Now i do realize that Cryptic/perfect world has there own reasons behind having these up. And i know quiet a bit of the community hates clones. But a question is why copy right them? If they are awe inspiring why not? I mean i doubt you guys are going to sue yourselves because of a clone running around that is your character. I personally think it is kind of fun to try and copy: Shadow destroyer,Therakiel,Valerian Scarlet,Black fang,Mech assassin,Empyrean constructs and all that jazz. But here is the funny part you can get your account deleted if you have to many strikes on it O.O. Yet Cryptic and PWE give us the costume pieces to do so and sure it is not in the intentions to totally let us replicate the chars but it sure as heck makes us want to. So maybe a petition or something? Let me know what you think with the least bit of rage and or flaming....im out of fire retardant
So yeah!
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Try reading the ToS sometime - you know, the one you claimed to have read before you got to play the game (there's a little checkbox acknowledging that you've done so). Violating trademark is a bannable offense.
- David Brin, "Those Eyes"
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So if Cryptic/PWE let people run around in CO as characters they have protected with copyright and/or trademarks, then they will find it harder to defend those if they're used somewhere else.
Alright i have read the TOS and apparently the guy below you had a kinder approach the way you approached you were trying to make me look like an idiot which is not appreciated.
I understand they have to protect it..But why do they have to protect it in there own game. They should not have to not allow people to be there chars idk im not a lawyer. And no that is not the reasoning it would be more on the lines of the man giving you the tool and saying go ahead break into my car il throw you in jail for it but il tempt you very heavy by adding more awesome items in it..... -.-
Thank you for the intelligent response. But if you could, clarify why they cant say "Yes but it is our content we are allowing with in our game community" You know like "No its not in the game your not allowed to use it,But if its in our game sure go for it." Im just curious because im not good at law but id like to know why its not allowed. I Do see copying a marvel character or DC character as a reason to be banned, because cryptic does not own them. But if they do why not allow it within there own stuff. IMO Now this is IMO don't get mad at me please. But would it sorta be like marvel owns this character but not allowed to put it in the comic cross over's? sorta thing?
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2004-11-11-marvel-sues-over-avatars_x.htm
That's why.
RIP Caine
You see i already talked about why marvel and DC chars are a bad idea but cryptic actually owns these chars and cannot be sued for it.
I wouldn't want another Felfox running around being a jerk to people and have them thinking that was me... The same goes for Cryptic, it's a safety thing.
Again a very intelligent post the first guy who posted should take notes >.>. But either way should that be grounds to ban an entire account? I mean sure it tarnishes it but it is fun and could bring more people to SG's and stuff. Idk.
Then again, homages are totally cool, and "clone" involves 2 of the 3 criteria being filled. Name, description, appearance. Just looking like a character isn't enough, according to all of the info cryptic's given us over the last 3 or so years, to get you in trouble. I've seen exceptions, they tend to come down pretty hard on (for example) hulk clones, even if they're named something totally different, because of how protective marveldisney is with their property. We also raided ren center with like 35 destroids while a dev was on, just because it was funny, and got the amused response rather than "CHARACTER WIPES FOR EVERYONE!" Context, I feel, counts.
One of the better concepts I've ever seen for a homage was a destroid that got reprogrammed, and spay painted hot pink. Funny as hell rp, too. It's not like you can't touch the champions lore. But, for example, you'll never have shadow D's mask. Some of defender's parts. They intentionally keep their main characters hard to clone by *not* giving all of the tools you'd need to do so.
Personally, I feel like cloning random mobs shouldn't be too bad. Who's gonna start anything because you're a queen of pain? Hell, it could have rp reasons and that gives good character background that everyone can understand. But main bosses/big names? At the least, it's an immersion killer. As well? I had an alert pop up the other day that had *2* people cloning the boss I was fighting. Named the same, looked the same, lemme tell you how much of a pain in the **** it was to figure out which one I was supposed to target.
RIP Caine
Well the thing here is that cryptic does NOT own the champions franchise,it only endorses it,so they have to protect the copyright to Hero games characters(Hero Games is the company that owns champs) and if cryptic didn't protect that,then we could lose our game here,hope this clarifies it.
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Actually I'm pretty sure I read that they did! They bough out the entire champion's IP which is why everything that happens in game is written as canon for the rule books and such.
Really?,sorry for wrong info then,thanks for filling me in on this
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I don't think Cryptic has gone after any people in this way.
Where did you hear about this?
