Your Ugliest Paysite Creation Find: Round Two.

[Scurvy Cat]

Problem is that that would open up free sites for also getting hit with legal action as well.  Someone, I don't know if anyone ever found out who, started tattling on a bunch of Sims 1 sites.  I recall that a site with a lot of Marvel Comics skins got shut down, and Miffy's site got hit--in fact that's why Miffy is now Bunnywuggles, or Bunnyhuggles or whatever it is.  They were both free sites.

See, at least in the US, the issue is not so much "they're making money of our trademarked stuff" as "you can lose your trademark if you don't defend it."  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genericized_trademark

So, if you report TSR, they're going to start looking for other sites using their stuff, and MTS2 will be the first hit, I imagine.

Edited for picky spelling mistake.

[rum nate]

Thats the sad point yes.  If you could convince free sites to get rid of copyrighted material, then it would work the way we want it, but if they don't, reporting TSR to WB could have adverse side affects.

EDIT: You know EA games would get slammed too because of allowing copyrighted things on the exchange.

[Skoria_Bay]

You mean this lexicon? It's the only one I'm familiar with and I faintly recall that there were past issues in regards to rights and possibly being closed down.

Yes, that's the one.

Skoria_Bay he does still have the site, and LadyDea, that is the one. His publisher kept telling him that it would be fine because he wrote the stuff. The publisher felt that even though it used quotes from the book, they could still publish it and give credit to Rowlings.

siberiansunset, yeah we know who would win that. But I would love to hear the argument TSR puts up. What on earth could they possibly say that would make what they are doing legal?

That is true the publisher was telling him it was ok, but Rawlings proved her case in court and barred the publication of the book.

Some companies have given money to EA to advertise their products in the game (Ford for instance) so they could care less if they got a letter, but I'm sure companies like Disney, Warner Brothers, Lucasfilms, Marvel (I could go on) would not be happy to see their images used. However, the thing is would they take notice and do something about it.

I'm not saying it is right for paysites to profit, but it is a form of praise that people do want to have items like this in their games. I've even seen other game characters recreated for the Sims (Laura Croft, Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Zelda to name a few). It would be interesting if someone could research and see how these companies would react to this.

[Paden]

From what I've read, so long as you don't try to make a profit using their characters/logos, they can be pretty easy going on fans as long as that is what it is: an expression of fandom. Otherwise, they can get pretty fierce about protecting their monies.

[rum nate]

I understand that it is an honor, but its the fact that TSR and other sites are making a profit off of their images and content, and they aren't getting any cut of the money and have never made a formal agreement to create this stuff and sell it. So if people want to let these companies know (most seem to have an email address that you can send information about copyright infringement), this could be a very interesting thing to watch.

[aeris]

And sometimes, sending a letter to the original copyright owner works. B43&Co were forced to change the name of some donation sets because of this. Same for Shino&KCR. Their last bathroom was free because someone send a mail to the owner complaining that they were selling a copyrighted name.
I know that a lot of people don't give a damn about simmers using their name/products in game, because they consider it free advertisement, but other do care about their monies.

[Paden]

Especially if the custom content that is using their name happens to look and act like shit in people's games!

[Darqstar]

Unless they've changed radically in the last 20 years, Disney can be a total douche when it comes to their images.  They hit the news in the mid '80s for forcing a daycare center to paint their walls, because they'd been painted with Disney characters.

They also sent me and a friend a cease and desist notice.   I was doing 'zines back then, and me and my friend did a Beauty and the Beast 'zine.  Disney sent a letter threatening to sue us if we didn't stop that instant, as they had seen the 'zine and knew we were using copyrighted images in it. 

The irony?  The zine was based on the TV show Beauty and the Beast, which had nothing at all to do with Disney.  Clearly, they had never even seen our 'zine, they'd heard about it, and contacted us.  I sent them a copy of the 'zine and a pair of  older reading glasses I had lying around and a note. "Next time you read a zine for copyright infringement, I strongly suggest you put on these glasses first."

We never heard from them. 

[Skoria_Bay]

I remember that and they nearly had kittens over the Oscars using a likeness of Snow White. Well, that was when Eisner was in control. Not sure if they've mellowed a bit since then.

[rum nate]

But it still could never hurt to send a letter their way.

