View Full Version : Copyright infringment anyone?
turbogff
19-01-2007, 09:25 AM
So, in my Outland adventures I encountered various beasts of every size. But only one stood out above the rest, something which I knew I *had* seen somewhere. Behold, the Ravager!
http://img314.imageshack.us/img314/6991/quillfangravagerpicio7.th.jpg (http://img314.imageshack.us/my.php?image=quillfangravagerpicio7.jpg)
Now take a trip to the past, back when the playstation one was just coming into its own. Go back to a game called Abe's Oddesy.
In this game, there was a fearsome creature called the Scarab. Behold!
http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/9801/scrabzh2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
For proof of where this came from, See here (http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Lair/4544/oddworld/scrab.html)
So, obviously there are similarities. Besides color, I do believe they are the same critter.
Thoughts/Discuss?
Therasil
19-01-2007, 02:35 PM
I dunno they don't look that similar to me. They have somewhat the same anatomic build but that's about it. Anyone can think of creatures like this. So I doubt this creates any form of copyright infringement.
Foonyak
19-01-2007, 03:06 PM
They also look somewhat similar to the 'bugs' from Starship Troopers. Taking inspiration from outside sources? Sure. Copyright infringement? Nah.
Krollin
19-01-2007, 03:22 PM
It would only be that of the form of the creature was Copyrighted in the first place. I doubt anyone would go to the trouble of doing that, it would drive the game and film industry crazy.
tagkc
19-01-2007, 03:26 PM
No more than the Fen Striders resembalance to the Striders in HL2
Stigg
19-01-2007, 04:12 PM
Im pretty sure I have seen elves, dwarfs, humans, gnomes, bears, cats, birds, etc. elsewhere too :ponder:
If anything...maybe look a little deeper into the game for infringmenets....like Linkin who gives you a boomerang
or Lario and Muigi
or Ghaz'rilla
or the entire R&J named bankers in UC
or just about ANYTHING in the game related to names!
You worked at Universal Studios??!?!!?! That must have been awesome!
Foonyak
19-01-2007, 04:30 PM
A friend of mine got the "Tenacious Girdle" day before yesterday in Outlands. It has a quote on it, "We have the power to move you."
Tenacious D references FTW.
StealthAssasin
19-01-2007, 04:34 PM
wtf lol and u posted this why ?
Foonyak
19-01-2007, 04:38 PM
Were you talking to the OP, or did you click on the View First Unread link and ask me a stupid question?
mesonm
19-01-2007, 04:43 PM
Thoughts/Discuss?
Not sure what your point is...It certainly isn't a customer issue in the game...
:thumbsup:
Your Average WoW Player
19-01-2007, 04:49 PM
How about the name of the SW bankers?
The first names of each are (from when you walk in your left to your right) Olivia, Newton, and John
All of the Nintendo references in Un'goro....
The Goblin Engineer who sends hordies to Gnomergon in BB is Chief Engineer Scooty.
The Gnomish Engineer in Gadget who makes a teleporter is Jhordi Lapforge, and he even has a yellowish pair of goggles, and wears a yellow shirt, and black pants.
How about that sword (dunno where you get it) that adds a crap load of attack power when fighting undead? Yeah the one that has a silver handle and a blue blade.
Yeah. There's a lot of things that could be looked on as Copy-right infringement.
MadVlad
19-01-2007, 05:14 PM
I vote we turn this thread into a "Great References" thread.
My favorite is "The 1 Ring" (Not quite as good as the 2 Ring), which is +1 to all base stats.
I also like the new Skettis -> Skeksi reference.
Arrakoa from Skettis:
http://www.wowwiki.com/images/thumb/f/fe/Arakkoa.png/180px-Arakkoa.png
Skeksi (from "The Dark Crystal" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083791/)):
http://www.cinefantastico.com/images/cristalo2.jpg
Fursphere
19-01-2007, 05:24 PM
Don't forget to mention that the entire Warcraft Universe is somewhat of a rip-off of the Warhammer games.
So what.
Blizzard takes and idea, and makes it waaaaaaaaay better. Thats called progress. :)
Moopy beat me to it. There are an enormous amount of references in WoW to pop culture and history. The link he posted is categorized by what is referenced, here's one that starts with the in-game object:
http://www.blizzplanet.com/content/91/
Xlorep DarkHelm
19-01-2007, 07:21 PM
Most of WoW's references are tongue-in-cheek, and parodies, which are protected forms of speech and cannot be seen as copyright infringement (otherwise a *lot* of comic writers would have problems). Other ones are not necessarily so tongue-in-cheek, but are different enough to once again, fall out of bounds for copyright infringement.
As foonyak said, Starship Troopers also had a similar creature.
http://i3.ebayimg.com/03/i/08/85/7b/c5_1.JPG
Stigg
19-01-2007, 07:30 PM
As foonyak said, Starship Troopers also had a similar creature.
http://i3.ebayimg.com/03/i/08/85/7b/c5_1.JPG
As did Hlaf life 2
Fursphere
19-01-2007, 07:47 PM
Dont' forget about Starcraft. Heh.
Xlorep DarkHelm
19-01-2007, 08:10 PM
Dont' forget about Starcraft. Heh.
When referring about copyright infringements.... It is rather pointless to point out Blizzard borrowing an idea from one of their games, and putting it in another one.
