Marvel vs. City of Heroes

[billroper]

Via Mark Evanier, here's an interesting article discussing Marvel Comics' lawsuit vs. the City of Heroes folks.

Comments

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I'd heard about that lawsuit. Example #4,863,921,017 of a company willing to sacrifice long-term customer good will for the sake of a little short-term profit. As if superhero games were suddenly brand-new; as if no one who ever played Champions, Villains & Vigilantes, and Superworld, to go back to the beginning, ever ever ever created Marvel & DC heroes in those systems. As if players of the Marvel RPG never created DC heroes, or vice versa.

It also reminded me of TSR's ill-fated Indiana Jones RPG -- the one where they trademarked "Nazi". Not the same, I know, but the same philosophy of Protect The License At All Cost.

[(Anonymous)]

"Protect The License At All Cost". I get the idea that this is at the root of a lot of this nonsense. Companies have lost trademarks when the trdemarked name for an item became the default noun--"Zipper" was once the name of only one brand of hook-and-slider fastener--so the corporate paranoia over this sort of thing is understandable, if still infuriating.

It strikes me that the best way to handle this would be to change the trademark and copyright laws to allow "fair use" without danger to the trademark holder.

Of course, that would probably put some lawyers out of work.

Sam Winolj