MechWarrior 5 Legal Troubles Brewing
Harmony Gold is causing a fuss over the upcoming MechWarrior game.
IGN is raising questions about the future of the MechWarrior franchise, or in this case, the planned development of MechWarrior 5. IGN claims that--along with its parent company--it received a cease and desist order from Harmony Gold, the co-copyright owner of the Robotech television series. According to the order, the use of certain trademarked figures from the Robotech/Macross universe is prohibited as a result of a 1996 settlement.
As IGN points out, the MechWarrior franchise isn't part of the Robotech/Macross universe, however the similarities between the two intellectual properties have triggered legal issues and have raised questions. "Apparently, some of those trademarked figures appear in the trailer used by Pirahna Games in its announcement of the MechWarrior reboot earlier this year, and a request has been made for that trailer to be pulled from IGN," said IGN's Erik Brudvig.
With that said, it's believed that the development of MechWarrior 5 (working title) could be in jeopardy. On the negative side, a trademark dispute could postpone or even terminate the game's development. On a positive note, the legal troubles could only force the designers to remove certain assets from the game such as specific vehicles, logos, characters and more.
IGN said that it contacted Smith and Tinker, however the company only responded with a "we have no comment on the situation at the time" comment. On an additional note, videos relating to the upcoming MechWarrior 5 games have been removed from YouTube at the request of Harmony Gold.
- Microsoft Windows,
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- Harmony ,
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I believe I say it for all gamers to these cash whores: fuck them
Another copywrite law kicking the consumer in the ass…
Damn! I was really looking forward to a new MechWarrior game. It's been WAY too long! I hope they can work this out. It's really irritating when legal crap gets in the way of a really anticipated title.
Yeah yeah copyright laws are annoying until *you* come up with content you want to protect. I bet you'll sing a different tune then. Sure you can release everything you do into the public domain but just like most people don't walk around handing out money to everyone they meet, most people want to get paid for their work.
So someone needs to figure out if MW5 uses protected content. That should be easy to figure out. Then decide to either license the content or INVENT YOUR OWN.
If you really truly believe that copyright has no place in game development why not help out the MW5 guys and offer to develop alternate content and do it for free. No royalties, no rights, no nothing. Just give it to them to use as they see fit.
I don't see the problem... just rename the Mechs make cosmetic changes, the auto and airline industry has been doing it sense the beginning of time!
Lawyers. I do not feel bad about downloading media. Because, it's not about the art to a fat fingered fat cat, and it should be. They should work something out.
This is an old story really. I believe it was the Phoenix Hawk that got them in arms. That mech was pulled long ago.
"Harmony" Gold? Try Passive agressive we can't make a good mech game Gold
If you know you aren't allowed to use trademarked figures from someone else's works, why would you include them at all? Mech Warrior has been around for ages, but you couldn't find a way to reboot the game without using copyrighted works created after the original game? How stupid do you have to be?
Hopefully they remember to remove the Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, Harry Potter, and Ronald McDonald mechs before they really have some lawsuits on their hands.
I thought they had settled this issue years ago, thats why the mechs always looked different from the macross stuff. They will probably just get some royalties off the sales and be happy with that, if not they are just being asses.
Wow... you must have to be pretty drunk to think anything from Macross/robotech looks like a mech from mechwarrior. I don't believe any mechs from mechwarrior turn into planes/spaceships. I hate people who look for any reason to take people to court. If I knew people IRL who did something like this I'd punch them in the face and sue them for breaking my knuckles.
I don't see the problem... just rename the Mechs make cosmetic changes, the auto and airline industry has been doing it sense the beginning of time!
None of them retained the names from the Macross Series, and FASA did cosmetic changes from the very beginning. From what I remembered FASA at one point had permission to use the likeness of certain designs, but the original holder got butt hurt when FASA started to make some money.
Welcome to the real America...
Wow... you must have to be pretty drunk to think anything from Macross/robotech looks like a mech from mechwarrior. I don't believe any mechs from mechwarrior turn into planes/spaceships. I hate people who look for any reason to take people to court. If I knew people IRL who did something like this I'd punch them in the face and sue them for breaking my knuckles.
The Phoenix Hawk actually did just that. They killed that long before the original suit and then completely pulled it later on.
This is kind of stupid. The whole "unseen" 'Mech thing was settled 13 years ago. Of the 3 'Mechs in the video there is no question on the Atlas and the Jenner. The original Warhammer was part of that settlement 13 years ago, but since then they redesigned all those "unseen" 'Mechs and re-released them without issue. It wasn't the name, it was the look that was in conflict, and the look of the new Warhammer is not the same as the look of the copyrighted one Harmony Gold has.
