Norwegian fan bristles at having publisher's legal team accuse him of infringing on IP rights, demand he transfer site domain.
This year has seen Bethesda Software's legal team settle a pair of high-profile disputes with Minecraft creator Mojang and original Fallout publisher Interplay, but now the company behind The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Fallout 3 is turning its litigious attention to one of its fans.
In a post on his blog last week, Norwegian Fallout fan Erling Loken Andersen recapped a back-and-forth dispute he's been having with Bethesda's legal team over a Fallout poster art fan site he set up. Andersen said it started in December when he received a takedown notice from Bethesda's lawyers claiming his collection of freely downloadable Fallout-inspired posters were infringing on the company's intellectual property rights. The publisher also insisted that Andersen hand over the domain for his site, fallout-posters.com.
"What pisses me off isn't the fact that they're looking out for their trademark - as they have every right to do so," Anderson wrote. "What I'm pissed about are large companies abusing their monetary power, hiring global law firms to go after a fan online, immediately threating with a lawsuit." [Emphasis and grammar in original.]
He continued, "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."
In his response to Bethesda, Andersen argued that his posters fell under the doctrine of fair use and were therefore not infringing on intellectual property rights. Although Andersen has pulled the art in question from his site, he has not turned fallout-posters.com over to Bethesda, and let the company know he would not willingly part with it.
As of press time, Bethesda had not responded to GameSpot's request for comment.
Brendan Sinclair has been a games journalist since 1999. His tastes are eclectic, though he has a definite affinity for games with arcade roots. He's Canadian, but has also been at home in Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, and San Francisco.
There is nothing more annoying than when people say " a company has every right to do XYZ but I protest at the way they go about it" You don't get to make that call. You either agree with a company defending their rights or you don't. How they go about it is none of your concern. It would be like me saying " I agree with the police arresting criminals unless I break the law and then its not fair"
The fact that he wasn't making money of this isn't the point. Intellectual property is just that. You cant take an idea from somewhere and then pass it off as your own.
I really wish that they would show something other than the first five minutes of the game. I won't watch it, I want to play it. Give me something out of context in the meantime.
what in gods name is wrong with them? this guy is a fan and doing nothing but helping bethesda by promoting their IP online. there is absolutely no risk to Bethesda by this guys actions. Bethesda can suk my kok on this one. now i'm adding them to my chit list of companies including but not limited to: Blizzard (yes diablo 3 was that bad), EA, and if Valve doesn't give me episode 3 sometime soon they will be on this list too :)
@philMcCrevis dude get over it, you're going to add blatantly good, even great companies (valve) to your shit list JUST because they haven't came out with a new half life?! and another one because they see fit a reason to take his site down, even if it does sound mean to the fan?? theres something wrong with you.. EA, and blizzard I can agree with as they've managed to fuck up more than once, over and over again on a larger scale each progressive time, but this?
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