#SaveMERP

[Farlo]

MERP (Middle Earth Roleplaying Project) has received a C&D letter from WB

 

Boo!

[frihyland]

It's still an active franchise, they have a movie (and new game) coming out soon and an MMO. Can't really blame WB on this particular issue, especially since all MERP would have to do is change all the copyrighted names and keep going.

 

From a marketing and business standpoint they should just hire all these guys, it would be a big win for everyone, but that won't happen.

[torminater]

Hopefully they'll win this case. I hate people who sue because they sue.

[Gyro]

To be fair, U.S. trademark law is borked.  One of the reasons organizations are so trigger-happy with trademark is because if you are not aggressively defending it all the time forever you can lose your claim fairly easily if someone wants to take it.

 

That being said, I believe there have been examples of corporations being able to work with folks in the past, so there is probably some degree of dickery still going on here.

[Farlo]

To be fair, U.S. trademark law is borked.  One of the reasons organizations are so trigger-happy with trademark is because if you are not aggressively defending it all the time forever you can lose your claim fairly easily if someone wants to take it.

 

That being said, I believe there have been examples of corporations being able to work with folks in the past, so there is probably some degree of dickery still going on here.

I definitely agree that it's entirely borked but Bethesda, Valve, and any other game developer that supports modding are examples of those who don't actively hunt down ever "infringer" and still maintain their trademarks.  In the most strict reading of the law, I'm pretty sure all the bugfixes, minimal texture remodels, and stuff like the HD DLC Optimized would be illegal since they edit and redistribute Bethesda's assets.  There's also fan fiction, which does exactly what MERP is doing: use the imaginary world and creative works to create new material directly related it.  In both cases (and many others) it's clear that in the case of modding you don't have to hunt down non-profit fan works, you get to keep your trademark, and most importantly: your product/brand/IP is enhanced by the wealth of improvements, additions, alterations, etc. that a community has rallied around and worked to supply... for free!

 

TL;DR - There's definitely a lot douchebaggery and upper management afoot.