Well there is another news story on the BBC website about GW, and unfortunately it is about the same old ligation issue that seems to bug them on a regular basis. Now I have nothing against them suing and protecting their intellectual property, but it does always seem to bring out the wraith of the net.
The current issue is around a book called "Spots the Space Marine" (see Space Marine run?) and GW asserting their rights over the term Space Marine (not Spot). The website of the author has a lot of support for her, generally referencing the fact that there are marines in space and space marines in literature right back to the start of the 20th century. There is also reference to some of the other suits that GW have been putting out over the last few years, such as around websites hosting their defunct rules, or sculptors more or less cloning their models. This is all very messy with people on all sides of the arguments, but always something to watch.
My personal views are that GW are in need of protecting their IP as they have spent a lot of time and money over the last 30 years building up a very distinctive set of worlds, and while they are built from fantasy and sci-fi archetypes they are also rather distinct now and more developed than almost any other fictional world I know. It feels similar to the issues of knock of Transformers which can be detrimental to Takara/Hasbro. However they also need to build some bridges with their public, around the IP issues, pricing and Finecast. For all their faults the nature of GW and their high visibility is good for gaming, at least in the Uk and a decline with them would not really help the gaming world as I suspect it would be the start of a general decline.
And for all the "evil" of GW it looks like DC and Marvel are carrying out a similar protection issue on the term Superhero at the moment. Most large corporations will be doing this sort of thing 24/7 without our knowing as the threat is ramped up as the company gets bigger so complaining itself may be cause for more lawyers coming at you.
Any one want to add their views on this one? Please be polite....
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