GW and Blight Wheel - The Legal Loxatl Controversy

[pauljc]

Caitsidhe you pop up in every thread doing everything you can to slag off GW without having the faintest idea what you are talking about, it is really quite tiresome. I suggest you go and actually learn about copyright law first, and actually look into what is going on before continuing to talk nonsense.

Agreed. It's really tiresome. How's the weather up on that "Games Workshop is the devil" cloud?
Maybe for once, it would be nice to stop hating on GW, and wishing them ill, and actuall consider what they have done for the wargaming industry, and just say bloody 'thank you'?

With regards to copyrights, it does seem to me (with only cursory experience or knowledge in the matter) that EU and US work like this:

US - as long as it's not a direct re-mold of the original, you're free to get rich off of the backs of others.

EU - You cannot produce something that, despite a few minor changes, looks overall similar or indentical to an existing product.

One's a bit draconian, one's a bit capitalistic.

I think GW are right on the money in this case. The Mutant Kommodo copies every major detail of a copyrighted image, and just happens to be a lizardy thing.

GW are right on the money with CHS as well.

[OrksOrksOrks]

Well ... GW is. That's what a claim of copyright infringement is. There's nothing wrong with coincidentally coming up with something very similar to somebody else's work, or even coincidentally coming up with something identical to it in every respect. Copyright doesn't protect against similarity. It protects against copying. By suing for copyright infringement you are accusing the defendant of copying.


Are you quite sure about that? That isn't how it works in the United States. A copyright owner's copyright is not weakened or in danger of being lost if it isn't vigorously defended. I don't know about the UK or EU, but I'd be very surprised if it were different in this regard. European copyright is generally notable for being more creator-friendly than American, so if we don't require you to defend a copyright ...

GW aren't saying its a direct copy, they're saying its a derivative work, they've taken the work GW owns and deriving something from that, as a model making company, GW have every right to defend thier art work from being used by other model making companies and yes in the UK, they have to act to defend it or it weakens thier position on the ownership.

And you're all talking about the generic parts of a lizard warrior based on a komodo dragon, which GW have stated in their letter is not something they own, they acknowledge that anyone could make a sci-fi lizard warrior, the issue here is the similarities, which are highlighted again in the letter, the oval bionic implant in the same place on the head, the design and position of the bandolier, the elbow spikes and chin spikes (which aren't on a komodo dragon) being on both, the similarity of pose and positioning, when you look at these parts, which both you and Cait are convinietly ignoring because it harms you argument, then its really obvious that this is a derivative work and GW are right and correct to send this letter.

[Necron2.0]

... it would be nice to stop hating on GW, and wishing them ill, and actually consider what they have done to the wargaming industry, and just say bloody 'thank you, may I please have another'?

Fixed that for you.

Given all of GW's loving tenderness to the gaming community, I'm actually a little surprised they haven't sent their lawyers to gang-assault Victoria Lamb.

[OrksOrksOrks]

Fixed that for you.

Given all of GW's loving tenderness to the gaming community, I'm actually a little surprised they haven't sent their lawyers to gang-assault Victoria Lamb.

Do you know how rubbish, disperate and complicated wargaming was before GW came along? They made the hobby accesible to thousands of people who would never have gotten involved before and they consistenly put out the most impressive mass produced miniatures in the world. Saying they're a heartless company thats trying to wreck the wargaming hobby is short sighted at best and wilfully ignorant at worst.

I know you've probably never been cool or popular, so you might not realise it, but hating on the biggest company in the market for imagined slights doesn't make you cool and popular, it makes you a knob

[Necron2.0]

Wow. That was childish and amusing.

And I've been playing wargames since before there even WAS a Games Workshop. I call BS on everything you've said.

[gcsmith]

Wow. That was childish and amusing.

And I've been playing wargames since before there even WAS a Games Workshop. I call BS on everything you've said.

I've got some of the rules from before GW existed, even got some of the early gw rules (rogue trader) and boy were they clunky pieces of crap.

[lattd]

Lets just clarify something here, if like GW you have a copyright, once you prove your copyright exists before the accused created their copyright product, the burden of proving who copied who shifts. Instead of GW saying you copied our artwork because of .... the defendant has to say we did not copy because ....

Given that one of the defences to a copyright claim is we didn't know you had this copyright which will be extremely hard to prove in this case as GW is one of the leading miniature companies. It will be very hard to disprove they copied.

[gcsmith]

Well the source of the image is obscure. A book I've never heard of. and quite possibly a lot of people haven't

[OrksOrksOrks]

Lets just clarify something here, if like GW you have a copyright, once you prove your copyright exists before the accused created their copyright product, the burden of proving who copied who shifts. Instead of GW saying you copied our artwork because of .... the defendant has to say we did not copy because ....

Given that one of the defences to a copyright claim is we didn't know you had this copyright which will be extremely hard to prove in this case as GW is one of the leading miniature companies. It will be very hard to disprove they copied.

But now they have been informed, if they CONTINUE to infringe, thats where they will get in to trouble

[OrksOrksOrks]

Wow. That was childish and amusing.

And I've been playing wargames since before there even WAS a Games Workshop. I call BS on everything you've said.

Really, so you're saying that without GW there would have been a majour player interested in streamlining and improving the rules rather than the tiny cottage industry of fat old nerds making games for other fat old nerds? Have you ever seen Napoleonics games? Complicated, convoluted crap with ****ty models played mostly by grognards. Thats what we'd have for fantasy and sci-fi without GW.