Alright thanks fox and other guy for the information! Well i heard about the account deletion because i finally saved 1.5k G for the therakiel sword yay me went out farmed a bunch of weeks straight for the collar and waited 400 days for nephilim pieces.... THEN created my char "Therakiel" and Got his SG called nephilim. Now while my friends and i thought it was cool...305 other people thought other wise and reported me i resolved it with a dev and some guy playing said if i got one more complaint my account would probably get banned. But i put so much work in that one char i was like "$#&^@%!*#^UI!@*($^!@&*$^&@*!%^$@^!$(*^!@($)!" Or something of the sort and idk i thought it would be awesome an entire RP group for nephilims raid MC sometimes you get it right? So yeah there you go!
RIP Caine
If it's already been resolved by a dev (probably a Customer Service person, not a developer) and you were allowed to use the costume/concept/whatever, then it doesn't matter what "some guy playing" said.
What was the resolution? Did they allow you to keep the character, or did you have to change the name or costume, or what?
RIP Caine
You probably would have gotten more compliments than complaints if you had named him something other than Therakiel...
The thing is, most characters in game are hard to duplicate exactly because they have one or two costume pieces that have not been released for player use...
Additionally, we're seeing mote things like the Armadillo set that allows you to actually turn into the character. I really don't think folks are too upset if you emulate an in game character. I think looking the same and having the same name it what bugs folks because they feel it lacks imagination...
Call him something else entirely and write a Bio saying he's a repentant Nephlim who has been cast out and now fights for order. I bet you'd be just fine...
M-O-O-N, that spells @Rhyatt
Originally Posted by mijjestic: Ultimately, though, MMO players throwing stones at each other in this fashion is basically one nerd pointing and laughing at another nerd whose glasses are thicker.
Laws yes!
This again? :rolleyes:
Seriously, someone should write a comprehensive thread on this topic (the "Marvel vs. Cryptic" suit)...
...Then get it ok'ed by Cryptic, and then stickied in the "Fan Alpha" section (under "Urban Legends")
CLONES = BAD ("Clone": A character where more than 1 of 3 facets [costume, name, bio/desc.] violate IP infringments) :mad:
HOMAGES,PARODIES = GOOD :biggrin:
What more needs to be said?
| ME | A "Guide" Book" | | I, have a "DREAM! | ( Member since Feb 2008 ) ... ?
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You won't be banned for it. You will have recurring issues with being reported, though. My suggestion: if you can, just restart and name it something different. The difference here is "I am therakiel" = clone/bad. "I am a nephilim" = homage/good. I'm 99% positive they won't ban you for it, but lemme tell you as someone who has a character named the same as a transformer. The hassle isn't worth it. Hell, I'm not even a clone and I get issues over it, by name alone. If you fit 2 of the criteria? Better safe than sorry.
RIP Caine
chimichanga!
Haven't seen all those Mighty M***els, Avanger A**emblers, DC Leaguers banned, all they do is rename and continue.
Why would you be worried, just don't do it.
And playing by myself since Aug 2009
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Change it. As others have said. You really wont get banned.
But you will most likely continue to get reported, over and over again. Even if you had an iron clad promise from a CSR that you'd never be generic'd again. There is no way each and every report will go to that same CSR each and every time.
So, with each report, you play the lottery. "Will I get the nice CSR this time or some other one?" Each and every time. As long as you choose to be a clone, you take the chance you'll get hit with the generic button. Sure you can simply reload your costume and continue on as before, at least until the next time.
You, really got to ask yourself is it worth it?
And really, why would you want to be someone elses creation? You have no control of it. So you strut around as Therakiel, cool right? Until Cryptic decides to perhaps kill off that character. Or change that character in a way you might not like. They can do anything they like to that character and you'd end up going from cool to zero simply because of the changing whims of someone else.
Isn't that like a pickle flavored snow cone?
Silverspar on PRIMUS
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Trademark law (in case you're actually interested) requires the holder of a trademark to "vigorously defend" (in the law's own words) that trademark against any infringement, or risk losing it. That's why only one company in the world is allowed to call their photocopier a "Xerox machine", and why Bayer Pharmaceuticals no longer has the exclusive right to the word "aspirin" (they failed to defend their trademark against infringement).
Were Cryptic to fail to defend their trademark on the major NPCs in their IP, they could lose trademark on the character, and possibly on the entire IP if it happened enough. That's also why we fear Marvel/Disney's attorneys; the first suit wasn't "won", it was dropped by Marvel when they realized they were weakening their own trademarks. And that was before Disney picked them up - the same Disney that infamously sued a small day-care center in Florida for painting Disney characters on an interior wall without licensing them first.
But mostly I was attacking the reasoning you were providing, as it should have been plainly obviously faulty on the face of things.
- David Brin, "Those Eyes"
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For example, Dr. Destroyer. Those who have read the tabletop books KNOW that Dr. D is BAD NEWS. Like, anyone making light of his abilities to cause death is an idiot, because Dr D. will MURDER YOU in an impersonal manner.
