=D I would have bought a pizza just for that! It's feckin' awesome!
Yeah, it infringes copyright, but I hope Bethesda allow them to use it.
Yeah, it infringes copyright, but I hope Bethesda allow them to use it.
Vault Boy Delivers Pizza
- Thread starter Andy Chalk
- Start date
It could a sincere mistake, i mean Vault-tec boy was designed to appear as a stereotype cartoon of the 40-50's
I mean it could've been found on google or something and they wouldn't have realised.
I mean it could've been found on google or something and they wouldn't have realised.
Looks like Expresso and Bethesda in a fight to the death.
The owner of Expresso beaten to death by a bobblehead sounds about right. Bobblehead Melee of course.
The owner of Expresso beaten to death by a bobblehead sounds about right. Bobblehead Melee of course.
Honestly, I'm finding it most likely to be the first one. They probably stumbled over the image on a random Google search, said "hey that looks neat" without checking its source, slapped a pizza in its hand then shipped it off to a signmaker without any sort of followup.Khell_Sennet said:
And in actuality, I'm pretty sure Bethesda would succeed with a cease-and-desist junction should they choose to initiate one. The image isn't what I'd consider to be a vital part of the pizza store's logo (as opposed to, say, the domino image for Domino's, or the red roof for Pizza Hut) and could likely be changed without any real harm to the business. It'd be much cooler, of course, if Bethesda worked out some sort of deal with the company and even included their image in future Fallout games.
This entire story is absurd. Has it occurred to _ANYONE_ that the sign might just be 50 years old??? Hmm? I live not far from there, in Boston, and vintage signs are fairly common in New England.
Also, prior art... You know, like _the_50's_stuff_ Bethesda derived from to create Vault Boy. O_O
Also, prior art... You know, like _the_50's_stuff_ Bethesda derived from to create Vault Boy. O_O
This is really pretty likely. Most small buisness will end up hiring people like "my brother's kid" for this kind of design work. Tech support as well, for that matter. After that, it barely raises an eyebrow when pesky concepts like copyrights escape their notice or understanding. And to be fair, American copyright laws are more than slightly obtuse.Khell_Sennet said:
For example it is completly legal to crack the DRM on System Shock 2 or Deus Ex, but it is completly illegal to doso with Fallout 3. First person to explain why gets a cookie...
I'm not that far from Billerica, maybe I'll make a trip down there. I've always wanted a Nuka Cola and plasma pizza.
Doesn't matter: the specific image is a copyrighted design owned by Bethesda. Unless the pizza joint filed a copyright on that image that predates Bethesda's, any more than a passing resemblance means that Bethesda is within their rights to protect their intellectual property.Aristabulus said:
According to SisterOfSolidStateMind (who happens to be a corporate attorney specializing in Intellectual Property Law at a major technology corporation):
What usually happens is that Bethesda will come in and either ask them to give them a cut or pay a fee for using their intellectual property (if Bethesda is so inclined), or tell the company to drop the image. If the company chooses not to do any of those, they can take the issue to court on one of several grounds. The most common:
-non-competitive, which rarely flies, because the burden is on the violator to prove that their usage doesn't or won't impact the original rights-holder's business in any way, and that's very difficult to do.
-original copyright is overly broad-- ie. the copyrighted item is too common, or the traits are too ambiguous to allow for a clear deliniation between what is covered by the copyright and what is not; also extremely hard to prove, since most copyright claims include specific images, as opposed to styles and motifs. In this case, it looks like the image is exactly the same as Bethesda's, so I doubt that this would fly. Plus, Bethesda would fight this hardcore, because the end result of a finding against Bethesda would be to invalidate the original copyright claim completely, and that could impact all of FO's visual style elements and would at least force them to refile the copyrights on them.
-pre-existing use: If the pizza joint has been around longer than Fallout franchise has been, and can prove that they were using that image all that time, then they can reasonably argue that they should be exempt from Bethesda's legal protections. Sort of "it hasn't been a problem yet..." angle. This would probably work if they have the evidence to support it, but I bet that joint isn't that old, or wasn't using that logo before recently.
I'm sure what happened is that somebody got lazy and grabbed an image off the internet they thought would be cool without bothering to research if someone owned it or not. (Technically, even clipart can have creators/owners to whom you have to pay a fee if you use their stuff for commercial promotion of a product.)
I hope Bethesda aren't dicks about it, and maybe even consider working out some kind of deal with the business... but if they decide to be dicks about it, it would be perfectly within their rights.