And I was not around when the daycare thing happened (my parents were just dating) but I have read about it, and I thought it was the stupidest thing in the world. But we can use that to our advantage now.

[liegenschonheit]

I'm sorry, guys, but I've been thinking on this quite a bit all afternoon and am just BUGGED about Steerpike dragging a GoS related incident here and taking potshots, so I have to say this to her: STFU. It is frowned upon to be dragging drama from one forum to another in order to harass or start a fight. Keep GoS happenings where they belong, on GoS. We have enough drama of our own and deal with it adequately. I thought you knew better than that. If you've got a bitch with her, take it to PM and don't attempt to fight another forum's battles/squabbles here. Dumbass.

Actually Paden, I will have to disagree with you on this one. Steerpike didn't bring this drama here, Nouk did, as you can see here:

However in some people's self centered world, if THEY don't care their stuff is slammed, the other person should get over it or get lost. There is no empathy. I'm not saying you should kiss their ass and lie to them that they're great or fabulous, I'm saying people should act normal, like when they talk to someone directly.

If they want to make fun of free stuff, they should, but what's good enough for people outside of the forum, should be good enough for people inside the forum. It NEVER happens though, but not because all their stuff is perfect.

Now, perhaps you're giving her a free pass because she didn't use the actual name "GoS", but it's painfully obvious who "they" are and which "forum" she is referring to. I've kept out of this till now, even though I'm convinced that she's talking directly about me when she said "THEY don't care if their stuff is slammed", because I used myself as an example when I was replying to the whole stupid drama, saying that yes, I had experienced it and no, it wasn't the end of the world. You know what? This is your forum, fine. You can pretend to rule with an iron fist if you like. You can gloss over the fact that Nouk brought the wank here in the first place, as I'm sure you will.

But bear this in mind, even Pescado posted at GoS and said that posting opinions on freesites are not against the rules here or at MATY, which has the same rule set. I considered myself a loyal "pirate" for some time, and I never thought I'd see the day when the terrifying PMBD pirates whined about how mean we are at GoS. I expect to be slammed for posting this, but let's at least be honest about who does what.

[Darqstar]

But it still could never hurt to send a letter their way.

And I was not around when the daycare thing happened (my parents were just dating) but I have read about it, and I thought it was the stupidest thing in the world. But we can use that to our advantage now.

Yes, but if they do decide to take action, they'll do it everywhere.  So yes, free sites with a couple of cute little pictures of Ariel or The Lion King will get screwed too. 

[rum nate]

Yeah, I know, thats the sad thing. You would think that as long as the person is not getting any money for it, it should be fine, I mean, its free advertising. But big corporations feel that they need to protect every little tiny thing. But you have to wonder, even if you let these companies know, would they want to take action seeing the state of the global economy, and there is always the chance they could lose the case, and have huge court costs to pay.
 

[EmilyTwitch]

Disney hasn't mellowed out at all since then. My school is doing a production of AIDA, and we leased the rights from them, with a heavy set of strings attached. We aren't allowed to film or record it, only take photographs of certain things. Another school south of us did the same production four years ago, and their video ended up on youtube. Guess what? They were sued for copyright infringement, breaking a legal contract, and they were banned from leasing any stage production rights from Disney, MGI, and MGM. Big fit over a two minute crappy shot video of two highschoolers singing.

[siberiansunset]

Yeah, I agree with what Darqstar and Paden said- I believe they wouldn't care what kind of site it was: if it's hosting copyrighted images they would probably go after it.   Plus, at the moment TSR isn't making money off of Voldemort/ other HP characters since udontknow is free (for how long though??) .
BUT they are of course hosting other copyrighted material (chaz and jirka's celebrity sims=copyright Infringement since they obviously do not OWN the copied images or have the celebrities permission to do their likeness.) (BTW: are they the same guy?? bc their work looks sooo eerily similar. Hmm I think they are IMO. Double the crook.) This of course is just a small token of the illegally uploaded stuff there.  

I would think that if they were selling the copyrighted udontknow HP stuff though, that WB would probably be more likely to focus on them than the freesites. They would probably actually sue TSR for royalities/revenue made from said sale and probably just issue a letter telling the freesites to take their stuff down. BUT you know chaz (i believe?) has the HP trio up for sale...this may call for a point of contact just to see if WB is aware/ cares. hmmm as rum_nate says it may not hurt to find out....