46 replies to this topic

[627]

Koshirou, on 24 June 2015 - 06:28 AM, said:

Not really. A suit over a reseen Marauder would be thrown out by any halfway sane judge and HG would be settled with the costs. There is this preposterous idea that HG has the ability to sue PGI over the name and concept of the Marauder. They have it only in the same sense as Burger King has it.

First, the reseen marauder sucks, bad. Even if they use that as base, it wil never be THE marauder everybody wants.

Second, such a lawsuit could take years and you have to pay those bloodsuckers all the time, you have to have that money and the time for that first. and the nerves.

[stjobe]

El Bandito, on 23 June 2015 - 06:54 PM, said:

Could the reason be the thing that I have always been saying--the name "Marauder", itself?

No.

The names have never been an issue, just the imagery.

What we call "Marauder" Macross calls "Glaug Commander Zentradi Tactical Pod".

You even posted a picture of a 'mech called "Marauder", the Reseen design.

PGI could more than likely just make a MWO-style Marauder based on the Reseen design and plop it in the game; the reason they don't is that if HG sues, it will bankrupt PGI in short order. HG are way, way richer than PGI, and they seem to like suing people.

PGI can't afford to take that chance.

[Tyler Valentine]

If i ever win the lottery I'm buying the rights to the unseen 'mechs and giving them to PGI. I want a Marauder, Warhammer, Rifleman and Phoenix Hawk sooooooooo badly.

[MikeBend]

I say, if PGI puts their reworked AC on the Marauder, HG will laugh their S off, at that tiny toothpick excuse for a cannon. Remember Jagermech before latest patch? That alone should be enough difference to be safe against HG lawyers.

On topic - if we cant have the original Marauder, none other will do. Its pretty unique in looks. Its like, i dont know... Making a Voltron copy with robot-cows instead of lions.

[El Bandito]

stjobe, on 24 June 2015 - 09:43 AM, said:

No.

The names have never been an issue, just the imagery.

What we call "Marauder" Macross calls "Glaug Commander Zentradi Tactical Pod".

You even posted a picture of a 'mech called "Marauder", the Reseen design.

PGI could more than likely just make a MWO-style Marauder based on the Reseen design and plop it in the game; the reason they don't is that if HG sues, it will bankrupt PGI in short order. HG are way, way richer than PGI, and they seem to like suing people.

PGI can't afford to take that chance.

I disagree. If PGI can make and sell Hellbringer--which basically a Warhammer with different name, PGI can make a mech that has similar load out and passing resemblance to the Marauder and give it a new name, and HG won't do anything. And I wanted my Longbow yesterday.

Edited by El Bandito, 24 June 2015 - 05:09 PM.

[Y E O N N E]

Aesthetically, the Zentradi battle pod has absolutely no business remaining a part of BattleTech. It doesn't even match the Clan's more refined and sophisticated looks, let alone the looks of the Inner Sphere 'Mechs it was contemporary with.

I'm okay with the Reseen design.

[bad arcade kitty]

i have an idea!
let pgi rename marauder to maraudeur! le maraudeur va te ruiner!

Edited by bad arcade kitty, 24 June 2015 - 05:22 PM.

[DustySkunk]

MikeBend, on 24 June 2015 - 03:25 PM, said:

<snip>

On topic - if we cant have the original Marauder, none other will do. Its pretty unique in looks. Its like, i dont know... Making a Voltron copy with robot-cows instead of lions.

I've got to say the Reseen Marauder really grew on me. The first time I saw it I was like "KILL IT WITH FIRE" but lately every time I look at it I think it looks a lot better than the original. Really the original really doesn't fit with any aesthetic flavor in Battletech. This is in stark contrast to the other Macross designs like the Rifleman and the Warhammer which fit really well.

Yeonne Greene, on 24 June 2015 - 05:15 PM, said:

Aesthetically, the Zentradi battle pod has absolutely no business remaining a part of BattleTech. It doesn't even match the Clan's more refined and sophisticated looks, let alone the looks of the Inner Sphere 'Mechs it was contemporary with.

I'm okay with the Reseen design.

^^ I agree 100 percent

Edited by DustySkunk, 24 June 2015 - 05:25 PM.

[Thunder Child]

I have a question. If I run a Marauder Cauldron Born, will HG sue us? Because when you load up a CB like a Marauder, it looks very similar too....

[BigBenn]

As I said in the "unseen" thread I started maybe a month ago, I have faith that PGI will indeed include the Warhammer and a few other "unseen" mechs in game soon enough, We already have a number of them in game and all is well.

I also have faith in PGI's crayon and coloring book gurus to design the mechs in question well enough to keep HG away. They've done a good job thus far with the "unseen" mechs we currently have in game.

The sooner PGI includes the Warhammer the happier I'll be.