The only issue there could be is if they think the Warhammer in the trailer was more like the original "unseen" Warhammer and less like the redesigned "haven't had an issue with in 13 years" Warhammer. They didn't have any good screen shots of the Warhammer from the trailer to say for sure, but the quick shots in the video look like the redesigned Warhammer to me.
Bungie has a giant soccer ball in Halo 2 and Halo 3. EA Sports should sue!
I'm a little fuzzy on Macross/Robotech mechs, but I think the player-controlled mech (That we see from the player's point of view) looks similar to the defense automated mechs on the SDF-1 when fighting Zentraedi ships. Anyone have an idea on what I'm talking about?
http://www.mektek.net/index.php?in [...] e&ide=1093
I am going to draw and patent as many possible mech designs as I can so I can sue anyone who makes an awesome game using anything even close to what I drew.
Its stupid petty crap like this that keeps the good things from happening.
First the Starsiege reboot dies and now maybe Mechwarrior!!! NOOO!!!!!
Can somebody show those of us who have no idea what this conflict is see pictures of the problem?
If it was all worked out in 1996. What's the big deal? Replace or eliminate said models. Honestly most of the FASA original models look much better anyway.
Or give harmony gold a percentage. Just like EA gives all the sports franchises.
Harmony gold is probably just tired of the battletech games being so much better than all their licensed titles; and rather than try to make a decent competing product, just try to shut down the competition.
Well here is a comparison between the Robotech/Macross Tomahawk and the unseen warhammer as well as the current warhammer.
Robotech/Macross:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~ptn/Mecha/Tomahawk.html
http://unsd.macrossroleplay.org/tomahawk.html
unseen warhammer
http://camospecs.com/Miniature.asp?ID=4809
two different reseen warhammers (acceptable for the last 13 years)
http://camospecs.com/Miniature.asp?ID=1581
http://camospecs.com/Miniature.asp?ID=3499
http://camospecs.com/Miniature.asp?ID=196
Here is a link to the original IGN interview. The video won't load for me and they don't seem to have any still pictures of the Warhammer (probably taken down), but I have a working link to the video on youtube.
http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/100/1002294p1.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZJ [...] _page&hd=1
Don't get a good look at the Warhammer in the video. It has a bigger missle block then the flat one in some of the models and the legs look a bit thicker. There is definately nothing difinative in the video showing it to be more like the unseen Warhammer then the newer, and acceptable warhammers.
Microsoft will simply buy them out and be done with it...
I'd have to agree with some of the folks above who suggest starting from scratch on this one. I don't want just another rehash of the same old stuff, only with better graphics. I would like to think the creative geniuses who program games like this still have a few ideas laying around.
This sucks. I love Battletech.
Whats the big deal? Create new robots.....
This is BattleTech we are talking about, you can't create new machines that upset the classic Canon!
What? Alright, so for the first four games in the series and their expansions there was no question about the legality of it, but now Harmony Gold thinks that because they have a series that also features giant robots, that they have the sole rights to giant robots?
This case would be too easy to win for the Mechwarrior side.
There's actually a lot of artwork that's been used over the decades by both franchises, or are close enough in similarity that you'd have the do some serious nitpicking to say they're different. It's been cleaned up pretty well since then in terms of who owns what now. What probably happened is the artists were referencing old artwork from when the ownership wasn't so clear.
actually is not as simple as that, the design was featured in the original SDF macross series. http://www.mahq.net/mecha/macross/macross.htm known as the MBR-04-Mk.VI Destroid Tomahawk. and technically that series was aired before battletech ever came to be. so from one point of view harmony gold (unfortunately) has something to stand on. the funny thing is that it isn't the original creators of macross who are complaining, just some pricks who got some licensing rights after they decided to butcher macross stateside and add their own 'canon'. unfortunately fasa has been faced with this situation before since some of their designs resemble those of other source material (anime) too closely. but i still don't side with harmony gold because i personally hate robotech and what it did to the macross name. no one can create something and have complete ownership of a genre however. is like mazinger being the only show ever to be entitled to using giant mecha and everything after is suddenly not allowed to do so.
You might want to check out http://www.terrania.us/journal/200 [...] econd.html
I go into detail about the 1990s case, and look at how the Macross rights dispute in Japan might affect things.
The big question is, why would a game co-developed by Smith and Tinker feature one of those controversial designs? Smith and Tinker was founded and is led by Jordan Weisman, the founder of FASA. If anyone would know the terms of the settlement, he should.
If he's doing it intentionally, why? It's not as if the core of die-hard fans who want the Unseen back are enough to offset the potential legal fees.
I enjoyed Mech Warrior in the biginning, then MS bought them out and killed it off a little later. Now MS wants to pull it out of the closet for some 360 exclusive i bet, I am sure of that. Mech Warrior started on the PC but this title wil end up being some crappy port job after MS milks it on the 360 kiddie console. F*ck Microsoft.