Then someone makes a character called Dr. Destroyer's Uncle.
Who's wacky and zany, and fights bad people with force field bubbles.
It kinda takes the edge off the guy who literally DECIMATED (as in, killed 1 in 10) a large area of America in the lore.
The stuff the players do doesn't really impact the story due to the nature of this generation of MMOs, but the way other players percieve the story is different if they see the in-game characters being malformed in such a way.
That said, I personally see nothing wrong in terms of storytelling if you research the relevant characters, then play them entirely in character in areas they are likely to go.
For example, Witchcraft is currently working in the desert, but there's no reason why she couldn't occasionally appear in Millenium City's mystic quarter or near Homestead, the Champions Headquarters in Detroit.
Her appearing in Westside and bashing random goons' heads seems slightly under her level.
So if you're going to play a character from the lore, keep it smart, keep it within the realms of what seems plausible for that character.
That said, you can make similar characters with significantly different names or concepts.
For example, there was a thing on the PRIMUS database with the Defendroids, which as near as I can recall without checking was a series of robots like Destroyer's Destroids but made by Defender to fight crime, who were decomissioned because they were slightly too horrible so soon after the last Destroid attack.
That's pretty good, as it lets the creator make a Defender-based character, but with a slightly more fitting concept that lets your character actually come across the character they're inspired by within the game without seeming too "So, you're my clone, huh? In-ter-est-ing...".
And now, I'm off to try and figure out why nobody ever clones Kodiak despite him being a pretty archetypal Brick.
Perhaps the "first guy" should have a better approach then making people feel stupid and people pull it out BECAUSE IT IS TRUE im not in this law stuff and most people on these forums probably are not some give better comments then others "cough" but the only reason marvel did that really is because champions original was marvel universe but marvel stopped funding and hero's took over champions got money from the subs and bought cryptic this really has nothing to do with it because it is inside of cryptic s on stuff so its not external use they can easily license it within the game. If it really mattered to cryptic that much as i realized this last night, they would not have the art thread because same as the lawsuit vs marvel they are heavy resemblance to costume pieces cryptic as offered as use and it is external not within the cryptic game.
Now you seem to just rant for the sake of it.
And playing by myself since Aug 2009
Godtier: Lifetime Subscriber
Actually we don't know that.
I was playing CoH during that time and I remember quite clearly what happened.
What happened was the suit was settled out of court, and no one but the people involved actually know why or what the deal was. But Marvel did not simply drop the suit.
No i dont rant for the sake of it -.- its a competition from cryptic right? but its not in cryptic correct? Champions held costume contest in beta correct? In there own game correct? They hold comps in champions to so why would they sue themselves over there own game. The thread is kinda finished cuz i understand now but i was pointing something out.
If you want, you can make a character that is inspired by a superhero that you like, but give him a very different likeness, something you designed yourself out of the available costume parts, and choose a distinct name that isn't too similar to a copyrighted hero.
Cloning characters is a bad idea. I know someone who got her gold account suspended for three days, after a year of having signed the agreement, and probably having multiple people warn her about her clone. She was forced to change it and She made another clone afterward and I told her twice to change it. She deserved the suspension for being so foolish.
I'm not saying this applies to you, but you might be able to learn the easy way. ^_^
That didn't make any sense at all.
And playing by myself since Aug 2009
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For instance, the ferrule of an umbrella sticks up out of the top as a way to anchor the ribs, enabling the umbrella to withstand higher winds. However, it is also possible to use the ferrule as a weapon, stabbing into human flesh. That does not mean that it's okay to stab people with your umbrella, just because "they gave you the tool."
If you don't know about legalities, why are you trying to argue legalities? Would you try to tell a paleontologist that he got his dinosaur ages in the wrong order? Would you try to lecture Dr. Peter Higgs on the significance of last month's results from the Large Hadron Collider? Then what makes you think you can argue about whether or not something is legal, without learning anything about the law first?
If you don't want to "feel stupid," try doing a little basic research before shooting your mouth off. (And if I were really trying to make you "feel stupid," I'd have picked on your spelling and punctuation, not your reasoning.)
- David Brin, "Those Eyes"
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No. its nothing like that because they dont tell you to, "go ahead and break." In fact they specifically tell you not to.
'Caine, miss you bud. Fly high.
Actually id be perfectly fine telling a paleontologist that he got his dinosaur ages in the wrong order because they tend to miss-date thing's anyways still not even sure if they had scales feathers or what they debate if its the right order of bones all the time AND the LHC further research has shown theoretically it should be there but there was no proof it actually was i don't actually care about my grammar go ahead and do that anyways by your profile picture you look roughly old so maybe you should go out and do something other then pick on youth who actually are designed to play the game you appear to derive the great philosopher "Benjamin Parker" But it was not him it was a writer at marvel or someone else i don't care about but by using your logic it was Ben Parker who is marvel you just violated a copyright law and you are trying to argue legality? P.S. It was Voltaire who said "With great power comes great responsibility" first try using Google . To the guy below "the first guy" it was supposed to be like a metaphor saying he was tempting you so i know you want to go ahead and do it but i will bust you for it.
