MuffinMan71 over on the LittleBigWorkshop forums reports that today he received a notice from Sony informing him that Marvel had taken offence to one of his submitted costumes, and it had subsequently been removed. After some research he notes that the offending costume appeared to be of ‘The Thing’ and that other Marvel based costumes had also been removed from user profiles.
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Whether Marvel will take this further and start asking Sony to moderate costumes in-game instead of just the online galleries is unknown, but if they did try anything, it certainly wouldn’t be the first time. In 2004 Marvel sued NCsoft, publisher of Super Hero based MMORPG, City of Heroes, citing IP Infringement. In 2005 the lawsuit was dismissed.
So how far Marvel will go is unclear, but one thing is… at a time when other companies are explicitly asking for content based on their IP NOT to be moderated, it seems that some companies still don’t get it. Of course It is possible that Marvel are preparing to create some official costumes of their own, as predicted in our top 20 run down, but even then this over-active protection of IP, and direct wrist-slapping to their own fanbase, seems over the top, rather pointless, and far more likely to damage their brands in the long run than it will strengthen them.
That’s great timing, as I JUST put together my Spider-Woman costume. Seriously, maybe five minutes ago.
Wow… Good thing I’m an Image fan. Marvel puts out crap anyways. Yeah, they are the long-running juggernaut of comic book heroes… but DC kicks their ass up and down and so does Image. Screw you Marvel.
the epic struggle between company and consumer, if the consumer makes something similar to one of their products they threat to sue, if consumer makes something original and liked by many, the company and easly take it and make something similar without the consumers word on it. basicly, companys should only be able to sue or file a complaint if another company or consumer is useing their product for gaining money for themselfs and thus hurting the company that originaly had the product, not complaining about a product that is similar to what thay may or may not release based on company decisions and the similar product in no way gives anybody money…end rant :p
Pathetic… how is this infringement at all?
That’s like saying me drawing a picture of Spiderman is an infringement… It’s stickers on a fictional character, get over it… jeez…
sad. For a company that was in massive debt and struggles now, you would hope they be happy with the extra publicity. The recent success of the films has really made them lose sight of this. Thank god I’m a Batman fan anyway. Tossers
If they do this with LBP they need to get every Marvell Skin Pack for any game that allows it and do the same.
is there anywhere i can see it
it’s just a virtual costume - why do they make such a big deal out of it
So if i made a Spawn Costume would i be copyrighting ?
