epic mistake

Currently reading:
epic mistake

Joined
Nov 4, 2003
Messages
48,609
Points
10,657
Location
Edinburgh
>> It shouldn't always be Sony making stupid PR mistakes ... today the award goes to Epic Games for sending a 'cease and desist' letter to Emilio Lopez for creating a nice little Gears of War Munny as Christmas present for his cousin. Note that only one was made, and it has never been offered for sale or made any profit of it. All the logos etc that were used on the box were taken from the fan site pack Epic gave out. Even if they maybe have a valid legal standpoint it's just 'not done' to bug your fans like this if you ask me, certainly not after hyping the game like they did with fan packs and what not.

DOC01.jpg DOC02.jpg

frontbomb_s300.jpg
 
While Mark Rein was away, the lawyers did play. During last week's GDC a cease and desist order was sent to Emilio Lopez over a very well done one-time piece of Gears of War art. Lopez had created the Munny doll for his cousin. The lawyers requested all Gears of War trademarks be removed -- even though the assets used to create the doll were taken from a fansite pack Epic released. Epic's VP Mark Rein apparently got back to the office after hearing about this and typed out a statement of apology and clarification.

Rein says on the Epic website, "Ugh. Our lawyers are trying to do their job and protect our trademarks but I guess they didn't realize this wasn't a commercial project and they fired off a standard form letter ... What we need to do is come up with some sort of permission letter for things like these so that we're properly protecting our future commercial rights but not stopping people from doing cool fan art like this. On behalf of Epic I apologize to Emilio and anyone who was offended by this."

http://www.joystiq.com/2007/03/11/mark-rein-apologizes-for-epics-lawyers-attacking-artist/
 
They are at it again :rolleyes:

Ok, so we know that lawyers can be, at times, a big overzealous in their hunt for copyright infringement and we now know a one-off gift of a Munny that resembles a Gears of War character is A-OK.

But what about original art inspired by a video game? I Am 8-Bit has a whole gallery filled with that sort of thing, but when Kotaku resident artist Pavel Dolgov created a "one-of-a-kind, hand painted, acrylic on canvas" inspired by Gears of War and posted it on his site he received a warning about IP infringement from Epic's general counsel. He was told he had to take down the painting from the site and has to either destroy it or send it to Epic Games.

Sheesh guys, there are better ways to buy a painting. Brian Crecente

Ed's note: In case it wasn't obvious, Dolgov makes a living selling his art.

http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/gears-of-war/epic-lawyers-attack-again-244338.php
 
Back
Top