brainwagon

Fred von Lohmann of the EFF writes an interesting piece about Marvel’s complaint filed against NCSoft Corporation and Cryptic Studios, makers of the enormously popular City of Heros online role playing game.

What’s got Marvel’s panties in a bunch is the fact that using the in-game editors, you can easily recreate characters which are properties of Marvel Comics, such as Spiderman, the Hulk or Wolverine.

The complaint lists claims of copyright and trademark infringement, as well as intentional interference with actual and prospective economic advantage and unfair competition.

I suppose the makers of a good old Ticonderoga #2 are up next, as they were obviously contributing for the ability of millions of kids to sketch unauthorized and damaging representations of Marvel properties on school notebooks.