07-15-2005, 07:16 PM | #61 | |
Third Guy from Andromeda
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UV doesn't have the license to the NAME, which is what rtrooney was saying. The name "Space Quest" belongs to the Children's Museum of Indianapolis, and Sierra had to license it every time they wanted to use it. --Josh |
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07-15-2005, 07:21 PM | #62 |
Rattenmonster
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Interesting! I didn't know that. What, Space Quest-wise, does Vivendi own the rights to? I mean, at what point can Vivendi bring legal action on a fangame... would it have to be called Space Quest AND feature a character named Roger Wilco?
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07-15-2005, 09:09 PM | #63 | |
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I'm not at all sure what my favorite part of that post is, but I'm pretty sure it's the implication that Sierra being disbanded somehow changes the legal ramifications of revealing the ending to a piece of fan fiction. Hey, the chick in The Crying Game was a dude. Sue me. - Evan
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07-15-2005, 09:19 PM | #64 | |
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I feel like I get smarter every time you post, Josh.
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07-16-2005, 12:29 AM | #65 | |
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07-16-2005, 01:08 AM | #66 | ||
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Last edited by syntheticgerbil; 07-16-2005 at 01:14 AM. |
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07-16-2005, 01:58 AM | #67 |
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Emily,
Well, I know that Sierra did copyright many of the characters. We spent weeks at one point fulfilling the Legal Department's request that we write up "character sheets" that gave all sorts of background information on each character, along with artwork, so that they could be copyrighted. I believe this was done for most of the different series and became a matter of course for any game in development. I don't think a fangame would even have to use the name "Space Quest" to warrant action on VU's part. Since VU doesn't really hold the license to the name on an overall basis (just on specific games), I doubt they'd have standing to sue over its use. But Roger Wilco is an identifiable character, and they could sue over that (even if it wasn't used in the title). Sue, heck -- for all I know, they might even be able to bring criminal charges if they could convince a prosecuter to do so. SyntheticGerbil, Sierra didn't sell the rights to the name Space Quest to the Museum. What I'm not sure of is whether the Museum had copyrighted the name PRIOR to the release of the first Space Quest game. It may've been that Sierra released the first game or two, didn't bother to copyright the name, and then found at some point that it HAD been copyrighted and had to license its own name for later installments. Sierra basically didn't bother to do copyright searches, or copyright its own individual titles and characters, until relatively late in the company's history. Hence, for instance, the Hero's Quest debacle (having to change the name to Quest for Glory after the game was already released), the Keeping Up With The Joneses debacle (having to throw out the entire first run of the game -- boxes, manuals, etc. -- when it was discovered shortly before they were about to ship that Sierra couldn't use the name, and the game was renamed "Jones in the Fast Lane"), and so on. Some legal aspects were approached way too casually for way too long, which turned out to be very expensive for the company upon occasion. Copyrights and names were a prime example. Then there was the wonderful story about the battery-operated bunny in SQ4. Our legal department (we actually had one by then) wrote a letter to Duracell to secure their permission to use the bunny. We never heard back from them, so the legal department, feeling it had done due diligence, assumed it was okay to use it. So the game was released. Shortly thereafter, we got a letter from the Energizer people (Energizer batteries are made by Everready, not Duracell), saying, "Excuse us...?" Sierra ended up having to hastily negotiate the rights to the bunny after the fact. Fortunately, I think we were able to demonstrate that this was good publicity for them, and the settlement was very low. --Josh |
07-16-2005, 08:01 AM | #68 | |
Rattenmonster
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God, those stories are great. It's nice to hear that things fell through the cracks at Sierra the way they do at most companies. I especially like the bunny story.
