Tue, 04 Jan 2005

Et tu, Marvel?

It never fails. Every time I think that the "intellectual property industry" has finally gone completely insane, they come out with a new thrust to "protect" their precious commodities that goes even further into the rarefied realms of lunacy. Now a major comic publisher is suing it's fans for pretending to be a comic character. How nuts can they get?

...if the court accepts Marvel's notion that playing Wolverine or the Incredible Hulk online is unlawful, you can expect a chill to spread through all the MMO universes. Rights holders will begin insisting that MMO operators police their games for unauthorized elements -- robots that look too much like C3PO, uniforms that look too much like Captain Kirk's, haircuts that mimic Bart Simpson's, in-game face paint that evokes KISS, or blonde vampire slayers named Buffy.

Or better, as the article concludes, carrying this online battle into "meatspace", and prosecuting little Johnny for pretending to be Captain America in a backyard game with his buddies.

The comics have survived the numerous attacks mounted against them by government and culture over the years, but I doubt that they'll survive if they persist in their own suicidal attack on their fans.

For kids reared on comic books, what could be more natural than tumbling into the backyard with their friends to make up new adventures for their favorite superheroes? How many comic book fans adorned their grade-school notebooks with hand-drawn images of the X-Men, the Incredible Hulk, and Captain America?

(link) [Law.com]

via Overlawyered

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