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Games Workshop & Trademark Bullying
02-07-2013, 10:02 AM
Spotted this tonight: http://mcahogarth.org/?p=10593 Author MC. Hogarth, who has an ebook called Spots the Space Marine, that was on Amazon, had it taken down because Games Workshop voiced a trademark complaint, as the blog post says, believing that their entry into ebooks gives them the common law trademark rights to the term Space Marine in all its forms. Amazon complies rather than investigate, as, judging from what I do know, this is pretty thin legal standing on their part(Saw a comment where someone mentioned them trying something similar against Blizzard for the marines in Starcraft, but I do not know if truth or rumor)
Other info:
http://boingboing.net/2013/02/06/games- ... bully.html
"This hand of mine glows with an awesome power. Its burning grip tells me to defeat you....
Shining FINGER!" -Domon Kashuu, Mobile Fighter G Gundam
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Oh wow. GW is waving around their legal assholery again. And then they wonder why everyone treats them like a bag of dicks.
Matrix Dragon Wrote:Oh wow. GW is waving around their legal assholery again. And then they wonder why everyone treats them like a bag of dicks. Wasn't that because they keep raising their prices while making their mini's out of cheaper and cheaper materials? 
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That too.... Kick up the price. Knock down the quality. Wonder why revenue is falling.
The problem with trademarks is that you absolutely have to defend them, or you run the risk of loosing them. And there's no such thing as prior art, either. I think GW got hammered by this once, a while back. It might've been in relation to Blood Bowl but I can't recall the details off the top of my head.
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Yeah, well if they try to claim they have legal ownership of the term 'space marine', then really, they're a bunch of dicks. You can argue about trademark requirements or some such nonsense, but in the end. Dicks.
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Not saying they aren't acting like a big fat waving one.... but at least there's a reason.
Either way, the last GW model I bought was a Shadowsword. It was a nice model. That was 4 years ago. Paints I bought regularly up until my FLGS shut up. Books..... I like the Ciaphas Cain series a lot. Keeps more of the original 40k tone really.
I still have half an army's worth of guardsmen kicking around in box and on-sprue. And that Doug Sangnoir miniature started life as a Cadian Imperial Guardsman.
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I'd say that the trademark and copyright fields have gotten overlawyered as well as a questionable increase in the extent and length of the validity of both (Thank Disney and Big Media corps for that idiocy). Nor do the differences between U.S., British, and European trademark law help matters in the least. GW went after the book basing themselves on European TM law not British or U.S. which are more limited in extent.
Thanks to the EFFthe book is back up on amazon. http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/02/t ... ack-online
It does look like though that GW legal dept. did a serious overreach and ended up doing more damage to the companies image by being a pack of boneheaded trigger happy idiots.
Nor did their statement on Facebook in any way help matters see :
http://www.facebook.com/notes/games-wo ... 2240435610
(Take a look at the 910 plus comments and counting which for the most part have been calling GWs behavior out.
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Copyright to "space marine." Shyeah, right. Leaving out all literary uses of the phrase, simply 'cause I'm sure I'd miss a few, allow me to mention that Leslie Fish's song "Banned From Argo," recorded in 1977, ten years before 40K, mentioned Scotty out-drinking "seven space marines and a demolition crew." So she at the very least has a prior usage to wave in GW's face. So much for their copyright on such a basic term.
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Here's another bit of trademark related craziness...
http://io9.com/5983237/judge-rules-that ... -character
--Werehawk--
My mom's brief take on upcoming Guatemalan Elections "In last throes of preelection activities. Much loudspeaker vote pleading."
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Gamers workshop seems to have fled Facebook. Looks like they couldn't take the heat from their post on the issue.
--Werehawk--
My mom's brief take on upcoming Guatemalan Elections "In last throes of preelection activities. Much loudspeaker vote pleading."
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Werehawk, it's not a new thing for them at one point they had a forum on the company website. It didn't become the hugbox they wanted, so they killed it. Man, if there's a Kickstarter to do a buy out on all GW shares I'd think it would very shortly meet the target.....and then it would fail due to them delisting and going private.
Anyway you'd probably get more of a response by blockading both GW HQ in Nottingham and the head guy in charge's residence.
At a local gaming store, I saw even more proof of Games workshops stupidity.
They got in the latest White Dwarfs and army books, but they where all shrink wrapped.
Me: *To the sales Assistant* Is there a Store copy I could look at? *They know me and know I tend to buy one or two GW products to paint up and sell(
Assistant: No sadly.
Me: Huh?
Assistant: They aren't giving out store copies any more, if you want to look at it, you have to buy it sadly.
Me: But.... how do I know if I even want the book if I can't look in it.
Assistant: I been getting that question all day... my answer is try and find a PDF.
When the sales assistant tells you to get a PDF over the official book, you know the company has stuffed up.
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It strikes me that Game Workshop is a lot like the Titanic.
When warned about icebergs, their idea is to go even faster to get out of the iceberg zone faster.
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Hey, when it is cheaper to buy the box starter game than an army box starter (so 2 armies instead of one) alarm bells are ringing.
I remember when they charged only $35 AU For a plastic box squad.... not the current $55 >.
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The starter box's are okay at low point levels, they just need another non-scout troop choice and "METAL BOXES". With the current Dark Vengeance set on the Dark Angel side all that's needed is a change of HQ, proxy in Azrael to make the Deathwing & Ravenwing troops or use the masters of those sections to make them troops and sprinkle in Land Raiders & Rhinos to choice.
Mine was use Belial, get more Deathwing termies (+20, 25 total) and get Contemptor Mortis and add a Spartan tank. Now I just need to learn how to use 'em, step 1: don't assault CSM Warp Talons...
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dark seraph Wrote:Hey, when it is cheaper to buy the box starter game than an army box starter (so 2 armies instead of one) alarm bells are ringing.
I remember when they charged only $35 AU For a plastic box squad.... not the current $55 >. --
Rob Kelk
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There's another European trademark case starting up involving the Python programming language:
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013 ... ark-in-eu/
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What the game DESPERATELY needs is a playable rules set.
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Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.
That stay in effect for more than two years.
It's no wonder I changed to Warmachine, cheaper, easier to transport and been around for a decade now and only revised their rules once. (Which didn't exclude any of the preexisting models, another point over GW XD)
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Personally, I like Mobile Frame Zero. http://mobileframezero.com/mfz/ Buy miniatures? Pfui. Build 'em out of Lego.
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