[Sazabi Steppenwulfe]

BigBenn, on 24 June 2015 - 08:16 PM, said:

As I said in the "unseen" thread I started maybe a month ago, I have faith that PGI will indeed include the Warhammer and a few other "unseen" mechs in game soon enough, We already have a number of them in game and all is well.

I also have faith in PGI's crayon and coloring book gurus to design the mechs in question well enough to keep HG away. They've done a good job thus far with the "unseen" mechs we currently have in game.

The sooner PGI includes the Warhammer the happier I'll be.

bump

[bad arcade kitty]

Thunder Child, on 24 June 2015 - 06:26 PM, said:

I have a question. If I run a Marauder Cauldron Born, will HG sue us? Because when you load up a CB like a Marauder, it looks very similar too....

kfx pretending to be a marauder

[Thunder Child]

ftfy

[Nightshade24]

THe thing is I think baby steps are needed...

I would like to see the Longbow in game first. it is unseen but the redesign version used in MW4 actually got in with no harassment what so ever and to be honest: the longbow looks better in MW4 then origina I think

MW4:


The evil twin...

[SkaerKrow]

I may be off my nut here, but aren't the Wolverine, Shadow Hawk, and Thunderbolt Unseen designs that have been Reseen/redesigned for MWO? It stands to reason that PGI could do the same with the others, when they decide that the time is right/the content is worth adding to the game. We'll never see the Robotech designs in the game, but that ship has long since sailed.

[stjobe]

SkaerKrow, on 25 June 2015 - 09:54 AM, said:

I may be off my nut here, but aren't the Wolverine, Shadow Hawk, and Thunderbolt Unseen designs that have been Reseen/redesigned for MWO? It stands to reason that PGI could do the same with the others, when they decide that the time is right/the content is worth adding to the game. We'll never see the Robotech designs in the game, but that ship has long since sailed.

The MWO Phoenix 'mechs are based on designs from the anime Crusher Joe and Fang of the Sun: Dougram. The Unseen are from Super Dimensional Fortress Macross.

When FASA lost its licensing rights for Macross, they played it safe by removing all imagery not produced in-house, even though it was only the Macross designs that were really in question.

Since, the designs from Crusher Joe and Dougram have been deemed safe to use again, but the Macross designs are still property of Harmony Gold, who protect them like they're worth all the money in the world.

But yes, PGI could probably drop the Reseen Marauder, Rifleman, Crusader, etc into the game tomorrow and be fairly certain of winning any court case HG would throw at them. They would go bankrupt and the game would shut down, but they'd more than likely win in the end.

[MischiefSC]

To be clear -

The design of those mechs was 100% stolen. They were Macross mechs that FASA stole. There is no 'right' to have them in the original form...

But hg is total {Richard Cameron} about even reseen remakes of the designs.

[Ovion]

MischiefSC, on 25 June 2015 - 11:08 AM, said:

To be clear -

The design of those mechs was 100% stolen. They were Macross mechs that FASA stole. There is no 'right' to have them in the original form...

But hg is total {Richard Cameron} about even reseen remakes of the designs.

You mean where they got permission, but HG decided it holding distribution rights to the anime in NA meant it owned the rights to everything outside of asia?
That stolen?

Edited by Ovion, 25 June 2015 - 11:18 AM.

[stjobe]

MischiefSC, on 25 June 2015 - 11:08 AM, said:

To be clear -

The design of those mechs was 100% stolen. They were Macross mechs that FASA stole. There is no 'right' to have them in the original form...

No.

FASA licensed the designs in good faith from Twentieth Century Imports. It was years later ruled by a Japanese court that TCI did not, in fact, have the rights to license them to FASA. That's when FASA withdrew all the Japanese designs.

But at the time the imagery was used in the 2nd edition box and TRO:3025, FASA did have a license for all the imagery.

From sarna:

Quote

When FASA created the BattleTech boardgame in 1984, the designers licensed the rights to use pre-existing Mecha from other IPs, namely the Japanese anime series' The Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Fang of the Sun Dougram and Crusher Joe as visual representation of several 'Mechs and other units within the BattleTech universe (under new names and with BattleTech game stats devised entirely by FASA). However, during a series of lawsuits in 1994 FASA found out that Twentieth Century Imports (TCI), from whom FASA's rights to the images derived, might not have been in a legal position to provide these rights to FASA in the first place. The lawsuits were settled out of court.

[MischiefSC]

Ovion, on 25 June 2015 - 11:17 AM, said:

You mean where they got permission, but HG decided it holding distribution rights to the anime in NA meant it owned the rights to everything outside of asia?
That stolen?

I've seen the wiki but at the time it happened it was a bit different of a story. They used it first, then approached tci for a license, then it came out that they didn't own the visual rights. The original BT (before ct came out) was wild and wooly.