Marvel vs. City Of Heroes
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Marvel Comics
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Marvel and DC Comics started an American revolution with comic books. They created characters for a generation that faced problems such as race, religion, drugs, and war. But with the new generation interested in different medias, companies fight to protect their intellectual properties.
Marvels first victim was the publisher GeekPunk who had produced a book entitled SUPER HERO HAPPY HOUR. Marvel sued GeekPunk with the case that the word super hero was the intellectual property of Marvel and DC Comics. GeekPunk couldnt fight Marvel and DC, and just gave in. A small publisher barely breaking even, starting out the same way Marvel and DC did way back in 1964, was sued over the word super hero because Marvel and DC are scared of competition.
Marvels next victims were their fans that made skins for a game called Freedom Force. Freedom Force is a real-time tactical role playing game, where players control a group of heroes and save the day. These fans made skins for Freedom Force and released them for free. Marvel didnt sue Freedom Force; they shut down sites that were hosting these FREE skins.
Now Marvels target is PlayNC and Cryptic Studios game, City Of Heroes. City of Heroes has brought this generation back into comics. Average people, young or old, can now make a unique hero and save the world! They even release a comic book every month that follows and progresses the games story, allowing player made heroes to make appearances in issues. City of Heroes has made the comic book world come alive again, people are making their own comics with their own ideas, and Marvel doesn't seem to like the new competition.
Marvel insists that the City Of Heroes character creation tool allows players to create many of their intellectual properties, the main ones being The Hulk and Wolverine. The tool is just a medium to express a players imagination, what is made with it is up to the player. Adobe Photoshop is a tool that allows people to express their imagination as well, yet when someone draws The Hulk or Wolverine and puts it on eBay, where is Marvel?
Cryptic Studios does not support the copyright infringement of ANY copyrighted property. You can not replicate a hero such as The Hulk or Wolverine, but you can make heroes that somewhat look like them. But, before you can play City of Heroes you must agree to the End User Agreement, which states:
You may not select as your Character Name the name of another person, or a name which violates any third party's trademark right, copyright, or other proprietary right, or which may mislead other players to believe you to be an employee of NC Interactive, or which NC Interactive deems at its sole discretion to be vulgar or otherwise offensive. NC Interactive reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to (1) delete or alter any Character Name or (2) terminate any license granted herein, for any reason whatsoever, including, without limitation, any suspected or actual infringement of any trademark or trade name right, copyright, or other proprietary right.
It continues with:
NC Interactive reserves the right to suspend or terminate this Agreement (including your Software license and your Account) immediately and without notice if you breach this Agreement or willfully infringe any third party intellectual property rights, or if we are unable to verify or authenticate any information you provide to us, or upon game play, chat or any player activity whatsoever which is, in our sole discretion, inappropriate and/or in violation of the spirit of City of Heroes as described in the Rules of Conduct.
PlayNC and Cryptic Studios has done nothing wrong, and is successfully bringing more people back to comic books and heros. They repsect Marvel's property, and when a player makes a copyrighted hero, they are banned and deleted from the system.
I understand that comic sales in the last decade were far from great, but why is Marvel trying to end all hope of them returning just for a few bucks? I do not work for PlayNC or Cryptic Studios, and have written this petition in hopes that Marvel will see everyone that has signed, and think twice before ruining the future of new heroes in video games, cartoons, and comic books all together.
Marvels first victim was the publisher GeekPunk who had produced a book entitled SUPER HERO HAPPY HOUR. Marvel sued GeekPunk with the case that the word super hero was the intellectual property of Marvel and DC Comics. GeekPunk couldnt fight Marvel and DC, and just gave in. A small publisher barely breaking even, starting out the same way Marvel and DC did way back in 1964, was sued over the word super hero because Marvel and DC are scared of competition.
Marvels next victims were their fans that made skins for a game called Freedom Force. Freedom Force is a real-time tactical role playing game, where players control a group of heroes and save the day. These fans made skins for Freedom Force and released them for free. Marvel didnt sue Freedom Force; they shut down sites that were hosting these FREE skins.
Now Marvels target is PlayNC and Cryptic Studios game, City Of Heroes. City of Heroes has brought this generation back into comics. Average people, young or old, can now make a unique hero and save the world! They even release a comic book every month that follows and progresses the games story, allowing player made heroes to make appearances in issues. City of Heroes has made the comic book world come alive again, people are making their own comics with their own ideas, and Marvel doesn't seem to like the new competition.
Marvel insists that the City Of Heroes character creation tool allows players to create many of their intellectual properties, the main ones being The Hulk and Wolverine. The tool is just a medium to express a players imagination, what is made with it is up to the player. Adobe Photoshop is a tool that allows people to express their imagination as well, yet when someone draws The Hulk or Wolverine and puts it on eBay, where is Marvel?
Cryptic Studios does not support the copyright infringement of ANY copyrighted property. You can not replicate a hero such as The Hulk or Wolverine, but you can make heroes that somewhat look like them. But, before you can play City of Heroes you must agree to the End User Agreement, which states:
You may not select as your Character Name the name of another person, or a name which violates any third party's trademark right, copyright, or other proprietary right, or which may mislead other players to believe you to be an employee of NC Interactive, or which NC Interactive deems at its sole discretion to be vulgar or otherwise offensive. NC Interactive reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to (1) delete or alter any Character Name or (2) terminate any license granted herein, for any reason whatsoever, including, without limitation, any suspected or actual infringement of any trademark or trade name right, copyright, or other proprietary right.
