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Hasbro suit ribbon campaign

Started by felisandria Mar 4, 2000 at 12:09 AM 1081 replies 65.5k views

Original Post

Mar 4, 2000 at 12:09 AM

I''m sure many of you have heard about the whole mess with Hasbro suing developers of games similar to some of its classics, if not check out http://www.gamedev.net/info/news/FullStory.asp?StoryID=1806 In response to the Hasbro suit, I suggested to Andre that we start a ribbon campaign (like the "don''t censor the internet" campaign not long ago) to show Hasbro and the other big companies out there that we are a community and we won''t sit around while they try to crush small-time developers. He liked the idea and told me to get it started, so I thought I would get some suggestions from you guys... We need a ribbon color, and a catchy slogan (something like "Freedom of Ideas") I''m going to get together a graphic for it and a website to explain it as soon as possible. I''m open to any suggestions, including using something other than a ribbon, though ribbons usually get people''s attention as some sort of cause. We''ve been discussing it over at the XTreme Games board today at http://www.xgames3d.com/ubb/Forum9/HTML/000330.html if you want to see what''s been said and suggested so far (I wanted to make sure it was alright with Dave before posting it here *smile* ) Thanks for any suggestions and support *smile* -fel

Kavos

Mar 4, 2000 at 12:28 AM

Unlike most I am for censoring the internet or at least moderate (better term then the feared word, censor) it, Say what you will, there is just alittle to much crap on the internet accessable to anybody (porn, hate, and a number of other sick things...) Anyway

i''m getting alittle off course here.

Hasbro is getting worked up about this now becuase they have started re-releasing classic games and all these "clones" may cut into there profiets...

cliffski

Mar 4, 2000 at 8:25 AM

Im all for it. My game is at egames webiste and was (thankfully) narrowly missed from their hitlist. Its one thing to sue people for copyright, another thing to wait 15 years then suddenly get upset about it. Its just like the gif patent thign a while ago. I have a webiste at www.positech.co.uk, and Im more than happy to add such a ribbon.

http://www.positech.co.uk

SonicSilcion

Mar 4, 2000 at 8:58 AM

This has a ring similar to when Unisys decided to enforce it''s rights over GIF compression. I''m not sure of my stance on the matter, but it seems to me that it''s a bit late to be trying to stop everyone from writing similar games.
. I suggest that for the ribbon it could black with green 0s and 1s. Hmm, that might be hard to produce an actual ribbon, but I didn''t see too many people wearing black ones.

Cloxs

Mar 4, 2000 at 10:07 AM

I''d be proud to put a ribbon on my site, just e-mail it to me at jjklumpp04@yahoo.com

Saruman

Mar 4, 2000 at 12:33 PM

Hi fel,

You can put a ribbon on our site, no problem.

Joe Woynillowicz
Isolation Studios

thekid

Mar 4, 2000 at 12:40 PM

Wait a minute. What is this ribbon thing about. I am not familiar with the term and its practices.

If it has anything to do with retorting to the lawsuite I would be more than willing to put this "ribbon" thing on my site. I have already e-mailed LaMothe to give him a little support but anything else that I could do would be enjoyable

INVERSED

Mar 4, 2000 at 1:00 PM

Personaly (after hearing the s\case at point ) I think this law suit thing is crap. Hasbro is remaking (more like rehashing) thier old games and they don''t want simple clones to cut into the cash, simply put. Everything else in America is if you can do it better more power to you, this is just getting rid of competition. Although, I can see why hasbro would get upset if someone wnet and made a direct copy of their game, but a lot of people put ew and innovative feautres in their work, and this scares the corps ("Oh my god, better AND cheaper").

Dare To Think Outside The Box
_____________________________
|____________________________|
http://www.inversestudios.com

Kavos

Mar 6, 2000 at 11:40 PM

These classic games have become genres unto themselves, Imagin if someone sued because people were making clones of the RTS genre, Thats alot of lawsuits...

-Trev

Marauderz

Mar 7, 2000 at 2:44 AM

I don''t have a website to put a ribbon on, but I''ll try and make a nice ribbon and see where I can tack it on.

At times like these when I hear ridiculous lawsuits flying around I''m glad I don''t stay in the US. :D

No offence to anyone!

-------------------------
-Now Working on Pokemon like Engine!

GEo

Mar 7, 2000 at 5:26 AM

Hi,

I agree with Marauderz, you get some really strange law suits over there in the States.

I don''t have a web site, so I can''t put a ribbon up, sorry.

Just out of interest (and I''ll have to word this carefully so as not to offend any of you guys, but...) what do you hope to achieve? Do you think that this campaign will change anything?

