Marvel Sues City of Heroes

[Nevergone]

Well, it's finally happened..

Marvel Sues Cryptic/NCSoft

Marvel is claiming that because you can make something that looks like the Hulk that City of Heroes has harmed Marvel's chances of licensing their heroes in some theoretical Marvel MMO.

[Wolfe]

And who will win?

In my world of guesstimates its like saying that just because you sell someone a guitar you give someone the power to make songs that sound like Metallica and therefore Metallica can sue your ass.

[Nevergone]

I don't think Marvel's case will hold up in court, only time will tell though.

They're trying to say that CoH is operating a business akin to Napster; except with Napster people were downloading music without paying for it. If Cryptic was making Marvel comic books availible via download, I could see the point in all of this. As games become offer increasingly advanced character creation tools, companies are going to run into these issues more often. That's really kind of a bitch too, because it might end up halting diverse character creation.

I wouldn't be surprised however if Cryptic goes through their name database and swiftly changes a crapload of copyrighted names. It's in their ToS agreement after all.

[Lefazz]

Such bullshit.

[BurnemWizfyre]

Tolkens great grandchildren to sue EQ for having hobbits (halflings)!!

[Lefazz]

OMG, Gary Gygax just sued Peter Jackson!!

[Goofy]

Dear god Furor! What have you done!

[McCheese]

I think Marvel and CoH should have their respective characters fight to the death, winner takes all.

[Cybsled]

I hope Marvel gets bitch slapped. Especially since any MMO they make is going to suck Hulk balls.

Like Marvel heroes are %100 original to begin with.

[Xitix]

Wonder if they will sue the makers of Play-Doh as every time kids try to make a person out of the green variety it looks allmost exactly like the Hulk(tm)(c).

[Khalikryst]

Well the one thing that Marvel has going for them that isn't mentioned in that article (but is in some others) is that in the COH official strat guide there is a screenshot of three guys dressed up exactly like Wolverine down to the claws on his hands with names like "Wulferine", "Wolvereen" and "Wulverine" all standing around in a screenshot joking to each other about whose the "real" character.

Since the strat guide is a licensed product and the screenshot is from in-game, it's the kind of thing where a judge might have to go "Marvel has a point".

[Shaof]

I thought Prima guides were 3rd party.

[masteen]

Originally posted by Khalikryst
Well the one thing that Marvel has going for them that isn't mentioned in that article (but is in some others) is that in the COH official strat guide there is a screenshot of three guys dressed up exactly like Wolverine down to the claws on his hands with names like "Wulferine", "Wolvereen" and "Wulverine" all standing around in a screenshot joking to each other about whose the "real" character.

Since the strat guide is a licensed product and the screenshot is from in-game, it's the kind of thing where a judge might have to go "Marvel has a point".

1) The pic in the strat guide is NOT an in-game SS, it is a COMIC STRIP.

2) The comic appears in the section detailing what NOT to do with your character.

3) The COH EULA includes language saying that you are not allowed to do shit like that.

4) Marvel must be smoking crack if they think that this is going to fly. "OH NOES, THEY HAVE NAZI BAD GUYS TOO! WE MUST SUE THEM FOR STEALING THE IDEA WE STOLE BACK IN THE 50'S!!!"

[Iannis]

Stan Lee is a dick.

[Templor]

Things like this make you wonder what the fuck they could possible be thinking....Seriously, this law suit is a joke and no respectable judge with any knowledge of the law should let this make it into court.

Are they going to start suing other artists because they have the capability to draw Marvel characters?

Good grief!