Sorry. Well if you cant use something inside cryptic which the servers are hosted and the costumes are made by and within cryptic why bother getting in the players face when they host an art contest and the work is not done from within cryptic or to be put inside cryptic sorta thing. Hope you understand it now ish.
******mit, use punctuation.:eek:
I get that you don't care about your grammar, but really, it is hard to understand you most of the times. So, can you please atleast try to use little things like "," and "."? Not trying to offend you, it's just will be much easier for everyone to understand what you mean, because I personally still don't understand that part about art contest. I just don't understand what you are trying to say.
That's all I guess. So please, try, just try to make your english more understandable. It will make our lifes easier.
Thank you.
I have a simple rule of thumb on this. If you simply don't care about what you write. I simply wont care to read it.
So, end the end. When you type gibberish like the OP, you are really just wasting your time.
CO gives you more than enough tools to create your own, unique characters. You don't need to copy anyone else's character! And even more; why the Hell, Michigan, would you want to!? If you lack the imagination to create an own character, why are you even playing a MMORPG? If you want to play as The Hulk so badly, why don't you just play a Hulk game?
Really, every green musclebag in blue shorts running around in this game is like a middle finger to CO's extremely versatile character editor, its creators and its proper users!
So much for clones in general. But the same goes for clones of CO NPCs.
I remember a Therakiel clone who advertised his Nephilim SG in MC Zone. When confronted with the fact that his character was illegal, he only replied with the same argument as the OP: It's a Champions character, so no one can sue Cryptic for it. And he happily kept rubbing that "fact" into everyones face for more than two months. Then he vanished.
To counter that, a good exaple of someone doing it right is everyone's favourite clone, Lee Tosi. He has the same name as a NPC, but is not a clone of him. The PC Lee Tosi greatly utilizes the game world's lore, yet he is a character on his own. That's how you make a homage character!
Well said.
'Caine, miss you bud. Fly high.
Agree, and well said.
I never understood why in the world anyone would ever make a clone. Now a friend of mine made up a bunch in the CC and saved the costume. But they never actually entered the game. He was doing it to see how closely he could match marvel characters.
But to play a clone... Why? Why in the world would someone want to play Supermand, or Super-man or Batdude, or Ironguy....
It's quite easy to make up a new name and a few changes to the costume, but still play what is effectively Superman, or Batman. But making a clone simply seems lazy to me. If you couldn't bother to come up with a least a new name, then why would you expect anyone to take you seriously?
One other small point, about the Therakiel clone... Copyright/Trademark violation or not, simply doesn't matter. Cryptic/PWE can delete or rename a character for any reason at all or even for no reason. They don't need prove that a character is somehow a threat to them, it's in the ToS/ELUA that they can do pretty much anything they want to your characters and your account.
Well there was the fact that CoH was nearly shut down by people making clones at one point. That would of had a major effect on me.
Then there's the fact that playing a clone intrudes on my immersion in the game. Every time I see someone in blue tights with a red cape named Superdude, or something like that it breaks me out of my immersion.
It's also against the rules, so that has an impact, because I'm forced to see people breaking the rules.
So it effects me in a number of ways. But even if it didn't the simple fact that it's against the rules is reason enough to not do it. Why do you feel like you should be allowed to break the rules?
I don't think that wanting to play a character someone else has made makes you unimaginative. I've played Spider-Man games in the past, because I like Spider-Man. And though I've always liked games where you could create your own characters (I'm almost always averse to any game where you have zero customization of your character), I wouldn't mind whipping around as Spider-Man in Champs. He's a cool character, why wouldn't I want to play as him?
And I have a question - What makes Vizzone's Lee Tosi different than the one in the game? Honest question, because I've never seen the character, just heard him in Zone. To me, steamshinobi and Vizzone are in the exact same situation - granted, with my limited knowledge of the two.
Can't say as to appearance, because I've only seen Lee once in passing (I was delivering the artifacts during the Hi-Pan thing), but I'm pretty sure that the Teleioclone outfit uses parts that players can't use together...
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Well, I didn't mean it like that. My own roster includes more or less subtile homages to Battle Angel Alita, Starfire, Terra, Gypsie, Storm, Dr. Blight, various Kamen Riders, a Symbiote, a Portal turret(!) and a Deadpool parody. But no clones. :biggrin:
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