Hey, so you know this "space marine" thing?

[Stormonu]

There was an Aliens RPG, which would have contained references to colonial/space marines. As I've been reading, Looks like Aliens came out before 40K - wonder if the game did as well.

And if they try to claim wargame instead of RPG, there was a Starship troopers game back in the 60's...


I personally think GW's gone off the deep end, perhaps due to money issues...

 

[dm4hire]

Many of GW's practices have made me mad in the past which is part of the reason I refuse to play their games. This latest bit reminds me though of White Wolf's suit over the one vampire movie a few years back, claiming all kinds of infringement on stuff that way outdated Vampire: The Masquerade.

 

[possum]

Many of GW's practices have made me mad in the past which is part of the reason I refuse to play their games. This latest bit reminds me though of White Wolf's suit over the one vampire movie a few years back, claiming all kinds of infringement on stuff that way outdated Vampire: The Masquerade.

Nah, if I remember correctly it was because the movie's romantic subplot vaguely resembled a short story of theirs.

As to the issue on hand, space marine has been around, both in name and concept, way before anyone at GW was even born. I really don't see how this can even begin to hold up. Stick with the chapter names if you want to trademark something.

 

[wingsandsword]

BBC News is now covering this:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21380003

Apparently Wil Wheaton retweeted Morrus's statement about this. Neil Gaiman also has been on twitter about this.

The Guardian ran a story about it the other day too. Judging from replies to the LJ post that started this, the estates of every major sci-fi writer who used the term "space marine" (including Heinlein) have been told, and it looks like the entire sci-fi field is uniting on this one against GW. Also, judging by replies to the LJ post, the author in question has received multiple offers of pro-bono legal assistance.

If you look at the wikipedia entry for "space marine", they have a long list of media where the term has appeared, including in recent video games that had nothing to do with GW, including ones by big names like Electronic Arts.

I think GW just might have bit off more than they can chew with this one, a lot of companies and a lot of big personalities are not happy with this, and it's getting mainstream media attention.

 

[Morrus]

Apparently Wil Wheaton retweeted Morrus's statement about this.

I didn't make any statements. I just posted a (to me) amusing link.

 

[wingsandsword]

Okay, I don't use twitter very much. I'd heard that Wil was making some statements about it, I saw something on there where it was something from you, about this, with a comment that it, that twitter said was a retweet from you at [MENTION=1]Morrus[/MENTION].

If that doesn't count, sorry, again, I'm not exactly a veteran of twitter.

 

[jasper]

But considering since another big name clams driods as his, what are we going to do?

 

[Deset Gled]

But considering since another big name clams driods as his, what are we going to do?

The main difference is that (AFAIK) the term "droid" was actually coined in Star Wars, which is what gives Lucasfilm the ability to trademark it. This is also the reason you'll find "halflings" in D+D instead of "hobbits".

But "space marine" predates any GW usage by quite a bit.

 

[El Mahdi]

deleted

 

[jasper]

But has any research be done on "driod" like space marines. Or is Lucas so big no one wants to take him on? Or since the trademark is already issued it is a mute point.