Wonder if anyone held on to any of those Keeping Up with the Joneses games, for collector's value? Quote:
I have seen another CD game at Goodwill more than once called Space Quest, that's some kind of educational game. I never looked too closely but wondered why Sierra hadn't taken action against that. Now I wonder if it was put out by the children's museum. |
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07-16-2005, 11:36 AM | #69 | ||
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http://www.spacequest.net/sq4/cancelled/ The Dacron Danny thing is cool too. Quote:
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07-16-2005, 02:37 PM | #70 | |
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The timing of all this is unclear. The one certainty is that Vivendi couldn't have received from another party something that party didn't have the right to sell. In this case, the Space Quest name. As for licensing, I think it's doubtful a children's museum would license the name to a game developer who's sole claim to fame is the latest LSL. Or at least not without extreme editorial oversight. Still looking good Josh. Judging from your current pic, you've obviously been doing an intensive Rogaine regimine. <G> Tim
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07-16-2005, 03:43 PM | #71 | |
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07-16-2005, 04:10 PM | #72 | |
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07-16-2005, 05:14 PM | #73 | |
Plumber-x company
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07-17-2005, 04:30 AM | #74 | |
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07-17-2005, 11:43 AM | #75 |
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Wow I never knew Duracell had a bunny. I wonder which bunny came before. The Space Quest one is definetly the Energizer one though, just with a different battery. |
07-17-2005, 12:54 PM | #76 |
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About the Bunny in SQ4, according to Space Quest.net which I helped typo-edit for Frans, outside the US, the Energizer Bunny is owned by Duracell. I'm pretty sure what the site says, but I'm not 100% sure as I haven't checked that section in a while. As to the Children's Museum and the rights to SQ, I'd known that the rights to Space Quest were owned by them ever since I saw something at the bottom of Roger Wilco's Virtual Broomcloset and I'd always wondered why it wasn't owned by Sierra. Now, if I've read the posts on this correctly, VU can sue people for using Roger Wilco in fan games? If this is true, I'm surprised they haven't done anything about the completed fan projects out there that have him in the game.
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07-17-2005, 01:05 PM | #77 |
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The real question is...what the hell do bunnies have to do with batteries anyway?
About as much as Duck's have to do with toilet sanitization, I guess.
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07-17-2005, 01:28 PM | #78 |
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The Eveready Energizer bunny came first.
Right before going to Sierra, I actually happened to be working at the advertising agency (DDB Needham, as it was called at the time) that had lost the Eveready account. People at the agency who'd worked on the project were quite bitter, because the "bunny" had been an invention of that agency years before, and had been retired. As soon as Eveready went to the new agency (I'm not sure which one it was), the new agency said, "Hey, why don't we use that bunny again?" and Eveready said, "Sure!". I think Duracell just adopted a bunny in order to poke fun of, and steal some sales from, Eveready. SyntheticGerbil, I have never seen that room! Very cool. I doubt it had anything to do with KQ6, though, as KQ6 had not even been started on at the time that SQ4 came out. I'm surprised that VU has not defended their SQ copyrights with fangames the way they have with the Tierra releases. Tim, It's remarkable what a little Propecia and a good airbrusher can do! --Josh |
07-17-2005, 02:55 PM | #79 | |
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There is a fuzzy area in copyright/trademark law called satire! A person, or company can do a satirical interpretation of an existing entity and not break any laws. I'm sure you've seen that kind of thing frequently on Saturday Night Live take-offs of existing advertisements. I'm fairly certain the "Duracell Bunny" falls into this category. But how, considering Eveready and Duracell are marketing the same product, did the Duracell Bunny pass the satire test? My guess is that Eveready/Gillette may have felt that the Energizer Bunny had become such a familiar product representation, (think the equivalent of Kellogg's Tony the Tiger,) that any satirical portrayal by Duracell would only bring more sales their, (Energizer's,) way. I.e., people see a pink bunny advertising batteries, they will think Energizer regardless of who is paying for the ad. My bet is that they guessed right, and so chose to leave Duracell alone. Josh, Please give me the name of your airbrusher. There is a reason why my pics have me wearing a hat. Tim
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For whom the games toll... They toll for thee Last edited by rtrooney; 07-18-2005 at 11:02 AM. |
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07-18-2005, 07:11 AM | #80 |
Plumber-x company
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Sierra Breaking alot of laws some they get sue for like radio stack and toy are us and other stuff like that for putting that stuff into the Space Quest games
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