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[james_davis_nicoll]

Angry American Sues Games Workshop

Comments

[mme_hardy]

>Their aforementioned deceptions and lies manipulate the market to increase demand for little plastic pieces that cost 3-cents to mass-produce. They over-hype product and limit its supply to create the illusion of an over-demand condition.

That's... kinda their job?

[martianmooncrab]

well, that explains why I cant buy Youngest Nephew some game figures from our local game store..

[sethsellis]

Who can we sue for capitalism?

[keith_morrison]

Well, no doubt the judge will find it amusing before they smack him upside his metaphorical head.

Here's some free legal advice: "not being American" isn't actually illegal in situations like this.

[ba_munronoe]

Medieval townsfolk: the rot started with them.

[(Anonymous)]

Would someone who isn't one of the authors in question or their heirs really have legal standing to sue for the use of Heinlein's Space Marines, Tolkein's orcs, etc.?

[digitalraven]

Sadly, the advent of the digital age means we cannot see exactly which shade of green ink was used to pen this complete bollocks.

I mean, Games Workshop are at best shady as fuck. In addition to trying to claim that they invented the 'space marine' (Heinlen called and wants to break your legs...), they're only not bankrupt because they've become increasingly hostile to their in-store workers while royally fucking over independent game stores.

The way to fight that isn't this bullshit. It's to buy games and minis from companies that aren't total garbage.

[dagibbs]

No. They wouldn't have legal standing.

[dagibbs]

Also, mark-up on mass-production of something is how you make profit -- and the cost-to-produce of 3-cents probably doesn't include the one-off design costs, just the incremental cost of making one-more of that item.

[dagibbs]

Also, it's never RICO.

https://www.popehat.com/2016/06/14/lawsplainer-its-not-rico-dammit/

[thewayne]

I used to work for a game company, Flying Buffalo, who came out with a fantasy RPG called Tunnels and Trolls back in the '70s. They had the sheer temerity to have HOBBITS in their game! JRR's heirs had successfully beaten up TSR, forcing D&D to use Halflings, and then went after Buffalo. The Buffalo people pulled out old literature predating JRR showing references to Hobbits long before he wrote about them, so they slunk away with their tails between their legs.

I wish I had their citations.

[dagibbs]

If/when GW went after someone else for invalid IP use, this could be used as a defense.

But, this person -- unlike JRR's heirs -- has no standing to sue GW for copyright (or trademark or whatever IP) violation as they don't own the IP (theoretically) being violated.

[thewayne]

While I'd decry their markup as kind of high, that profit does ensure that designers are employed sculpting next year's figs, mold makers are employed and testing, art departments are arting, etc. Plus: CAPITALISM! They're allowed to charge what the market will bear. IF you don't want to support that kind of a profit margin, don't buy the product. If you want to play the game, then you are going to have to support the profit margin of the maker: that's the way commerce works.

[dagibbs]

Exactly -- just don't buy this.

Also, the comparison by the editor Turing Pharmaceuticals is really bad. A mark-up of x% and a price raise of y% are not comparable -- we don't actually know what the original mark-up on the drug was. But, even further, life-saving drugs vs a toy. Buying one is, essentially, mandatory -- the other, well, you aren't going to die if you don't buy some W40K figs.

[beamjockey]

Wargame figures are made of plastic now?

The last time I was in a store that sold them, they were made of lead. I think.

I still have a bunch of 1970s metal figures in the garage. I was never a miniatures-gamer, but I built models. I liked using wargame figures in science fiction dioramas.

[ethelmay]

The word "hobbit" existed as a Welsh term of measure (four pecks of grain, each peck weighing forty-two pounds), but I can't imagine we wouldn't have heard if it had existed as the name of any sort of mythological personage before Tolkien.

("hobbit" is also found multiple times on Google Books as a scan-o for "bobbit", "babbit","hobbie", "habebit", etc., by the way)

[dragoness_e]

Yes, they are. Too much worry over the liability for lead poisoning, especially after it came out that developing brains are far more sensitive to lead than anyone realized.

[dragoness_e]

Yes... like get a quote from that Chinese manufacturer for your own line of cheap generic figs.

[elf]

The only bits of that that seem remotely actionable are the claims that GW shorted stores on their orders, refunded the amount, and required customers to buy direct from them. At least, I think that was the accusation.

And something something not allowing stores to sell via website, or give the discounts they want. But none of that seems like substantial "win me money" actions, as opposed to, "maybe if you've got legal precedent and a sympathetic judge on your side, you can get better contract terms."

[elf]

GW did indeed go after people for using the term "space marines." The EFF helped defend the targeted author, and got the book put back on Amazon.

A few years before that, they went after John Wick for his use of "orks" in his FRPG "Orkworld;" John, lacking the EFF's resources, wound up just pointing out that his orks were standard high fantasy goblinesque people with nothing to do with spacecraft or an SF setting.