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Dumpshock Forums _ General Gaming _ Marvel Comics sues City of Heroes
Posted by: KarmaInferno Nov 19 2004, 07:39 PM
Hi! I couldn't find any reference to this searching here, so...
I know a number of folks here play City of Heroes and quite enjoy it, and I thought you'd all like to know about this, if you didn't already.
The makers of CoH, NC Soft and Cryptic Studios, are being sued by Marvel Entertainment for multiple counts of copyright and trademark violations.
- http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/041111/superhero_lawsuit_2.html?printer=1
- http://www.crypticstudios.com
Now the actual case filing has been made available:
- http://eff.org/IP/20041115_Marvel_NCSoft.pdf
-karma
Posted by: Nikoli Nov 19 2004, 08:13 PM
Then Marvel an every other company with a registered trademark logo needs to sue every graphics program on the market. Because you can recreate any of their stuff on the software, thus "damaging" the Marvel name.
It sounds like Marvel was going to do a similair game but got beaten to market by CoH and is sueing to recover damages. It's rediculous. Though I find it funny, the exact mechanism that allows these companies to shut down out of game trades on things like Ebay is providing Marvel this opportunity to frythem. That is, the players neither own the characters and items nor do they share any rights to them in fair use cases. The players are shielded. (though it is silly that they didn't code more carfully to protect themselves.)
Posted by: Austere Emancipator Nov 19 2004, 08:39 PM
...
...What Nikoli said.
Posted by: Nikoli Nov 19 2004, 08:42 PM
This smacks of how TSR publically decried the various live action RPG's that were coming out, NERO, SOLAR, etc. because when you get down to it, they were beaten to market and would now look like they were cashing in and not innovating.
Posted by: Erebus Nov 19 2004, 08:57 PM
Both TSR and Marvel are/were notorious for lawsuits like this.
I'm not surprised at all.
Posted by: Nikoli Nov 19 2004, 09:02 PM
Well, Marvel does have the right to be protective of it's images as Comic Book heroes are a hot media commodity. To me, this is like if The Tolkeen Family sued Verant or Vivendi for infringement. It just shouldn't happen.Besides, all CoH has to do is prove that the characters are at least 10% different in any conceivable case brought up by Marvel and the Trademark issue goes out the door.
Posted by: KarmaInferno Nov 19 2004, 10:01 PM
Reading from the suit...
Marvel alleges that the red, white, and blue patriotic hero Statesman is a rip-off of Captain America.
They even go so far as to mention Statesman's shield.
Statesman doesn't use a shield.
He also flies and can punch through a space battleship like a bullet through butter.
Did these yabos even do anything except look at the game box?
-karma
Posted by: MYST1C Nov 19 2004, 10:21 PM
| QUOTE (KarmaInferno) |
| Marvel alleges that the red, white, and blue patriotic hero Statesman is a rip-off of Captain America. |
Hm, there is a another hero published more than a year before Captain America who wears a stars-and-stripes-type costume - http://www.toonopedia.com/shield1.htm...
Posted by: Morgannah Nov 20 2004, 12:14 AM
| QUOTE |
| Among other things, Defendants' "Statesman" character is a blatant rip-off of Captain America. |
Rip-off, hmm? Is that a "legal" term?
Go figure, an American "superhero" wearing red white and blue? And a star too?! *gasps* Statesman's helmet doesn't even really look like Magneto's. And what's with all the "quotations," anyway?Grr.
I have a lot of words to describe this "lawsuit," unfortunately I can't use any of them here.
Posted by: Doctor Funkenstein Nov 20 2004, 12:21 AM
I so fucking hate lawyers.
Posted by: Morgannah Nov 20 2004, 12:24 AM
| QUOTE (Doctor Funkenstein) |
| I so fucking hate lawyers. |
....
*looks up*
What he said.
Posted by: Kanada Ten Nov 20 2004, 12:26 AM
I love them. We need more. Challenge everything.
Posted by: Fortune Nov 20 2004, 01:33 AM
Big Deal. Marvel will lose (probably before reaching court) ... CoH will sell more product from the 'free' exposure ... Marvel will sell more product from the 'free' exposure ... Their respective lawyer's fees are negligable, because they already have attorneys on retainer, and this is more than likely going to just be a 'paper case'. Nobody loses.
Posted by: toturi Nov 20 2004, 02:27 AM
Why doesn't Marvel sue DC? I mean Superman(Red, White and Blue too).
Posted by: Doctor Funkenstein Nov 20 2004, 02:51 AM
...and he does believe in truth, justice, and the American way. While they're at it, they should sue the United States and their use of that Uncle Sam character -- talk about a total rip-off.
Posted by: Bigity Nov 20 2004, 04:13 AM
What about Minuteman, from Freedom Force. Talk about being almost Captain America...
