Heald
6th January 2005, 11:40 AM
LOS ANGELES — Marvel Enterprises is suing two firms behind a computer superhero role-playing game it claims allows players to make virtual characters that are too similar to "The Hulk," "X-Men" and other heroes in the comic book company's stable.
The lawsuit claims South Korea-based NCSoft and San Jose-based Cryptic Studios violated Marvel's trademark characters in their game City of Heroes. Marvel seeks unspecified damages and an injunction against the two companies to stop using its characters.
The personal computer game enables players to design superheroes' look and abilities and then battle against other players' characters in a virtual city. Like similar so-called massively multiplayer role-playing games where thousands of players can be playing simultaneously at any given time, City of Heroes claims to offer a myriad of combinations so that no two players' characters are exactly the same.
But in its lawsuit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court, Marvel argues that the game's character creation engine easily allows players to design characters that are virtual copies of its own superheros, including "The Incredible Hulk."
The company singles out a game feature for creating "a gigantic, green, 'science-based tanker'-type hero that moves and behaves nearly identically" to the "Hulk." Players can also create a "mutant-based" hero powers and a costume nearly identical to Marvel's "Wolverine," according to the suit.
The New York-based company also took issue with the ability of players to go so far as to name their superhero creations after Marvel comic book characters.
Marvel claims the firms' are responsible because the game is played on servers operated by the companies, raising the question of whether a company is responsible for their customers' actions on its computer server.
Marvel also claims the companies have disrupted its "existing and future" business prospects for licensing its characters in video games similar to City of Heroes.
An e-mail sent to NCSoft seeking comment was not immediately returned after-hours Thursday. No number was listed for Cryptic Studios.
The Marvel lawsuit appears to be the first to raise this question in the scope of an online game. But early copyright infringement lawsuits brought by recording companies against pioneer file-sharing service Napster successfully argued Napster was liable for its customers' sharing of music online because they could do so only by accessing the company's computer system.
The argument can still be made that City of Heroes is only empowering users to the same degree that an establishment like Kinkos enables customers to make paper copies of copyrighted material, said Fred von Lohmann, senior intellectual property attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
"Is it a violation of copyright to make up a character in the virtual world or is that fair use?" von Lohmann said. "This is really untested ground in the courts."
Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Click here for link (http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2004-11-11-marvel-sues-over-avatars_x.htm?csp=15)
Does City of Heroes have a naming restriction policy? Games like World of Warcraft, Planetside and Star Wars Galaxies have rules saying that your names cannot be copyrighted, so surely City of Heroes would be the same.
Anyway, I don't really see why Marvel is menstruating over this. It's not like they're losing money. Sure, the majority of the people who play this are probably fans of their comics (not avid readers, say, but like X-Men and Spiderman and the like) and so some 'influence' may creep in but they aren't exactly going to like Marvel if this, from what I've heard, brilliant MMORPG is pulled off the internet. The arguments are incredibly weak e.g. 'mutants' = X-men? Great, call up the dictionary companies, mutant is now owned by Marvel, case closed. Gotta love this too:
Marvel also claims the companies have disrupted its "existing and future" business prospects for licensing its characters in video games similar to City of Heroes.Boo hoo, they thought of a MMORPG with superheroes before you did, sorry, you lose.
However, this could have more serious consequences. In the unlikely event that CoH loses, it opens up every single creator in any video game for suing. Would the makers of DragonballZ take issue with games such as WWE Smackdown which include everything from Super Saiyan hair to Goku's taunts? Or even the great Half-Life mod Earth's Special Forces? The owners of the Lord of the Rings franchise could sue games like Neverwinter Nights for allowing people to make copies of Legolas and Gimli. The list is endless.
Discuss.
The lawsuit claims South Korea-based NCSoft and San Jose-based Cryptic Studios violated Marvel's trademark characters in their game City of Heroes. Marvel seeks unspecified damages and an injunction against the two companies to stop using its characters.
The personal computer game enables players to design superheroes' look and abilities and then battle against other players' characters in a virtual city. Like similar so-called massively multiplayer role-playing games where thousands of players can be playing simultaneously at any given time, City of Heroes claims to offer a myriad of combinations so that no two players' characters are exactly the same.
But in its lawsuit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court, Marvel argues that the game's character creation engine easily allows players to design characters that are virtual copies of its own superheros, including "The Incredible Hulk."
The company singles out a game feature for creating "a gigantic, green, 'science-based tanker'-type hero that moves and behaves nearly identically" to the "Hulk." Players can also create a "mutant-based" hero powers and a costume nearly identical to Marvel's "Wolverine," according to the suit.
The New York-based company also took issue with the ability of players to go so far as to name their superhero creations after Marvel comic book characters.
Marvel claims the firms' are responsible because the game is played on servers operated by the companies, raising the question of whether a company is responsible for their customers' actions on its computer server.
Marvel also claims the companies have disrupted its "existing and future" business prospects for licensing its characters in video games similar to City of Heroes.
An e-mail sent to NCSoft seeking comment was not immediately returned after-hours Thursday. No number was listed for Cryptic Studios.
The Marvel lawsuit appears to be the first to raise this question in the scope of an online game. But early copyright infringement lawsuits brought by recording companies against pioneer file-sharing service Napster successfully argued Napster was liable for its customers' sharing of music online because they could do so only by accessing the company's computer system.
The argument can still be made that City of Heroes is only empowering users to the same degree that an establishment like Kinkos enables customers to make paper copies of copyrighted material, said Fred von Lohmann, senior intellectual property attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
"Is it a violation of copyright to make up a character in the virtual world or is that fair use?" von Lohmann said. "This is really untested ground in the courts."
Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Click here for link (http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2004-11-11-marvel-sues-over-avatars_x.htm?csp=15)
Does City of Heroes have a naming restriction policy? Games like World of Warcraft, Planetside and Star Wars Galaxies have rules saying that your names cannot be copyrighted, so surely City of Heroes would be the same.
Anyway, I don't really see why Marvel is menstruating over this. It's not like they're losing money. Sure, the majority of the people who play this are probably fans of their comics (not avid readers, say, but like X-Men and Spiderman and the like) and so some 'influence' may creep in but they aren't exactly going to like Marvel if this, from what I've heard, brilliant MMORPG is pulled off the internet. The arguments are incredibly weak e.g. 'mutants' = X-men? Great, call up the dictionary companies, mutant is now owned by Marvel, case closed. Gotta love this too:
Marvel also claims the companies have disrupted its "existing and future" business prospects for licensing its characters in video games similar to City of Heroes.Boo hoo, they thought of a MMORPG with superheroes before you did, sorry, you lose.
However, this could have more serious consequences. In the unlikely event that CoH loses, it opens up every single creator in any video game for suing. Would the makers of DragonballZ take issue with games such as WWE Smackdown which include everything from Super Saiyan hair to Goku's taunts? Or even the great Half-Life mod Earth's Special Forces? The owners of the Lord of the Rings franchise could sue games like Neverwinter Nights for allowing people to make copies of Legolas and Gimli. The list is endless.
Discuss.