Well, I'd sure like to think this will bring the company down. I wonder how many people are aware of Monster Cable doing the exact same thing to ANY company using the word monster in its name or a product name:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monster_Cable_Products#Trademark_and_patent
Here is a lovely story about how Monster screwed themselves out of the Beats by Dre bonanza; it warms the cockles of your heart (though there aren't really any good guys in this tale.)
People buy this shit without knowing it's shit, and that's the sad thing.
That's why forums are so important - the dissemination of information. If people are thinking about buying something deficient, then they should be informed that they can get better for their money. And blogs, and... Really, just improving the overall amount of information floating around is not just a good idea, it is almost a duty.
Standing by and letting companies get away with the things they have been doing leads to things such as the trademark jumping which spurred this thread. There's an ancient quotation about "standing by and doing nothing is as bad as participating in the wrongdoing"...
Yeah. And GIRLS can't be Space Marines because . . . because hormones, see?
Seriously, that's the story.
There is a huge streak of sexism in the Warhammer games. I hadn't originally intended to bring it up but, yeurgh. Most of their toy soldiers are male, and the females tend to be viciously sexual and grotesquely exaggerated at the same time.
Have you actually stopped and looked at the female miniatures GW sell? Even the battle armour has cleavage.
There has been some movement on this, Amazon has put the author kindle version back up after EFF helped amazon "review" the trademark claim. Here is a link to the story: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21409490
Yeah... there are plenty of legitimate criticisms to make about GW. I don't believe sexism is one of them. The 40K setting isn't MEANT to be a happy utopia full of sunshine, rainbows, puppy dogs and social justice. The Empire is an oppressive dictatorship keeping every facet of society tightly controlled in a doomed effort to fight off the forces of Chaos. It is Order taken to an extreme that makes it just as bad as the chaos it opposes. Gender equality, or any other social good, would be entirely out of place in such a regime.
There's plenty of good info, but only a minority of purchases are made using such info. Before the Internet there were magazines such as Consumer Reports which had stories on a smattering of products people buy, concentrating on cars and other big-ticket items, but now there are overwhelming numbers of reviews on many websites.That's why forums are so important - the dissemination of information. If people are thinking about buying something deficient, then they should be informed that they can get better for their money. And blogs, and... Really, just improving the overall amount of information floating around is not just a good idea, it is almost a duty.
It was very definitely not a female-friendly environment in any way, shape or form - unless you were buying for your brother/cousin/nephew/son, at which point the staff were all smiles 'til you left.
That's nice for you, but does your announcement really belong in a thread about GW trying to monopolize the term "space marine"?Just had my "first" experience with a MC revealing something about themself that I hadn't planned on and this is so wayyyyy cool! I never expected this to happen.
That's nice for you, but does your announcement really belong in a thread about GW trying to monopolize the term "space marine"?
It is great when that happens. Sometimes it seems as if characters do take on a kind of life of their own somewhere inside your mind.Just had my "first" experience with a MC revealing something about themself that I hadn't planned on and this is so wayyyyy cool!
That's nice for you, but does your announcement really belong in a thread about GW trying to monopolize the term "space marine"?
I'm guessing they accidentally mistook this thread for the Cantina, which had "Space Marine" in its name in its previous iteration.