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'Call of Duty' wins First Amendment victory over use of Humvees

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Re: 'Call of Duty' wins First Amendment victory over use of Humvees

#61

Post by umvi »

saagarjha wrote: post #16
CM30 wrote: post #15

Have to be honest, I've always thought complaints about trademarked products in works of fiction were a silly thing to begin with. Why shouldn't a fictional universe feature products and businesses found in the real world? Are we supposedly to randomly assume all other universes don't have humvees or macbooks or the Red Cross? Who's to say the same people/companies/organisations would even be responsible in that work…

What if I took your product and had it fail spectacularly in my movie?

What if I have characters in my movie watching your movie and commenting on how stupid of a movie it is?

Re: 'Call of Duty' wins First Amendment victory over use of Humvees

#62

Post by catalogia »

boring_twenties wrote: post #54
danShumway wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should your product be protected from that? Consumers are smart enough to know that fictional media is fictional. If we're not protecting products from negative reviews, opinion peices, or satire -- then fictional stories seems to me like a really weird place to draw a line. What if I took your product and made a joke about it having ties to a cult?[0] I don't see any reason to treat fictional movies and games li…

> Consumers are smart enough Counterpoint: the cratering sales of Corona beer in the past month

Has that really been happening? I don't buy much alcohol but the last two sixpacks I've bought have been corona. It seemed somehow appropriate.

Re: 'Call of Duty' wins First Amendment victory over use of Humvees

#63

Post by filoleg »

duskwuff wrote: post #23
save_ferris wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ehh, I think Humvee saw a company making a truckload of money and felt they had a right to some of it given that they own a major vehicle that's used in the game. I could easily see an ego-maniacal CEO or founder getting pissed that he's not getting paid for something he feels entitled to. Maybe they're seeing how pro athletes are licensing their likeness to games and thought they could make a compelling argument for…

The flow is typically in the other direction, though -- companies pay for placement of their products in media, like movies and video games, as it's seen as a form of advertising.

That's what I thought too, but then your comment got me thinking deeper. What you said definitely seems to be the case for general media, but what about something that relies almost entirely on the realistic products to be compelling?

The specific example I was thinking of was racing games that use real cars (Forza, Gran Turismo, etc.). Do those companies get paid to feature real cars or do they have to pay to use them?

Re: 'Call of Duty' wins First Amendment victory over use of Humvees

#64

Post by oliveshell »

Swizec wrote: post #14
solinent wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The standard example I've heard is for Trampoline. No one calls them rebound tumblers anymore. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trampoline#First_modern_trampo... I think this is really just a case of lawyers being super-protective. It also pays well, I'm sure. I think a words like Humvee or even Google have coloquially already lost their meaning--their meaning is polymorphic, it's only a matter of time (100 years is a m…

Trader Joe’s makes the best kleenex. And my iPhone captures the best kodak moments. I also enjoy facetiming via Slack. And of course googling for music is best done on Spotify.

Haha, yep.

Personally, my friends and I have been skype-ing through Discord a lot recently.

Re: 'Call of Duty' wins First Amendment victory over use of Humvees

#65

Post by izacus »

ummonk wrote: post #56
saagarjha wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if I took your product and had it fail spectacularly in my movie?

What if I wrote a bad review of your product and claimed it fails spectacularly? E.g. what Top Gear did with the Tesla Roadster.

What if? Nothing. It's a dumb product, there joke is over and you move on in a few seconds.

There's no real need for this wired free speech limitation to protect something as dead as a brand.

Re: 'Call of Duty' wins First Amendment victory over use of Humvees

#66

Post by projektfu »

WaxProlix wrote: post #44
babypuncher wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet nobody bases their decision whether or not to buy a Glock based on its performance in Counter-Strike. It's a non-issue.

I grew up playing Counter-Strike and have in the past few years bought a few guns; despite their solid reputation and the fact that they do what I want, I never even considered a Glock. Was this causal? Who knows, but I wouldn't rule it out.

I assume that a gamer would want a Heckler & Koch VP9 just for the appearance.

Re: 'Call of Duty' wins First Amendment victory over use of Humvees

#67

Post by boring_twenties »

filoleg wrote: post #60
boring_twenties wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No idea if it's at all common, but my favorite that I've heard is вездеход.

I like that word too, but it is usually only used to refer to ATV vehicles (specifically amphibious ones), not offroad cars or SUVs.

Interesting, I heard a Russian guy refer to his Lincoln Navigator as that, heh

Re: 'Call of Duty' wins First Amendment victory over use of Humvees

#68

Post by boring_twenties »

catalogia wrote: post #62
boring_twenties wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Consumers are smart enough Counterpoint: the cratering sales of Corona beer in the past month

Has that really been happening? I don't buy much alcohol but the last two sixpacks I've bought have been corona. It seemed somehow appropriate.

Looks like I believed some bullshit: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/corona-beer-fear-coronavir... (false)

Re: 'Call of Duty' wins First Amendment victory over use of Humvees

#69

Post by CDRdude »

boring_twenties wrote: post #54
danShumway wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should your product be protected from that? Consumers are smart enough to know that fictional media is fictional. If we're not protecting products from negative reviews, opinion peices, or satire -- then fictional stories seems to me like a really weird place to draw a line. What if I took your product and made a joke about it having ties to a cult?[0] I don't see any reason to treat fictional movies and games li…

> Consumers are smart enough Counterpoint: the cratering sales of Corona beer in the past month

The search results I see indicate that Corona sales are up (along with all other beers).

Re: 'Call of Duty' wins First Amendment victory over use of Humvees

#70

Post by __david__ »

skocznymroczny wrote: post #22
smabie wrote: post #2

I probably don't know what I'm talking about, but it seems to me that many companies pursue legal action that is against their own interest. Surely, Humvees in CoD could only help the brand, no? Moreover, the fact that they don't even sell any consumer products in the first place makes the entire suit even more dubious. The use of Humvees in CoD is going to sow confusion among the military purchasing officers and the…

What if Humvees become the worst vehicles in the game because of balancing reasons? If I were the owner of the brand I'd be pissed. Even worse in case of other vehicles like racing cars. Imagine a racing game in which Porsche cars are slowest and break more often than other cars. You wouldn't want your brand to be associated with that, even if it's a videogame. Or imagine a completely broken game with popular car. Bi…

Imagine a car racing game where when you crash at 100 MPH your car doesn't take on any cosmetic damage… Oh wait, that's all of them, because car makers can't bear the thought of their precious IPs all banged up. It's one of my pet peeves about car racing games with real cars.
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