It continues with:
NC Interactive reserves the right to suspend or terminate this Agreement (including your Software license and your Account) immediately and without notice if you breach this Agreement or willfully infringe any third party intellectual property rights, or if we are unable to verify or authenticate any information you provide to us, or upon game play, chat or any player activity whatsoever which is, in our sole discretion, inappropriate and/or in violation of the spirit of City of Heroes as described in the Rules of Conduct.
PlayNC and Cryptic Studios has done nothing wrong, and is successfully bringing more people back to comic books and heros. They repsect Marvel's property, and when a player makes a copyrighted hero, they are banned and deleted from the system.
I understand that comic sales in the last decade were far from great, but why is Marvel trying to end all hope of them returning just for a few bucks? I do not work for PlayNC or Cryptic Studios, and have written this petition in hopes that Marvel will see everyone that has signed, and think twice before ruining the future of new heroes in video games, cartoons, and comic books all together.
810 Signatures
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Sean Chano
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Shahed Akhter
- Comments
- I can't agree with you more.
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Joshua Slobe
- Comments
- I thought Marvel cared more about comics then a quick profit? Goes to show DC has more class then Marvel ever will
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Jonathan Cox
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Doug Fessler Jr.
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Numna Stingdoo
- Comments
- Its censorship at a basic level
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Charles J Kowalski
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bobo
- Comments
- Marvel doesn't own the super hero universe, chances are they haven't even played the game, just heard it looked like one of their comics.
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Tom
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Nicholas H.
- Comments
- Marvel stands to lose a great deal of sales over this. Do you know how many people play City of Heroes? Beyond that, how many of these people are now boycotting Marvel products until this business is dealt with? I, personally, won't buy any Marvel products (movies, comics, games, etc.) until this lawsuit is dropped or Marvel loses. If they win, which is unlikely at best, I simply won't buy anything from Marvel ever again.
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Matthew Belcher
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Raymond
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- Marvel, you really disgust me.
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Shane Schlosser
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Patrick Dorsey
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Michael Glasheen
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Brett Holloway
- Comments
- CoH has done nothing wrong, the Players breaking the EULA are the ones to blame.
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Wilmar Luna
- Comments
- I'm getting sick of Marvel, my first beef was when they took out the free skins for FF, my second is now that they're going after COH my favorite game, I don't think so!
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Austin Carnes
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Christian Smucker
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Jay
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Charles Roberts
- Comments
- Almost makes me want to stop bying comics
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E C Barry
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Paul Mosley
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Sean Cassidy
- Comments
- I used to be a big fan of marvel comics. When I started playing CoH, I wanted to go out and start buying them again. As soon as this happened, it changed my mind really quick. Congrats Marvel, you lost a lot of fans with this silly lawsuit.
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Mike Grimshaw
- Comments
- What is stated above is true. Paragon City has fewer and fewer characters that are "clones" as once they are found they are taken care of. I've seen enough GenericHero.##### to know that Cryptic takes this job seriously. I remember when I first started when this game became available. The streets were packed with clones. But now they are all gone. If you see a clone, it's usually a new user who doesn't think they'll cause any harm, or don't care, or plain just didn't know. Yet still, they are found and dealt with. Cryptic should not be punished for the crimes of it's users. What's next, taking on Crayola as they offer pencil crayons we can use to draw Wolverine??
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Susan Sherman
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Kristian Rutkowski
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Eric Sanders
- Comments
- Until the withdrawl of this lawsuit, I will be boycotting all Marvel media products and patronizing DC and smaller publishers in lieu.
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Richard M. "Joey" Browning
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Jeff Hamilton
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Dustyn A. Hughes
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Zekky-Chan
- Comments
- Combine and make this wonderful game. MvC2 was a Blast
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F. Neumann
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Jason Erb
- Comments
- Marvel is totally out of line here. Marvel, a multi-million ( if not BILLION ) dollar company, is afraid of small competition? These people are just trying to entertain people. They are not trying to move in on Marvel's territory. Why Marvel feels they need to do this is beyond my comprehesion. I hope one day they wake up and see that they are not the only ones entitled to everything with the word "Hero" in it
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Mitchell Bathke
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Hector Cachupin
- Comments
- I beleive the word super hero belongs to no one, the heroes we create with our imagination are our own and belong to no one. Marvel should have no say in either.
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Joshua Coleman
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Don Amero
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Jason Fodness
- Comments
- When you have no choice, mobilize the spirit of courage.
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James Rosso
- Comments
- why would you sue your customers? I avoided comics because of the monthly costs, but CoH got me to start reading them!
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Kevin Dugan
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Jeff Whiting
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Tobias Rodriguez
- Comments
- With all the money Marvel makes off of their other ventures, they have no reason to try and shut down City of Heroes.
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GOGO
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Robert Marshall
- Comments
- Boycotting anything Marvel until this whinning about some coming out with a great idea before they could stops. Marvel, wake up before you loose more money and customers than you can afford to. My Boycot includes all the movies based on Marvel Heroes as well.
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Curtis Fletcher
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Dennis Nelson
- Comments
- I personally discontinued all 21 titles I subscribed to with Marvel over this issue.
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Jon Quinn
- Comments
- If Marvel wins and ruins this game it will be the last time i ever give them my money. No movie, books, tshirts nothing at all.
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Frank Scott
- Comments
- I will never buy another Marvel title again if this lawsuit is to presist.
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Michael Brown
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810
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