Fallout Fan Threatened by Bethesda

[Gikoku]

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Apparently suing season has begun, and once again Bethesda's legal team is on the attack after having finished business with Notch over the Scrolls name awhile back. This time (as reported by Gamespot), the legal dispute comes from a Norwegian Fallout fansite by the name of Fallout-Posters.com. What did he do wrong? The site freely distributes fan art posters of the Fallout series, and apparently that infringes upon Bethesda's intellectual property. The owner of the site Erling Loken Andersen was threatened to not only take down the fan-made artwork, but to also hand over his site's domain address or else suffer a lawsuit.​

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The site owner's response to Bethesda's actions:​

What ****es me off isn't the fact that they're looking out for their trademark - as they have every right to do so. What I'm ****ed about are large companies abusing their monetary power, hiring global law firms to go after a fan online, immediately threating with a lawsuit.

I'm tired of intellectual rights holders--be it RIAA, MPAA or in this case Bethesda--going after little guys like myself and threatening them into obedience. Some people doesn't have the intellectual capacity or money to fight their cause, so they just fold after receiving a letter like that. But just because you can't afford to fight, doesn't mean your oponent is right.

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What I find baffling about this whole situation, much like the Scrolls lawsuit, is that the site poses zero threat to Bethesda's business. Bethesda has nothing to gain from doing this with the exception of a bad reputation, so why do it? I'm glad he's standing up against this copyright bullying and that the legal team will wise up and back off. It should also be noted that recently Bethesda has trademarked the phrase "Fus Ro Dah", I fear the actions that might be taken against an innocent person who wishes to make Fus Ro Dah fan material now.​

To also clear up some confusion that I've seen in the past, the developers of the company (Todd Howard, etc) have nothing to do with these lawsuits (and approve of fan made material) nor have control over the legal team, and as such are not deserving of any criticism from these events.​

 

[Dark Drakan]

Its normally the 'suits' of the companies that start these silly lawsuits not the development teams themselves. As you said they have nothing to lose from sites like this and its free publicity for them when someone else is doing the work for them for free and distributing things like that. Would be like Lionhead suddenly deciding we infringe on their intellectual properties because we have ProjectEgo in our site name and post wallpapers etc.

 

[Quistrix]

Rather child-like behaviour if you asked me. Even though this has nothing to do with Todd Howard and the like, I'd still like to hear what he has to say on the matter.

 

[Arld]

Lol legal team of Bethesda, Y U behave so sucky?

Honestly, this isn't the first gaming company to do something similar to this, and it's extremely annoying. An entirely unnecessary thing to do, especially if – apparently so – the company's intellectual property or reputation isn't threatened at all.

Since when is fan art something wrong? I don't see how the legal team possibly fails to see this too. They don't care about Bethesda nor their nice games; they care about suing – nothing less and nothing more than that.

 

[Tyloric]

Bethesda needs to take the approach Valve does: encourage fan made content, ask to be able to use it, then sell it.
Silly, legal division. You all are idiots. 8D

 

[Gikoku]

Rather child-like behaviour if you asked me. Even though this has nothing to do with Todd Howard and the like, I'd still like to hear what he has to say on the matter.

I'd like to hear what he has to say about it too as I'm sure he'd be disappointed, but I doubt he'll speak on the matter unless he's asked in an interview.

 

[Sephiroxas]

Are you f*cking kidding me?

I don't want to live on this planet anymore. -_-

 

[Arld]

Are you f*cking kidding me?

I don't want to live on this planet anymore. -_-

That wouldn't be a solution.

Throw the legal team off-planet instead. A one-way ticket to space.

 

[Gikoku]

That wouldn't be a solution.

Throw the legal team off-planet instead. A one-way ticket to space.

And waste all that money on those pricks? Throw 'em into a crocodile pit.

 

[Sephiroxas]

That wouldn't be a solution.

Throw the legal team off-planet instead. A one-way ticket to space.

I actually wanna live in space anyway..The Final Frontier.

 

[DarkONI]

I actually wanna live in space anyway..The Final Frontier.

OMG!!11! THE GUY ON THE RIGHT LOOKS LIKE A NORD!!111 BETHESDA SUE YOU!

 

[Aions]

It should also be noted that recently Bethesda has trademarked the phrase "Fus Ro Dah"

View attachment 554

 

[Angel]

FUS RO DAH!

*sits back and awaits lawsuit*

 

[IMesh]

Well... That's one more company I'll never buy from again.
Unless they... No... Well... Nevermind... :shifty:

 

[DarkONI]

Well... That's one more company I'll never buy from again.
Unless they... No... Well... Nevermind... :shifty:

Lawyer actions!=developer ideals.

 

[IMesh]

Lawyer actions!=developer ideals.

Tis the reason it was a joke.
EDIT: Not sure why... But now you're missing a word and have an exclamation mark rather than an equals sign... So... Don't know if that's a bug or something.