Posted by: Casazil Nov 21 2004, 06:26 PM
| QUOTE (toturi) |
| Why doesn't Marvel sue DC? I mean Superman(Red, White and Blue too). |
Marvel would lose that case seeing as Superman is the longest running comic book in history. No judge would say DC had to pay damages when their character was around before Marvels.
Posted by: Doctor Funkenstein Nov 21 2004, 06:36 PM
Gosh. Really? I'm sure toturi had no idea. Next thing you know, you'll be telling me Uncle Sam was around long before Marvel, too. Shyeah, right!
Posted by: Kagetenshi Nov 22 2004, 02:09 AM
Didn't you know? Marvel invented those colours.
~J
Posted by: toturi Nov 22 2004, 02:12 AM
Can Marvel sue France then?
Posted by: Doctor Funkenstein Nov 22 2004, 06:59 AM
"SURRENDER?!?! DO YOU THINK THIS LETTER ON MY HEAD STANDS FOR FRANCE?!"
(Sorry... lame Captain American via the Ultimates flashback...)
Posted by: DrJest Nov 22 2004, 09:43 AM
| QUOTE |
| What about Minuteman, from Freedom Force. Talk about being almost Captain America... |
They didn't sue the Freedom Force guys, but they DID threaten lawsuits against anyone who put Marvel character skins on their websites.
Folks, the guys a NCSoft have been expecting this. It won't come to anything for one simple reason - part of the ToS for CoH (heh) is that you DON'T use trademarked or copyrighted character names or images. Many of the names, in fact, are on a special list that automatically prohibits usage. Specifically, remember it is the use of the name and the image together that could potentially cause copyright infringment - one without the other is not so much of an issue except in certain obvious (Spiderman, Batman, Superman) circumstances.
Now, anyone who plays CoH knows that there are plenty of people who don't pay attention to that part of the ToS. I've lost count of how many Wolveryne, Wulverine, Wolveriine and other clones I've seen on there, and let's not even address the Punisher and Hulk issues. But sometimes the more blatant copies do get banned. I've also lost count of the number of whiny threads on the CoH boards saying "I got banned just cos I'm playing the Punsher (sic) in my black costume with the white skull! It's so unfair!"
NCSoft have specifically banned copyright infringements from the game. I think even Marvel - moral successors to They Sue Regularly™ - will have trouble winning this one.
Oh, one last thing - the real reason for the lawsuit? Five gets you ten it's because Marvel's own online MMORPG is getting close to testing.
Posted by: CountZero Nov 22 2004, 07:11 PM
| QUOTE (DrJest) | ||
Oh, one last thing - the real reason for the lawsuit? Five gets you ten it's because Marvel's own online MMORPG is getting close to testing. |
IIRC, Marvel's MMORPG got canned...
Posted by: DrJest Nov 22 2004, 09:29 PM
Did it really? I hadn't heard. Hmm, maybe they figure to make some money out of this MMORPG thing somehow 
Posted by: Nikoli Nov 22 2004, 09:40 PM
as I said before, they go to market now and they aren't innovators. So I can see where the exec. are miffed about his. Though because of the ToS, teh judge should throw it out as Marvel logged in expressly to recreate their trademarks.
Posted by: Shadow Nov 23 2004, 12:11 AM
I was on CoH last night and saw two different attempts at ripping off Superman, as well as using names of Marvell superheroes names. If I was Marvel I would tel Cryptic to make damn sure it wasnt possible to defase there characters int he game, rather than suing because the guy on the box resembles Steve Rogers.
Posted by: Morgannah Nov 23 2004, 02:24 AM
The way I see it, though, is that the character generator is one of the best features of the game (certainly better than any I've seen before). It makes it possible to make your superhero look pretty much like anything you want and while some of the less-imaginative players DO make clones of well known heroes, so many more people have been able to come up with innovative designs that would be impossible anywhere else. There are literally millions of options, here.
What's more, many of the Marvel heros' costumes are based off of fairly basic templates and then given some interesting details, none of which are available in CoH. We can make a few fair impersonations, but last time I checked, you can't sue someone for making it possible to make a character in blue tights with a red cape and underwear.
Posted by: KarmaInferno Nov 24 2004, 04:56 PM
I could go to the clothing department of many a retail store right now and make quite a few Marvel costume look-alikes from off-the-rack clothing.
They gonna sue clothing stores now?
<sigh>
-karma
Posted by: JaronK Nov 24 2004, 08:50 PM
Still, with the costumes in CoH you can get what is obviously suppposed to be Cyclops's visor, which is pretty darned distinctive.
JaronK
Posted by: Doctor Funkenstein Nov 24 2004, 08:57 PM
As distinctive as Geordi's V.I.S.O.R.? There's also quite a few other comic book heroes from various companies that have similar occular shields/glasses. Even Doc Ock had something like one for a while.
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