Sorry, that sounds like I disagree with you, I think it''s a good idea and everything, I''m just intrested in how Hasbro are likely to react, is it likely to change the outcome of the law suit?

(I apologise again if I offended anyone)

George.

"Who says computer games affect kids, imagine if PacMan affected us as kids, we'd all sit around in a darkened room munching pills and listening to repetitive music....uh oh!"

Jeranon

Mar 7, 2000 at 6:29 AM

*sigh*
Alas, I can not join you in your boycott. I play D&D.

Good luck on your quest.

Project 2501

Mar 7, 2000 at 9:07 AM

I find Hasbro''s lawsuit silly and ignorant. I''m curious as to whether or not hasbro has even thought about the fact that alot of their hired help comes from people who have started out making these games. The other thing i''d love to see is the revenues of these clone titles. How much of a dent could these 10-15 year old titles be making? I can''t see them taking too big of a chunk of a 10+ billion dollar industry.

I''ll be dedicating a web page to the cause very soon. : )
To those who have had to contend with this lawsuit, keep fight it!

Myopic Rhino

Mar 7, 2000 at 9:52 AM

quote:
Original post by Anonymous Poster

While I think it stinks that game developers are getting sued, I don''t think Hasbro is in the wrong here.

After all, did you see the names of the titles? "Tetrimania" and "Mac-Man"? I think you''re almost asking to be sued. Would you put out a first person shooter named DooMania or UnrealTime and think that the big companys would just be cool with it?

Still, I hope the suit is dropped.

I agree that there are some games included in the suit that are blantant rip offs, and that''s wrong. But there are more than a few that are quite different from the original, and to me, that''s where the problem is. Look at some of the games involved, and you will see that they deviate from the original much more than, say, Duke Nukem does from Doom. So if Hasbro wins this, does that mean that id can sue everyone who''s made a 3D shooter? Or Westwood everyone who''s made an RTS? I don''t know, but it''s possible. Is that the kind of industry we want?

felisandria

Mar 7, 2000 at 10:21 AM

First off, a word about copyright laws...

Copyrights are not like patents. They do not cover ideas, by definition they cannot. All a copyright can do is protect the actual source code, sound, music, and graphics of the original game. Now, if Hasbro were claiming trademark violation, they might get away with it on things like Mac-Man, because it's a close word... but usually they wouldn't. You can't copyright an idea, copyrights aren't meant for that. All this is is a blatant ploy to entangle small-time developers and companies in expensive legal hassles, not to mention the stress involved... and I think that's just wrong.

As to what we hope to accomplish with the ribbon campaign... basically my goal is to show support for the developers who are under fire, and to show Hasbro that there is a community out here that is very unhappy with their underhanded tactics, unhappy enough to refuse to buy their products, though even if you don't wish to participate in the boycott it would still be nice if you would like to display the ribbon as a show of support for those being sued.

-fel

Edited by - felisandria on 3/7/00 10:22:29 AM

Glak

Mar 7, 2000 at 10:52 AM

Yeah the names do have to go, they should be changed immediately and then Hasbro would have absolutely nothing to go on.

dgruber

Mar 7, 2000 at 10:59 AM

The green ribbon has been added to http://www.makegames.com. Nice work on this, felisandria.

Diana

Lance

Mar 7, 2000 at 12:55 PM

I''m sorry but releasing a game called "Battling Ships" instead of "Battleship" with the exact same gameplay is just a little too blatant.

People have been treading deep water for a long time now with these shareware and budget Hasbro copied games and Hasbro has finally got pissed off enough to react...

felisandria

Mar 7, 2000 at 1:19 PM

Okay, let me try this again... but this time I''ll just send you to a link about what exactly copyrights are capable of protecting rather than restating that copyright laws do not protect ideas.

http://www.nolo.com/encyclopedia/articles/pct/pct13.html?r=00150056111181999

Copyrights cannot protect game rules beyond protecting against xerox''ing the rule sheet or typing it in word for word. Unless these game developers somehow got their hands on the source and copied it, or blatantly ripped off the art, music, and sound of these classic games, copyright laws do not apply. Basically, even if the games look exactly alike, if the author of the clone could prove he created the artwork independently it would be up in the air as to whether or not it is a copyright violation.

-fel

dgruber

Mar 7, 2000 at 1:34 PM

"Battle Ship" vs. "Battling Ships" would be a trademark issue, not a copyright issue.

The thing about trademarks is, you have to defend them vigorously or you lose them. If you let other people use your trademarks, then you are implying consent.

Those old Atari games have been cloned for 20 years and nothing happened. For Hasbro to buy up the trademark rights in 1998 and then try to defend them retroactively is not fair.

Diana

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