Fursphere
19-01-2007, 08:25 PM
No, its not.
Starcraft is a complete ripoff of the Warhammer 40k universe. I was pointing out (I should have made it more clear) that this is what blizzard does. Its nothing new.
They take someone else's idea, and mold it into perfection, and then sell it.
Xlorep DarkHelm
19-01-2007, 09:02 PM
No, its not.
Starcraft is a complete ripoff of the Warhammer 40k universe. I was pointing out (I should have made it more clear) that this is what blizzard does. Its nothing new.
They take someone else's idea, and mold it into perfection, and then sell it.
I've seen this argument before. The problem is, it is specious at best. Why? Because if you start declaring/defining anything as being a rip-off of anything else, you begin to see a thread form, where if you pull it, you unravel every work of fiction ever created. All of them borrow/copy ideas from each other. That is the nature of things. Claiming that something is a complete ripoff is, well, unjustified. If I remember correctly, Blizzard & Games-Workshop, while they had a bit of ruffled feathers over it all, no lawsuits were filed (or if they were, succeeded). So once again, the comment is left unjustified.
SwervinCL
19-01-2007, 09:05 PM
Has anyone gotten Wirts Third Leg?
There is the cat strolling around IF thats name is mr. bigglesworth.
The chasing amy/congo reference for one quest.
Valas Azuviir
19-01-2007, 09:23 PM
And then of course there are the Shadows from B5, which also have a similar build.
Stigg
19-01-2007, 09:28 PM
Here ya go guys and gals...
http://www.eeggs.com/items/47546.html
A nearly full list.
Xlorep DarkHelm
19-01-2007, 09:32 PM
Here ya go guys and gals...
http://www.eeggs.com/items/47546.html
A nearly full list.
Which are all found in the wowwiki page linked earlier.
Stigg
19-01-2007, 09:35 PM
/sigh
Missed that.
Fursphere
19-01-2007, 11:24 PM
I've seen this argument before. The problem is, it is specious at best. Why? Because if you start declaring/defining anything as being a rip-off of anything else, you begin to see a thread form, where if you pull it, you unravel every work of fiction ever created. All of them borrow/copy ideas from each other. That is the nature of things. Claiming that something is a complete ripoff is, well, unjustified. If I remember correctly, Blizzard & Games-Workshop, while they had a bit of ruffled feathers over it all, no lawsuits were filed (or if they were, succeeded). So once again, the comment is left unjustified.
While I strongly agree with the content of your post, about things being similar in general, if you break down starcraft and compare it to war40k, character for character, model for model, race for race, there is more than just shared ideas here.
The humans closely relate to space marines, weapons, vehicles, power suits, flamers, and all.
the zerg closely related to the tyranids
and the protoss are a mix between eldar and dark eldar
You can tie almost every model in starcraft to a war40k model. Its more than just similar ideas. Some of the ideas are crossed (ie - in war40k, when a space marine falls in battle, his "soul" can be placed in a dreadnaught to continue fighting, where as in starcraft, its the protoss warriors that get placed in the machines after they fall) but its still too similar to simply dismiss.
The idea of "orcs dwarfs elves" each has a huge fantasy background, so its harder to directly relate warcraft to warhammer fantasy, because there is so much more out there.
Xlorep DarkHelm
19-01-2007, 11:45 PM
While I strongly agree with the content of your post, about things being similar in general, if you break down starcraft and compare it to war40k, character for character, model for model, race for race, there is more than just shared ideas here.
The humans closely relate to space marines, weapons, vehicles, power suits, flamers, and all.
the zerg closely related to the tyranids
and the protoss are a mix between eldar and dark eldar
You can tie almost every model in starcraft to a war40k model. Its more than just similar ideas. Some of the ideas are crossed (ie - in war40k, when a space marine falls in battle, his "soul" can be placed in a dreadnaught to continue fighting, where as in starcraft, its the protoss warriors that get placed in the machines after they fall) but its still too similar to simply dismiss.
The idea of "orcs dwarfs elves" each has a huge fantasy background, so its harder to directly relate warcraft to warhammer fantasy, because there is so much more out there.
Well, the thing is, war40k also derived much of it from other settings. Hell, most of it is fantasy races with a sci-fi bent (eldar = elves, orks = orcs, necrons = undead, etc.) While others steal ideas from movies and/or other sci-fi or fantasy settings (tyranids are awfully similar to H.R.Geiger's work).
There are similar ideas in both Warhammer 40k and Starcraft, to be sure. But there are enough differences that even if some of the ideas were inspired by 40k, it isn't enough to constitute the idea that Blizzard "ripped Games-Workshop off". Even GWS people have said so.
Once again, the argument becomes specious, because every fantasy or science-fiction, heck... every fictional work is derived from somewhere else.
Fursphere
20-01-2007, 12:34 AM
Ok, I'll agree with that. :)
They also look somewhat similar to the 'bugs' from Starship Troopers. Taking inspiration from outside sources? Sure. Copyright infringement? Nah.
The Silithid in Un Goro are even more Starship Troopers ^^
No more than the Fen Striders resembalance to the Striders in HL2
...and those resemble the tripods in H.G. Wells War of the worlds...
"Imitation is the sincerest form of flatery"...or what?
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