Comic book company Marvel has brought suit against NCSoft and Cryptic Studios Inc. over their MMORPG City of Heroes. Essssssentially, Marvel is claiming that City of Heroes provides players the tools needed to nearly duplicate certain Marvel characters, such as the Hulk or Wolverine. Extending the logic of the complaint, tabletop RPGs could theoretically be affected, as they too provide the tools. As does a #2 pencil.
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Reminds me of when they went after Freedom Force for doing the exact same thing. It is almost like they want to alienate people who like certian characters of their world.
Marvel has much deeper pockets than NCSoft and Cryptic. Whether they win or not, the software maker will really be hurt monetarily by this. Legal actions like this can ruin a business. Too bad Marvel couldn’t take the high road and just put out a strong game of their own.
Considering how much of the actual liscensed stuff Marvel puts out is crap, it would be a huge strecth for them to do this on their own. Maybe they will settle for a percentage, and put out a sanctioned expansion pack or something. Pretty standard way to leverage your way into something good.
Mmm.. Marvel might also want to sue the modelling clay companies as well as it’s way too easy to sculpt an action figure. Oh and paper is bad as well as people might actually draw the marvel characters so I say pull all paper products from store shelves now. Hey why don’t they just sue people for having imaginations.
“Defendant’s use of his imagination allows him to create worlds with originality, perspective on the real world, and a general lack of cultural conservatism bordering on obsessive compulsion, thereby giving him an unfair competitive advantage over Marvel’s products.”
Ahhh… Corporate Amerikkka at it’s finest.