avatars (stopped in June, 2 months after playing SL) They were just old avatars i made, and just put em to the side to sell for fun. Didnt mean any harm.

(ps. if u see any vendors of mine selling my avatars, IM me IMMEDIATELY! ) ty.

Still, the name is copyrighted, just as my HKG36 is. Frankly im not taking action until its my ass on the line, or another SL residents ass on the line.

In related news Marvel sues makers of pens, pencils

http://www.bbspot.com/News/2004/11/marvel_sues.html

I think COH should keep Statesman. The article was wrong, the Statesman does not use a shield at all, and is not depicted with one in their materials. He is super strong and resilient, which Capt. America is not. As for the costume, Statesman wears a helmet (Cap does not...he has wing thingies on his head). Colorwise, both costumes look similar...but both are based on the American flag (Red, White & Blue with stars) which is a common and public icon. Just simple similarity to something without intent to copy is not infringement, if it were Marvel could claim all Vamps and Goths are copies of Blade...or anyone with a skull picture on a black tee is infringing on their rights to the Punisher.

Mmmm, I'm far from the only person who makes facsimiles of real-world cars in SL. The potential trademark issues have always been in the back of my mind, but so far it looks like the car companies don't care. And if they did, I have no problem with removing the names. It's no big deal.

If anything, MINI should be thanking me for providing them with yet another source of unorthodox advertising.

Actually Marvel has been talking about making a super hero MMORPG themselves. They are probably just trying to get rid of the competition. The makers of COH even ask the players to let them know when somebody has copied a known comic book character.

When I first saw the Statesman I never even thought of Captain America at all.

Well, nobody really wants to compete in the North American market anymore. Pretty soon there won't even BE any products being produced here. Every company will just have a bevy of lawyers and spend their days suing random people for profits.